Guest post by Justin Nederkoorn,
travel photographer and videographer

We’re professionals, but we’re still human too. Mistakes happen. Whether it’s a rushed setup, a last-minute lighting change, or a simple oversight on set, it’s inevitable that at some point, something slips through the cracks. The good news is, many of these mistakes are fixable — or at least manageable — in post-production. And more importantly, by understanding what went wrong, we can learn how to avoid it next time.

In this article, we’ll look at three common production issues: noise, overexposure, and incorrect shutter angle. Each one can be frustrating to deal with in post, but with the right tools, you can often recover the shot — or at least reduce the damage.

1. Noise

Most filmmakers already know the basics: higher ISO equals more noise. But the reality is a bit more nuanced than that.

Why It Happens

Noise is most often introduced in low-light situations where the camera amplifies the signal to make the image visible. If you underexpose your image and try to lift the shadows in post, then noise becomes even more pronounced. And while modern sensors and noise reduction tools have come a long way, it’s still something to be mindful of — especially if you’re not shooting RAW.

How to Prevent It

There are three key ways of preventing unnecessary noise:

• Expose to the right (ETTR) when possible. Slightly overexposing your image in Log can give you more detail in the shadows, which reduces noise when correcting. Moreover, a slightly noisier but correctly exposed image is often better than an underexposed shot that needs to be pushed later.
• Know your camera’s native ISO. Some cameras (like the Panasonic EVA1, Sony FX6, or BMPCC series) have dual native ISOs, which are designed to perform well at two specific sensitivity levels. Shooting at or near one of these values usually gives you the cleanest results.
• Use the right tools for the job. Fast lenses, diffusion filters, and practical lights can often let you shoot cleaner without needing to bump ISO too far.

How to Fix It

If you're dealing with noisy footage in post, your best option is to use dedicated noise reduction software. I personally use Neat Video, which does a better job than other tools I’ve used.

Neat Video works by analyzing a flat, featureless area of your image (like a wall or sky) and builds a noise profile based on that. Once it knows what the “noise” looks like, it can remove it while preserving details.

You don’t need to go very deep to get a good result:

• Drop Neat Video on a node early in your chain.
• Let it auto-profile your noise by selecting a featureless area.
• Adjust the noise reduction strength if needed; overdoing it can leave your footage looking plasticky or soft.
• To properly judge the results when adjusting filter settings, make sure you view your footage at 100% or higher.

Bioluminescence in Socotra. Shot at ISO 102,400. Before / after Neat Video noise reduction

If you’re looking for more on that process, we’ve written a separate guide that goes deeper into optimising Neat Video for different workflows.

2. Overexposure

Overexposure isn’t always a mistake. Sometimes you let the sky clip because you want proper light on your subject. Other times, the light simply changes faster than you could react, and you miss the window. Whether intentional or not, the challenge is the same: once the highlights are gone, you can’t get them back.

Why It Happens

If you’re working fast, it’s easy to make mistakes. Maybe the sun breaks through the clouds mid-shot, or your settings don’t match the ND you’re using. Or maybe you’re shooting in a high-contrast situation, and your subject is backlit.

I’ve found this especially common when shooting without reliable monitoring tools. It’s easy to trust your LCD, but it doesn’t tell the whole story.

How to Prevent It

The most important factor here is exposure awareness. Relying on a camera’s built-in screen isn’t enough — what you need are proper exposure tools.

I use an external monitor like the Ninja V, mainly because it gives me access to tools like:

• Histograms for overall exposure levels
• False color to dial in skin tones
• Zebra patterns, which I set around 95%, to warn me when I’m close to clipping

Set a consistent exposure method and stick to it. Whether it’s false color or zebras, training your eye to respond to one system makes it easier to work fast and catch mistakes before they happen.

Also, learn how your log profile maps to actual stops. Some log curves retain more highlight detail than others, so knowing where your ceiling is can help you walk the line without falling over it.

How to Fix It

Unfortunately, when data is gone, it’s gone. If your highlights are completely clipped, you can’t magically bring them back. What you can do, however, is reduce the harshness of the transition and make the overexposure feel more natural. This is especially helpful if the blown-out area is limited to the background, like the sky or a practical light.

