Time Lapse Photography

[Sheiky]

It would be nice if this topic could be a place where everyone can show his/her time-lapse videos and tips and tricks, because I'm sure there is enough interest for it.

As you might know I am really impressed by some of the amazing time-lapse videos around the internet. I have made a few attempts so far, but none really impressive, definitely not enough to make a short movie out of it.
In my attempts I have stumbled upon some problems which I will try to show by a compilation video.


Obviously I would advice watching this in high definition.

For the time-lapses I use my 5D with a Micnova Timed remote(comparable to the Canon TC-80n3). Since a couple of weeks I am trying out CHDK on an old Canon P&S as well. There are also more options like: tethering to a computer or Magic Lantern

In my video, this is what I would have done differently next time:

0-8: It was a very bright sunny day and the clouds we're moving quickly. The sun got behind clouds every now and then and it creates a flickering time-lapse. Taking pictures more frequently would have helped a bit. I took a photo every 5 seconds.

10-16: It's ok.

16-22: I tried to make a moving time-lapse and I rotated the camera every 3 shots or so. I should have taken smaller steps.

25-39: I didn't take photos quickly enough. The clouds moved too much each photo and therefor the transition isn't smooth.

42-28: I used the big size(more than 1920*1080p) of the photos to zoom in and slowly zoom out to recreate a moving camera effect. In real life the camera didn't move at all.

50-55: I stopped taking photos too soon!!

57-1:12: I exported the video in a wrong file format and forgot to safe the project. So now I got to do this over again. Having a steady view also makes it a little boring.

1:14-1:43: I used the bg photosize to fake a moving camera bij pulling the photos slowly from one side to the other. Also I should have gone with a slower shutterspeed so the movement in the branches looks smoother.

1:45-End: I'm happy with this one.

[Sheiky]

And a few stand-alone time-lapses of projects. This one is the disassembly of my brother in laws motorcycle after he crashed it


This one is where there was enough snow(which is rare in the Netherlands) to build a decent sized iglo.

[Busted Knuckles]

Cool stuff. Thanks for starting the thread.

Magic Lantern basically replaces the hardware need for a cable release or a grip w/ a interval timer. It also has bulb ramping exposure capabilities (that I haven't fiddled with yet) to adjust exposure for frames that have slowly changing exposures like sunrise/sunsets. I read the instructions bulb ramping and it is clearly something that needs practice to understand how to adjust the variables.

I agree with your other posts, plan, plan, plan - practice, practice, practice as it just takes along time to set up and wasting that much time is annoying and if it is some sort of eclipse the waiting for a 2nd chance just might be an option.

I did reprocess the stills with a .03333/second transition rate between frames and it smooths the movements considerably.

Looking forward to learning more from others who have worked on time lapse.

Mike

[Kayaker72]

Cool videos. I actually really liked the first video....from the sounds of things, maybe more than you did

[Sheiky]

Magic Lantern basically replaces the hardware need for a cable release or a grip w/ a interval timer. It also has bulb ramping exposure capabilities (that I haven't fiddled with yet) to adjust exposure for frames that have slowly changing exposures like sunrise/sunsets. I read the instructions bulb ramping and it is clearly something that needs practice to understand how to adjust the variables.

It definitely sounds good, with great options. Does it work only in Live view or in normal mode as well? I recon it eats quite your batteries in Live view?
I was about to try CHDK on my Canon Point and Shoot, but haven't done it yet. I reckon it has pretty much the same possibilities as MagicLantern. I would say dive into that bulb ramping exposure stuff and let us know about it
I was about to try CHDK on my Canon Point and Shoot, but haven't done it yet.

I agree with your other posts, plan, plan, plan - practice, practice, practice as it just takes along time to set up and wasting that much time is annoying and if it is some sort of eclipse the waiting for a 2nd chance just might be an option.

Planning is definitely the key word in a full time lapse video. The latest Idea I had was to capture sunrise to sunset in my town. Start with sunrise, moving traffic, perhaps a few special buildings and end with a sunset or a moon or something. However it's easier to write down than actually doing it

I did reprocess the stills with a .03333/second transition rate between frames and it smooths the movements considerably.
Looking forward to learning more from others who have worked on time lapse.

