Panolapse - A Test

[Sean Setters]

I recently came across a nifty piece of software - Panolapse. The software is designed to allow for panning movements in time lapse stills. A couple of days ago I used my Canon 5D Mark II (with Magic Lantern installed) and 17-40 L to create the images for this sequence:



I shot 400 frames over a span of about 20 minutes (3 second timer) using the built-in intervalometer feature of Magic Lantern.

Panolapse isn't the easiest software to understand and use, but watching the video on their website helps.

After processing the video in Panolapse, I used Premiere Elements 11 to add the title sequences and music. It's nothing fancy, but overall I was pleased with the test. The free version of Panolapse allows you to encode at 720p. The paid version allows for encoding in higher resolutions and includes multiple RAW blending options that can help the look of the video.

What do you guys think?

[Always Looking]

I liked it, along with the music it kind of reminded me about death for some reason, pretty moving actually.

What I didn't like was the house in frames, especially the white house siding getting light and dark as the clouds passed. Kind of caught my eye in a negative way. I would have preferred the frames a little further apart, like ten seconds I guess. I also think an open field would have been a better setting, again the house does not give it a natural beauty feeling.

[Steve U]

Nice effect and nifty software. So is this one of the built in features when my camera is set on "P" for Professional?

[Sean Setters]

I liked it, along with the music it kind of reminded me about death for some reason, pretty moving actually.


What I didn't like was the house in frames, especially the white house siding getting light and dark as the clouds passed. Kind of caught my eye in a negative way. I would have preferred the frames a little further apart, like ten seconds I guess. I also think an open field would have been a better setting, again the house does not give it a natural beauty feeling.

I agree. A different setting would have been ideal. I wanted to do a test run before trying anything more substantial with it. I'm considering doing a promotional video for my hometown just to see how well I can put one together.

Nice effect and nifty software. So is this one of the built in features when my camera is set on "P" for Professional?

Actually no, Steve. You have to use "Tv" mode – for "Timelapse Video." :-)

[Steve U]

Thanks Sean I'm going out to stand in the rain and try that now.

[Kayaker72]

Sean...just curious, what is special about the software that allows for panning movements?

[Sean Setters]

Sean...just curious, what is special about the software that allows for panning movements?

It's basically just a good, one-stop shop for creating panning within a sequence of images. It corrects for a lot of different factors (you can even use a fisheye and have it correct for the distortion, I believe).

Here's what it says on Panolapse's website:

Features
Panolapse is a tool for creating timelapse videos, with features for panning, zooming, deflickering, RAW metadata interpolation, and batch rendering.

• Panning. Panolapse simulates rotational panning with perspective correction.
• Zooming. Animate a lens zoom in or out of your scene.
• Blend frames with RAWBlend. Animating RAW metadata like exposure, contrast, white balance, saturation, and more.
• Deflicker. Smoothen changes in brightness.
• Autoexposure. Get perfect exposure every frame, no matter what camera settings you're at. AutoExposure analyzes changes aperture, shutter speed, ISO to adjust exposure.
• Combine JPG images into a video. Export as high-quality images or video (jpg, mp4, mov).
• Fisheye Lens support. Works with both normal lenses and fisheyes.

The sad fact is that proper sliding in timelapse photography typically means buying expensive motorized support. In this case, you're just panning around the area contained in your single composition (spread over multiple frames). Since most current HD screens only handle 720p or 1080p resolutions, this software technique works pretty well because you've got much more resolution to play with than what's required for the output.