The Big DSLR (tracking) Time-Lapse Thread!

Tom Lowe

Tom Lowe

Well-known member
I have a bunch of questions and ideas about time-lapse.

I just got a Canon Rebel XT and I want to start shooting time-lapse sequences. My ultimate goal is to be able to do motion-control (at least dolly and pan) like in the movie Baraka. But for now I just want to get started. And I want to keep the system as simple and light as possible, so I can shoot in the mountains, etc.

So the first thing I need is a remote trigger/intervalometer. I am looking at the following products:

1) The Canon TC-80N3 Timer with cable modified to include mating plugs to allow normal use
This is the standard remote intervalometer, but it needs to be modified to trigger the 350D XT.

2) The Zigview R
This is a cool-looking angled eye-piece thing that also works as an intervalometer. I don't know about having a power source for it, though.

3) The Time Machine
This thing looks awesome, but it's very expensive. One of the benefits of this machine is that it can trigger a stepper motor, which in theory could pull or push the camera along a dolly for tracking shots.

Any suggestions on which would be the best?

Next, I need some kind of way to SLOWLY move the camera down a long, curved track (about ten feet). What I was thinking of doing is using ten feet of large-gauge model-train track, at a slightly curved angle (to simulate panning on distant objects), and somehow either powering a "rail car" down the track with a stepper motor, or using a stepper motor or heavy clock motor as a winch to slowly reel the "car" up the track. For example, the "rail car," which would have my DSLR mounted and fixed on top of it with a standard tripod head, might move ten feet down the track in 10 hours. If I was shooting in daylight I guess my shutter speeds would be fast enough not to worry about the very slow motion of the stepper blurring the shots. (At night with long exposures my stepper motor would have to be timed to move between exposures... which is something I think the Time Machine can do).

So I would need to figure out several things:

1) Either choose a model train track and flatcar I can mount my DSLR on and somehow set up a drivetrain from an onboard stepper motor (would this cause camera vibration?) to propel the car down the dolly tack, or pull it along a tack with a motor winch (but this will be a little troublesome because of the curved track).

2) Another option might be to use a robotic-type linear slide powered by a stepper motor.

SingleAxisLinearStepperMotor.jpg


I don't know much about these. It would have to be able to travel down a slightly curved rail, and be big and powerful enough to mount the DSLR on. The only real "control" I would need is to be able to set the stepper motor's RPM. This way I could do some tests and figure out how fast the motor needs to turn in order to move the camera 10 feet down the track in ten hours or whatever.

I'd like to make a stand for this whole track system on six saw-table-like telescoping legs, so I could easily level it in remote, rugged locations. This would bring the whole track up to about torso level.

General time lapse question: How do I control the exposure on a long day-to-night timelapse, when lighting changes are very dramatic. Is the camera set to auto exposure? Will I have to do those types of shots tethered to my laptop with remote capture software?

Any thoughts or other other ideas about how to do all of this?
 
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I wish I had more answers, I am looking into all of this stuff right now. Bonus points for mentioning Baraka, beautifully shot.

you shouldnt have to tether to a laptop for basic time lapse work. beyond that I have more questions than answers....
 
Just an update here. The Zigview R is not really an option for this type of thing, because its internal battery only lasts about 4 hours, so you'd have to power it externaly.

I've been thinking of using a simple wind-up clock motor to slowly propel the dolly car down a track. This would only be good for day-time stuff, though, because it would have no interval option, which would be needed for long night exposures. However, the clock motor option is cheap! I just have to figure out a way to gear a spring-driven clock motor to a drivetrain on a "locamotive" platform where the camera would be mounted. The cool thing about powering the dolly car with an onboard motor is that the track length is easily scalable. You could potentially do 20- or 30-foot dolly moves with your DSLR timelapse shots!
 
i've never needed to use a timer for that stuff myself. i just use my 350d with a cable that i made myself (why would i buy a switch thats 100$) to keep it shooting pics onto an 8gb card. more than enough space to shoot heaps of hd content.

i was considering the timer for a while which i would have just made myself, but i realised the easiest and i think better way to do it is control the duration of the shot with nd filters. i always like the blur in between frames. so you just end up controlling your frame rate that way and just have the camera set to speed priority. works like a charm and its also incredibly compact!

but of course, your limited to the maximum of 30 second exposures, which for me isn't much of a problem. you just have to remember to turn off noise reduction because that can add varying delays between shots while its computing it.

we are thinking of setting one up on a gig im doing at the moment over a 3 month period and will need to use a computer though. what capture software could i use do you think?
 
