Time lapse question

B

Brad Neal

Well-known member
I have never done time lapse stuff before and will be needing to get up to speed as I have to do a 3-day (daylight only) time lapse for an air show this coming spring.

They want to see the set up, the performances, and tear down. The camera will be positioned in the control tower and I plan on using Adobe OnLocation for recording to a hard drive. Oh yea, and this will be shot from a PD-170.

So, couple of questions...

What is an adequate frame rate for say sun up to sun set? Like 1 frame per minute?

Also, I assume that you would set the aperture to "auto"?

Any other pointers you have are appreciated.

I will be playing around with different setup's over the coming weeks to try and figure out the best approach.

Thanks in advance!!

-Brad
 
This sounds like a job for a nikon D200... As for time lapse, I try to think backwards. How long of a clip do you need and how fast do you want the content in that clip to be happening.

So if you want a 30 second timelapse clip of all 3 days of daylight (12hrs a day est.)

so 1 frame a minute = 60 frames an hour x12 = 720 frames per day x 3days = 2160 frames of footage. If you play back at 30fps you will have a 72second clip.

Im sure wou get what I am trying to say.

As far as a sunset, one frame per minute is way to fast for my liking. try 1 frame every 2 seconds. (It happens really fast when the sun gets close to the horizon) and you can always speed it up in post if its too slow for you. (Click "motion blur" for about 16 frames)

Its all personal preference...
 
Hi Hunter,

Thanks for the reply.

So you like shooting time lapse stuff with a still camera? I have a D2X, but never really considered using it for that. How do you get all of the frames resized and onto the timeline for editing?

As for combined finished length, there really is no limit (within reason). It will be placed on a website after the show is over. So 1, 2, or 3 minutes, I don't think is an issue.

I was just wondering if there was a common rule that people started from in terms of frame rate. Although you don't want the thing to run for an hour, one still needs to see some flow as the day progresses.

The camera will be facing south-east, so the sunset will not be in the picture, but I do appreciate your comment as that may come in handy for other work.

Maybe I'll start out testing at 2 frames per minute and see how things look. As you said, I can always speed things up a bit in post if it goes to long.

As for aperture, am I correct in assuming that it should just be set to auto?

Thanks again,
Brad


hunter richards said:
This sounds like a job for a nikon D200... As for time lapse, I try to think backwards. How long of a clip do you need and how fast do you want the content in that clip to be happening.

So if you want a 30 second timelapse clip of all 3 days of daylight (12hrs a day est.)

so 1 frame a minute = 60 frames an hour x12 = 720 frames per day x 3days = 2160 frames of footage. If you play back at 30fps you will have a 72second clip.

Im sure wou get what I am trying to say.

As far as a sunset, one frame per minute is way to fast for my liking. try 1 frame every 2 seconds. (It happens really fast when the sun gets close to the horizon) and you can always speed it up in post if its too slow for you. (Click "motion blur" for about 16 frames)

Its all personal preference...
Click to expand...
 
Time lapse with a still camera:

I dont know the D2X but if there is an intervalmeter, set it for your desired rate. (I would shoot a smaller JPEG size like 1-3mpix) You can set your exposure to auto but set a manual white balance to 5600k(if you dont set a manual white, then it will be noticeably changing when you play back. (plug the camera into a wall outlet if you can to save power)

Shoot the time lapse ( a wide lens would be awesome! I.e. 14mm rect.)

Then take your pictures, put them into a new folder (The files should be numbered in sequence)

Then Purchace Quicktime Pro!

You will find a menu that allows you to import pictures in sequence and you can select the desired playback frame rate AND codec /image size. It is really cool!

Auto exposure on a video camera is fine, just set your white.

If you do a google search you will find a lot of people who shoot timelapse with slrs using the same method.

Have fun,

Hunter
 
Hmm... Depends. You can use sorenson squeeze to render out flash. I useally make a nice master with any video project, like PRORESS or some other less-compressed HD size frame/codec. Then you can compress into anything you want. Try sorenson, or try the free MPEG STREAMCLIP. (you wont be able to render out flash videos, and you need codecs allready on your computer to use MPEG STREAMCLIP)

Hope that helps.
 
I didn't even think about importing into QT as a sequence - thanks!

So is this the preferred method for doing time lapse as apposed to shooting video?

Thanks,
Brad
 
What makes shooting timelapse on an dslr so exciting is the quality and flexibility.

You can shoot "better looking" higher resolution timelapses than with a RED camera, with more dynamic range and less noise (depending on the camera, try the D3!). There is an amazing amount of versitlity, like shooting at night with 30second exposures or at 6400iso! You could do a timelapse of the stars if you wanted. Also the lenses...wow. So many to choose from vs. video. Think 8mm circular fisheye or 360 degree mirror panarama lens, and you get shallow dof too with longer lenses (if you wanted it).

All of those creative benefits, with an extremely small footprint (and light weight too).

I dont even have a dslr with a built-in intervalmeter! I just tape the shutter trigger down!

Go try it and post your results!

For daytime timelapse, shoot with the slowest shutter possible for the motion blur effect. Use a ND filter if you can (cokin makes a bunch).

-Hunter
 
forgot to add:

(using an ND filter will allow you to shoot with a wider aperture or allow you to shoot at a slower shutter, it gets rid of the "blip" effect where things appear for one frame and then dissapear in the next- Its distracting)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top