Here’s what I do:

• Use the curves tool to pull down the very top of the highlights.
• Create a soft roll-off to avoid harsh transitions between detailed and clipped areas.
• Apply a subtle vignette or gradient if needed to shift focus away from the blown-out part of the frame.

Soft highlight roll-off through curves. Blue point is lowered to introduce warmth to the blown out parts
 

This doesn’t bring back detail, but it can hide the clipped areas and make the shot look more intentional. If the subject is overexposed — especially skin — it becomes much harder to save. So always check your subject’s exposure first and prioritise them over background detail.

Before (left) with the sky blowing out. After (right) with a subtle white point roll-off

As a bonus tip; consider adding glow or halation effects to further blend those areas. It’s a small touch, but it can make an otherwise harsh clip feel more integrated into the grade.

3. Shutter Angle

The shutter angle (or shutter speed, depending on your camera) controls how much motion blur is present in your footage. It’s calculated relative to your frame rate. The default cinematic look is a 180° shutter, which creates a natural-looking amount of motion blur. For example:

• 25fps at 1/50 = 180°
• 25fps at 1/100 = 90° (less motion blur)
• 25fps at 1/25 = 360° (more motion blur)

Why It Happens

There are a few reasons you might end up with the wrong shutter angle:

• You forgot your ND filter and had to crank the shutter speed to avoid overexposure.
• You shot slow motion at 100fps (and 1/200), then used the clip in real time.
• You accidentally changed the setting mid-shoot without noticing.

Whatever the reason, the result is often the same — footage that looks jittery or unnatural.

How to Avoid It

• Double-check your shutter before each shoot or scene change.
• Use built-in ND filters or carry variable NDs to avoid needing to adjust shutter speed.
• Be cautious when repurposing slow-motion footage at normal speed.

How to Fix It

If you’ve shot with a higher shutter speed than intended, your footage will have too little motion blur. This creates a stuttery, sharp look that doesn’t match the rest of your footage.

While you can’t fix excessive motion blur, you can simulate it if it's missing.

DaVinci Resolve has a Motion Blur effect under the “OpenFX” panel. Here’s how I use it:

• Add the Motion Blur effect to your clip.
• Adjust the shutter angle parameter until the motion blur looks natural (180° is a good baseline).
• Play through a few frames to check for artifacts or ghosting.

This helps smooth out footage that was recorded with too high of a shutter speed. It won’t be perfect in every case, but it’s a useful tool to fix inconsistent motion blur — especially when mixing normal-speed and high-speed footage on the same timeline.

Bonus Tip: Shooting for Still Frames or Super Slow Motion

Here’s a trick I use when I need clean stills from video, or when experimenting with fake super slow motion using Speed Warp in DaVinci Resolve:

If you shoot with a very high shutter speed (e.g., 1/1000 or more), your individual frames will be sharp — more like photographs. This can be useful if you want to extract stills for thumbnails or print.

Where it becomes increasingly interesting, is by combining a high shutter speed + Speed Warp + motion blur in post. Since the frames are so crisp, the interpolation works better and gives you smoother results than standard footage with motion blur baked in. This can effectively give you footage that seemed to be shot at well over 100fps without actually needing a High Speed Camera.

I’m working on a full article that covers this workflow in more detail — keep an eye out for that if it sounds like something you want to explore.

Conclusion

Mistakes are part of the process. The key is knowing how to respond when they do—and how to set yourself up to avoid them next time.

• If you’re fighting noise, learn how to expose properly for your camera’s sensor, and don’t be afraid to use tools like Neat Video to clean things up.
• When it comes to exposure, use monitoring tools like histograms and zebras to stay ahead of blown highlights.
• And with shutter angle, stay consistent unless there’s a creative reason to break the rule — and know how to fix it if you do.

These aren’t just technical tips — they’re habits. Building good habits on set will save you hours in post, and when things do go wrong, having the right tools and workflow in place will make the difference between a headache and a learning experience.

Mistakes are part of the process. What matters is how you handle them.