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queglay said:
i've never needed to use a timer for that stuff myself. i just use my 350d with a cable that i made myself (why would i buy a switch thats 100$) to keep it shooting pics onto an 8gb card. more than enough space to shoot heaps of hd content.

i was considering the timer for a while which i would have just made myself, but i realised the easiest and i think better way to do it is control the duration of the shot with nd filters. i always like the blur in between frames. so you just end up controlling your frame rate that way and just have the camera set to speed priority. works like a charm and its also incredibly compact!

but of course, your limited to the maximum of 30 second exposures, which for me isn't much of a problem. you just have to remember to turn off noise reduction because that can add varying delays between shots while its computing it.

we are thinking of setting one up on a gig im doing at the moment over a 3 month period and will need to use a computer though. what capture software could i use do you think?
Click to expand...

I've begun to experiment around with this. I ordered the Canon TC-80 intervalometer, which should be arriving any day.

Last week, I went to Joshua tree and experimented a bit with night-time stuff. Basically, 30 seconds was not long enough to the capture stars, especially if you want to set your F/stop high enough to include rock formations and things in the foreground. A more ideal exposure time seems to be in the 1-minute neighborhood.

Two questions:

1. One thing I noticed is that the time between intervals makes the timelapse look really jumpy. For example, if you do a 30 second exposure, followed by a thirty-second pause, the stars "jump" across the screen. The obvious way to avoid this is to set a 5-second exposure, with only 5 seconds or so between exposures. This would rule out using noise reduction, however. Is there any way to "interpolate" the images in After Effects or Premiere to get rid of the jumpiness and smooth out the stars? Or is it better just to go with longer exposures and shorter spans between exposures?

2. I want to incorporate these timelapses into cinema projects at 2K resolution with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. So obviously I need to crop. Would it be possible for me to set an "action" or something in photoshop or after effects to 1) crop 2) scale and 3) color time the images in one click? Would I be better off trying to do this in Premiere once I have the clip assembled?

thanks!
 
1. the best option is certainly to expose for longer and try your best to eliminate the gap between exposures. you need to have noise reduction turned off, but if you shoot raw i think you can do this processing later. programs like realviz retimer are usefull for retiming shots if you need to but i wouldn't recomend them if you can get it right the first time.

2. I prefer to use after effects for all my animation processing. that allows you to crop and even animate the cropped area to give the illusion of a pan which works well with ultra wide shots.
 
queglay, thanks. If you don't mind, what are the exact steps you use in After Effects to animate the jepgs or RAWs, and to crop and do the crop pans? I'm very new to After Effects, so assume I know nothing.
 
I have experimented with Canon EOS-1DmII and the PC program that came with it. It has an intervalometer function, time between shots can be set between 5sec and several hours, up to total 1999 shots (. Just plug the camera to laptop with firewire cable, pictures are recorded on hard disk. The only slight problöem is that both camera and laptop should be mains powered while shooting.

One thing to note: as DV has lousy resolution there is no point in shooting anthing than smallest and worst quality jpeg. Even that is much better than SD DV.

- shoot the sequence, file names have automatically consecutive numbering
- make an automatd batch thingy in Photoshop to resize all pictures to DV specs (720x576 pixels in PAL)
- set still picture duration to 1 frame in Premier
- import pictures to Premiere
- drag the pictures to timeline
- voilá: automatic animation!!!
 
