Springtime Boredom, a timelapse.

[gr8bob]

Bored, and it's a Sunday afternoon. Hence:

<object width="800" height="450"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7875916&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;sho w_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ad ef&amp;fullscreen=1" /><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7875916&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;sho w_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=00ad ef&amp;fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="800" height="450"></embed></object><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/7875916">Springtime Boredom</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user2425807">Jason Jaybird</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Click link to Vimeo for full 720P HD version.

[MDSimpson]

Nice Jason.
Apart from posting it to Vimeo, how did you put this together?
There will be a few people here keen to try this, so give us some details.
What power to the camera did you use?
What software to put the images together etc...

Good stuff...

[gr8bob]

I took some basic instructions from Baz's timelapse tutorial [HERE (http://photoforum.com.au/showthread.php?t=24582)] and mixed it with some other techniques I have found on the Internet.

Ingredients:

450D + 17-70mm Sigma lens
a wonky tripod
remote shutter release (see note below)
a boring Sunday arvo
a temperamental Spring weather


Shot was manually timed and exposed (camera is in Manual mode) using a remote shutter release as I have yet to acquire an intervalometer.

Here are a few pointers that I have found to be most useful in doing timelapse:

Initial setup. It is important to have all the shots manually exposed and have your camera propped on a sturdy tripod so that (1) the transition between frames will be less on the difference in exposure and more on the subject matter [maybe someone can try to prove me wrong on this :D]; (2) framing will actually be consistent throughout the shot [unless of course, you intend to create a panning timelapse, which i think is a kludge to work with on a typical tripod setup, so for now, stick with a sturdy setup :p].

Metering. Take a couple of initial shots and take note of the exposure. Meter off the main subject of your scene (sky, sun, clouds, etc.) If it is near sunset and the plan is to take as much shots as you can, compensate a bit by overexpose the initial shots by 1/3 to 1-stop so by the end of your session you would have captured enough scenes for composition later. An overexposed initial shot might be good to introduce an 'unintentional fade-in' at the beginning of your timelapse as the overall illumination drops as the sun sets to compensate for the overexposure. Same applies to doing timelapse at sunrise/dawn, but instead of overexposing your initial shots, you would want to underexpose it.

File size and quality. Since you're outputting these shots at either 720P (1280x720) or at most, 1080P (1920x1080) resolution, you could technically shoot the frames in JPEG and reduced resolution to save space. A 4 megapixel frame is more than enough for 1080P output unless you're into post-processing cropping. A thing to note when shooting JPEGs is that the White Balance should be set beforehand consistent throughout the shots as manipulating them in post processing might produce undesirable results when compared to manipulating RAW images.

Don't touch the tripod! Nor the camera whilst shooting a set of frames. The whole point of having the camera propped onto the tripod is so that the transition between frames is smooth and subtle. I adjusted some settings on the camera once in between shots and the result didn't turn out quite well.. or probably I have a bad camera support. :rolleyes:

Subject matter. Depends largely on what you intend to frame but I have found that timelapse works best on subjects that moves at a slower-than usual pace (e.g. clouds, sun, snail, plants, etc.). Feel free to experiment.


For the sample timelapse I posted, it consists of three scenes with the following settings:


17mm, f/8, 1/3200 sec @ ISO400
shot at 10 second intervals
17mm, f/8, 1/1250 sec @ ISO400
shot at 10 second intervals
48mm, f/8, 1/4000 sec @ ISO400
shot at 5 second intervals


Total time spent taking those shots were approximately 75 mins. with a total of ~500 stills at the end of the day.

Processing
Now for the processing bit, I'm a fan of Adobe Lightroom and when they came out with the their version 3 Beta release, it came with some nice features that got me interested in doing timelapse straight out of Lightroom.

LR3 Beta is free at this stage and considering it is still a beta software, it is best to keep a copy of your actual data somewhere else.

To compose the images into a working timelapse movie, I have followed some of the steps as outlined in [this (http://lightroom-news.com/2009/10/28/direct-timelapse-video-export-from-lightroom/)] site. Instead of using their standard 24fps slideshow template, I have took their original file, fiddled with it in a text editor and reduced the frame rate to 15fps as 24fps playback can chew through those 500 frames in a matter of seconds, quite literally. I have attached my modified 15fps template at the end of this post.

Once you have done all that and have exported a working sample movie, you can add a cheesy-alternative-sounding-indie-track to complement with your movie. This however is highly optional but can do a good job of reinforcing the mood of your timelapse. :D Edit, trim and fade the track in an audio editor to match the duration of your timelapse.

[This (http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/ultimate-guide-to-time-lapse-photography/)] site does a good job on explaining timelapse photography and a calculation of the amount of frames and in-between intervals required for a successful timelapse movie.

That's all I can think of at this stage but I will be more than keen to answer more questions and comments are always welcomed. :)

[MDSimpson]

Thanks Jason, very detailed process.
Added to my todo list..