I'm looking forward as well. If you get the chance, please post your video here You can very easily embed a youtube video with the " Insert Video" button.

Cool videos. I actually really liked the first video....from the sounds of things, maybe more than you did

Haha sorry for the wrong impression. I do like the shots I have. Otherwise they were trash already It's just that I'm looking very technically now and especially at things I like to do differently next time. At the same time thinking about how I could do that.
In the compilation video there are a number of small fragments. In the other 2 videos the lack of camera movement is less noticeable, because there's plenty of things going on. At least I think so. What do you think?

[Busted Knuckles]

It definitely sounds good, with great options. Does it work only in Live view or in normal mode as well? I recon it eats quite your batteries in Live view?

No impact on battery consumption. Operates in all modes as applicable - you use the LCD navigate & set menu items. I did shoot the cloud TL not in live mode and with image review turned off. I did change exposure settings during the sequence.

I was about to try CHDK on my Canon Point and Shoot, but haven't done it yet. I reckon it has pretty much the same possibilities as MagicLantern. I would say dive into that bulb ramping exposure stuff and let us know about it
I was about to try CHDK on my Canon Point and Shoot, but haven't done it yet.

Planning is definitely the key word in a full time lapse video. The latest Idea I had was to capture sunrise to sunset in my town. Start with sunrise, moving traffic, perhaps a few special buildings and end with a sunset or a moon or something. However it's easier to write down than actually doing it

I'm looking forward as well. If you get the chance, please post your video here You can very easily embed a youtube video with the " Insert Video" button.

http://youtu.be/dd0_PPQIQQg

Haha sorry for the wrong impression. I do like the shots I have. Otherwise they were trash already It's just that I'm looking very technically now and especially at things I like to do differently next time. At the same time thinking about how I could do that.
In the compilation video there are a number of small fragments. In the other 2 videos the lack of camera movement is less noticeable, because there's plenty of things going on. At least I think so. What do you think?

[Sheiky]

No impact on battery consumption. Operates in all modes as applicable - you use the LCD navigate & set menu items. I did shoot the cloud TL not in live mode and with image review turned off. I did change exposure settings during the sequence.

Oh that is pretty nice.

I tried out CHDK on my dads Ixus 95 IS last Sunday at sunset. I forgot to turn of the review of the photos so I didn't get a new photo each second, but more like every 3 seconds. I do like the result though. I also like the fact that I had it on a small arm tripod(don't know what it's called, from my dads super8-days) and it was barely visible so I left it running for about half an hour and took my own camera for a walk then
Here is the result, I'll definitely try more of this. Remember that this is full auto-mode without any adjustments.

[Busted Knuckles]

Cool, a tweak here a thump there pretty soon I will get the hang of this. Like the sunset.

Today would have been a great day to do a T-storm in Orlando, but had to go to the airport and wait while the T-storm delayed my flight... Ironic.


Man, this gets the ideas flowing - I need to find a waterproof version and run it underwater - always wanted to know what was swimming by.

[Busted Knuckles]

Sort of an update - I was able to determine how to move the frame rate down to 4fps in movie mode on the T3i using magic lantern (the play button decrements the override fps menu item in ML). So I am going to play around w/ the 4 fps in movie mode w/ the 3x bit rate (maybe less compression???) and see what comes of it. 4fps may not be a true time lapse, but it will certainly speed things up, particularly when the video header would say 60 fps - an effective 2 fps when played at 60.

One of the requests going to the ML development guys would be to see the FPS can go fractional i.e. 1/4 fps or 1 frame every 4 seconds. I know this can be done using stills and the intervalometer - but if it could be done in movie mode, there would be much less work flow/shutter counts.

TTFN

[btaylor]

I'm waiting for the unified version of magic lantern to be released for the 5D2. There's a lot of cool features there, particularly the time lapse options and the motion sensing stuff. Would be great for electrical storms!