First Time lapse - Pointers?

N

naveenmedia

Active member
Hi guys, here is my first ever time lapse. Iconic Philly shot from the Art Museum steps looking towards City Hall and Center City:


T2i using a Tokina 11-16mm (at 16mm), f2.8, ISO400 and AWB.

I shot it using the Technicolor cinestyle profile, then brought it into AE and played with the levels a bit. Then I dropped it onto a 1080p comp and scaled/cropped to fit.

I think two mistakes I made were setting the ISO so high, and using AWB instead of setting the white balance. Philip Bloom seems to shoot everything at ISO100 and sets his WB to 5600K.

There's too much grain/noise in the image, and I assume that's because of the high ISO. The image might have been sharper too -- right now too much softness, but perhaps that's something else.

I don't know if you guys can see it or not, but some frames are slightly out of focus. I had AF turn on, so maybe what I should do is focus and then switch to MF. OK, so maybe three mistakes I made!

Any tips, pointers, suggestions?

Thanks!
 
Nice first test. Especially toward the end as the lights and color start to pop!

I'm on the same quest for details on how to do these so no definitive answers for you. Definitely need to use manual focus though. My T3i won't even shoot as it gets dark with autofocus sometimes. I just get the red box and it won't shoot at all. Curious what mode you shot in and what shutter speed? I thought PB used ISO 1600 on the 5d for his night time lapses? There is no question that ISO 400 is plenty sharp enough to resize to 1080p with zero issues on our cams.

I'll bet most of your issues are due to the auto focus and the slight flickering of the street lamps due to a relatively fast shutter speed for time lapses.

Cheers,
Pete
 
c3hammer,

Thanks! Yeah, I should have stayed longer to get more of the night lights, but my allergies were killing me at that point and I had to head indoors. Next test will definitely be longer, and that's one reason why it was a "test" -- I knew there would be unanticipated factors that I'd only realize by doing it.

Another -- wind. The wind was blowing strong, and at times I worried it might tip the camera/tripod over. It never even seemed to move -- but that fear was there. Now I see the advantage in having a tripod with a hook underneath for sandbag or other weight.

I set my exposure to auto, so I was in Av mode (aperture priority), per Philip Bloom. I'll have to give one his commentaries a listen again to see what ISO he was using, because I must have missed him mentioning 1600.
 
naveenmedia said:
Another -- wind. The wind was blowing strong, and at times I worried it might tip the camera/tripod over. It never even seemed to move -- but that fear was there. Now I see the advantage in having a tripod with a hook underneath for sandbag or other weight.
Click to expand...

Ankle weights. Go to your local fitness/sports store and get some of their 10lb, velcro-strapped ankle weights. Put one at the base of each leg of the tripod.
 
c3hammer said:
There is no question that ISO 400 is plenty sharp enough to resize to 1080p with zero issues on our cams.
Click to expand...

It think it holds up well when resized down to 1080p. However, it's still noticeable IMO. Here's a good noise comparison of a 7D iso noise test: http://marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/canon-7d-noise-and-iso-test/

The difference between 100 and 400 is pretty steep. Unfortunately the T2i can't do the 160 and variables -- clearly, the best ISO for this sensor (unless there is a hack I don't know about).
 
Second time lapse. This one longer, about 30 seconds (approx. two hours of shooting). Shot with the CineStyle profile. I adjusted the levels with the Curves effect in AE (I applied the LUT, but thought it rendered everything too dark).


It gets better about halfway through. One annoying thing is the streetlights. They're timed so consistently, since the camera is shooting at a consistent rate (every 10 seconds), the lights just toggle back and forth like clockwork.

WB at 5200K and ISO100 this time. Noticeably less noise than ISO400 when zoomed in at 100% (apparent on the stills themselves).

One weird thing, what I assume is CA towards the end. You see it in the center towards the top, near the top of city hall. I'm not sure if that's caused by the long exposure times, or the lens, or what?

I do wonder if all of this might be better with a polarizer on instead of just the UV filter.
 
Did you purposefully shoot on overcast days? I'm finding that my time lapses are getting somewhat muddled and grainy because of the inconsistency of the light due to cloud cover. here's an example http://vimeo.com/23706834

I'm shooting with a different camera (AF-100) but I assume the principals would stiull be the same. either way I like your footage it looks nice.
 
@klitch - No, not on purpose. It's just when I had the free time after work.

Are you shooting footage, or stills on the AF-100? (I would assume footage, but I don't know the camera so maybe it does stills).

I'm shooting stills with an interval of 10 seconds. The exposure time gets adjusted by the camera when it meters before each shot. So I think that creates some more consistency in terms of overall exposure and grain.
 
I did that at 10 second intervals, you can see the clouds and sky have basically the exact exposure I'm looking for but everything else is underexposed. I'll keep fooling around, I'm trying not to use too many auto settings, but with changing light I may not have any choice.
 
And another one:
A boring street corner, made less boring by some time lapse. A few seconds of this type of thing is interesting during a video or film sequence, but just watching it for 30 seconds it can get repetitive.

One thing Philip Bloom mentions is being stopped wide open at the largest aperture available to the lens. I presume this is so exposure times can be as short as possible. But I wonder if that sacrifices sharpness, because most of my time lapse stills feel a little soft. Bloom is probably using some really high quality glass, and since I'm on a budget, maybe I don't have a choice but to stop down to increase sharpness.
 
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