352rns5.jpg


Well I tried my first full-on timelapse this weekend out in Joshua Tree, but it didn't work out. I left the Auto White Balance on my Canon 350 set to auto, so there were some major color temp changes in the middle of my timelapse sequence! haha. Also, my battery died after just 160 frames, so I am going to have to buy a battery grip to extend the life of the batteries, or hook the camera to an AC adapter. Each exposure was something like 45 seconds, at f/11, with a five-second interval between.
 
Very cool. I think I'm about to buy a DSLR myself and try some time-lapse. Yours looked awesome. I'd love to see more.
 
Holy crap!

Grat work on the video. The colors are just . . . wow.


Awsome piece.



I hope you plan on making some more of those.
 
Thanks, guys. Yeah, I know, the colors just pop! I tried to match some of my DLSR timelapses to some HVX footage.. LOL. The DLSR stuff is off the chart by comparison, even when downrezed to 720p.

I shot this night stuff over the last few days up in Lone Pine and Joshua Tree.

http://digitallions.org/night.wmv

There was no moon, so on average these were about 90-second exposures at ISO 400 with 5-second intervals.
 
Those timelapses look great. Im really fascinated by it, definately something i will look into as well.

Now i know this is something you just put together quickly. But the last one would have looked better if you had blurred the water or something. Doesent really fit the pace of the clouds and the music. Just my 50 cents


btw. whats the music track called you used in the one with the stars.
 
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That's led zepellin's NO QUARTER.

Yeah, water is a big problem for timelapses. Same thing with trees if there is any wind at all.
 
Hi Tom,

My name is Nick from Quench Studios. I've been experimenting with motion timelapse for a while now & the time machine is expensive, but does the job well.

As for a rig, i use a basic camera dolly with a custom built stepper motor on it to drive the system. I can send you links to examples if you like?

Nick
 
Nice Work Tom,

I'm wondering a few things. What F stop are you typically using on the night shots - is it all fully wide open. Have you noticed any issued going to f8 or f11 in daytime shots? - and Canon lenses i assume? Also - how are you getting a 90 second exposure? It thought the max was 30? What is the trick? And at that long of an exposure I'd expect hot spots all over the frame. Are you doing NR in camera or removing in post or is this camera just better about it than others? Are these all RAW images? And Finally, are you getting a lot of noise in the image - hard to tell from the compressed shots. Most of all - thanks for sharing. ...And nice choice of locations to shoot. Aint we lucky to be under those stars!

So far the only advice i can give regarding your motion rig plans - keep in mind wind. if you get up off the ground and things are not rock solid, something like a track on legs might get lifted a hair at times and create bumps - which can take a lot of time in post to fix.

Cheers,,
Todd
 
Hey Tom - Skipping over here from my post on my time-lapse movie STEEL SKIES, per your invitation.

DVX Post: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=76617

Time-lapse Movie: http://cinematiccd.com/votesteelskies

But wow, honestly I don't think I have too much info to add on what you guys have already covered. Like QUEGLAY, I like to move all of my shots around in AE, sometimes creating simulated dolly moves in 3D space (ie, the barn shot in STEEL SKIES.) I have a FAQ page that outlines my process using long shutter and AE here:

http://mythopolis.com/faq.htm

But I'd love to see some final results of the rigs you are planning to implement.

rasquachi said:
Have you noticed any issued going to f8 or f11 in daytime shots?
Click to expand...

Todd - Funny you should mention this. I usually do long exposures on time-lapse (about 2 seconds) but for some recent shots during the day I did shorter exposures and used F8- F11 and I got inconsistent exposures - a sort of subtle flicker between shots in my sequence. Do you know why? Is that what you are experiencing?

tk
 
Beautiful work.
I was trying this just last week with some clouds out my bedroom window. I used a Nikon D70s, but when I brought the image sequence into After Effects there were brightness fluctuations frame by frame. Has anyone else had this happen, and also doesn't After Effects have a filter that balances out brightness fluctuations?
 
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