Time-Lapse Photography - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 57

Fig 4.5 Shot of streaking people walking through doorframe.
different, but the opposite can be true in time-lapse filming and pixilation.
When a frame is loaded with activity, the eye tends to be drawn to the less
active object or area. This contrast can be used to direct the viewer and
highlight a particular action that you want to feature in any shot.
Shutter Speeds
One follow-up to the subject of contrast can be found in the simple
adjustment of the shutter speed in your camera. We already made a point
of the critical element of having manual shutter, iris, and focus control
in your stop-motion camera work. You are the one in control not the
camera. Since the majority of stop-motion camera work takes place from
a tripod, any shutter speed is possible to use. Any handheld camera work
requires a fast shutter speed (a quarter second or faster) to avoid soft
focus or movement during the exposure. If the camera is moving while the
shutter is open, then the frame will smear or elicit a soft focus effect. Stop
motion by hand is a rare event, even for an artist like Blu, who is constantly
changing the angle of his camera frame to frame. He shoots from a tripod
so the camera is steady during the exposure and the focus is clear.