Panning timelapses
- Thread starter finchy
- Start date
Ryan Patrick O'Hara
Veteran
The cheapest way to do it, is get a soft ruler (fabric, bendy plastic) and wrap it around the spot where your fluid head rotates against the base. Make one solid line on the base (part that does not move) and then make lots of evenly spaced and very small marks on the upper half of the fluidhead, right above where it rotates against the non moving base. Very small marks is key for fluid looking even pans.
Now, set your timelapse to take one frame every ____ amount of seconds. Make sure it is enough time to pan the head to the next mark. Once every 5 seconds is comfortable time for me.
The HVX will show you when the 'frame' is captured and once you see the frame get taken, hurry and carefully pan to the next notch before the next frame is captured. Repeat.
This will produce an even looking pan within a time lapse. Like I said, smaller marks equals more smooth and slower pan in timelapse.
Now, set your timelapse to take one frame every ____ amount of seconds. Make sure it is enough time to pan the head to the next mark. Once every 5 seconds is comfortable time for me.
The HVX will show you when the 'frame' is captured and once you see the frame get taken, hurry and carefully pan to the next notch before the next frame is captured. Repeat.
This will produce an even looking pan within a time lapse. Like I said, smaller marks equals more smooth and slower pan in timelapse.
Steve Laramie
Veteran
I second what Ryan said. However make sure you make the changes very small and very even.
pmark23
Veteran
I do this all the time, but instead of using the HVX I used a hacked Canon still camera, and a program I wrote (that runs on the Canon) that shoots unlimited timelapse at a number of rates I can set at the time.
Since the Canon shoots 4K, and my productions are usually 720P, I can pan-and-scan quite a lot on the resulting animations and it matches the HVX footage perfectly. The final results look astounding (I'm trying to put some samples up from the last job -- the client is a big corp and I'm waiting for their permission).
The equipment is a simple (but hacked) Canon pocket camera, and a puny toy tripod. They weigh almost nothing, and it takes just a minute to set up. I usually start the still camera, they go shoot HVX footage for ten to twenty minutes, then reposition the camera and do it again. By the end of the day I have many sequences (and many thousands of photos).
It's pure eye-candy, but clients love it. And when you get into an editing snag you can just throw one in to hide the fact that you missed an important shot!
Since the Canon shoots 4K, and my productions are usually 720P, I can pan-and-scan quite a lot on the resulting animations and it matches the HVX footage perfectly. The final results look astounding (I'm trying to put some samples up from the last job -- the client is a big corp and I'm waiting for their permission).
The equipment is a simple (but hacked) Canon pocket camera, and a puny toy tripod. They weigh almost nothing, and it takes just a minute to set up. I usually start the still camera, they go shoot HVX footage for ten to twenty minutes, then reposition the camera and do it again. By the end of the day I have many sequences (and many thousands of photos).
It's pure eye-candy, but clients love it. And when you get into an editing snag you can just throw one in to hide the fact that you missed an important shot!