Time-Lapse Photography

GhostInTheRuins

Does anybody here do this?

I've started messing around with it in the last few days and tried to have a proper go at it this morning.

It's not the most impressive thing I've ever seen but I'm happy with it as a start. I used a demo of camera control pro 2 connected to my D90 to take a shot of my back garden every 24 seconds, the camera managed just under 1000 actuations before the battery died. First shot was taken just after 7 and it gave out at 1:30.

I don't really have a clue about encoding so the video quality is a bit rubbish

Tips appreciated!

link - http://vimeo.com/2761727

whyulittle

That's cool.

One question, why every 24 seconds?

shepthedog

Gotta say I like that. Its something I have been meaning to try for some time.. Any plans for more varied subject?
Also, the golden retriever is hilarious..

GhostInTheRuins

whyulittle wrote: »

That's cool.

One question, why every 24 seconds?

Cheers, I'm not really sure to be honest, but last night I was putting a different few shots together and it was running at 24fps, so this morning I thought 24 was a good number

shepthedog wrote: »

Gotta say I like that. Its something I have been meaning to try for some time.. Any plans for more varied subject?
Also, the golden retriever is hilarious..

Thanks. No real plans yet, this was just a bit of a test run to see how it turned out.

She's a Labrador though

Dodgykeeper

Thats so bizarre, have spent the last hour doing time lapse sequences of my son Wiiing (Thats playing the Wii not taking a Pi....) and opened boards to ask for advice

Anybody know of any good software for creating the avi files, dont really want to pay for it (I mean free software not illegal downloading, relax mods)

trooney

I've played about with time-lapse a little.

http://www.vimeo.com/user1100175/videos

(vimeo def better then youtube!)

I use an intervalometer connected to my camera to control the exposures. Which means I can set it to take a shot every x amount of seconds for xx:xx minutes and just walk away check it occasionally.
I use an application called VideoMach to create the end product. It’s not a free app though. I'm not sure of any, although there must be some. I find windows movie maker to be pretty clunky and cumbersome.
Also, if you can, you are better to use a slightly longer exposure, as it drags the images, giving a smoother finish. Rather than the jumpy one you can get if subjects in the shots are too sharp.
The interval between shots is usually determined by the length you require your finished video to be. You'd be looking to get about 25 frames ps. Work back from there to give you the required number of shots you need in the time allowed for the sequence.

I'm still only experimenting, but its def fun to see something that normally takes a long time compressed into minutes or seconds.

OP - I like your garden sequence. V good.

GhostInTheRuins

trooney wrote: »

I've played about with time-lapse a little.

http://www.vimeo.com/user1100175/videos

(vimeo def better then youtube!)

I use an intervalometer connected to my camera to control the exposures. Which means I can set it to take a shot every x amount of seconds for xx:xx minutes and just walk away check it occasionally.
I use an application called VideoMach to create the end product. It’s not a free app though. I'm not sure of any, although there must be some. I find windows movie maker to be pretty clunky and cumbersome.
Also, if you can, you are better to use a slightly longer exposure, as it drags the images, giving a smoother finish. Rather than the jumpy one you can get if subjects in the shots are too sharp.
The interval between shots is usually determined by the length you require your finished video to be. You'd be looking to get about 25 frames ps. Work back from there to give you the required number of shots you need in the time allowed for the sequence.

I'm still only experimenting, but its def fun to see something that normally takes a long time compressed into minutes or seconds.

OP - I like your garden sequence. V good.

Nice one. I've never heard of an intervalometer, I must have a look into them (It would save carrying and powering my chunky laptop).

It looks like there's a demo of VideoMach you can download, I must have a go of it too. I was using quicktime to add all the images into a .mov file and then 'super' to convert that to .avi for the net.

By the way, your mines-mun video is hypnotic

GhostInTheRuins

Trooney, is this the kind of thing you were talking about? - http://cgi.ebay.com/Timer-Remote-Cord-For-NIKON-DSLR-D70s-D80-Kit-MC-DC1_W0QQitemZ350073015484QQihZ022QQcategoryZ64345QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

Dodgykeeper

The mines-mun one is brilliant as is the garden one and wtf are they building in the other one! I am so gonna do that, that software is only $15 so am going to get it, have a few ideas for this.

I presume you us Aperture priorty?

See ya later am going out to wash my windscreen and set the tripod up in the car!

trooney

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Trooney, is this the kind of thing you were talking about? - http://cgi.ebay.com/Timer-Remote-Cord-For-NIKON-DSLR-D70s-D80-Kit-MC-DC1_W0QQitemZ350073015484QQihZ022QQcategoryZ64345QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1742.m153.l1262

Yep. Something like that would do the job alright.

GhostInTheRuins

Dodgykeeper wrote: »

See ya later am going out to wash my windscreen and set the tripod up in the car!

Hahaha good man

GhostInTheRuins

trooney wrote: »

Yep. Something like that would do the job alright.

Yeah, after a bit of investigating I've found out there are none for the D90 because stupid Nikon decided to give it a different connector to all their other cameras. Oh well :rolleyes:

mobileblog

Dodgykeeper wrote: »

Thats so bizarre, have spent the last hour doing time lapse sequences of my son Wiiing (Thats playing the Wii not taking a Pi....) and opened boards to ask for advice

Anybody know of any good software for creating the avi files, dont really want to pay for it (I mean free software not illegal downloading, relax mods)

Here's one i took
http://www.vimeo.com/772601

Take the pictures and download quicktime player (about 20 euro). You can load them in and it will save them as a movie. I used quicktime player to save this movie

trooney

Dodgykeeper wrote: »

The mines-mun one is brilliant as is the garden one and wtf are they building in the other one...

We were building a training board for rock climbing

http://pix.ie/trooney/album/319767

PaulieC

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=u5FfI6s-1xY

the Canon G9 is very handy for this - has a time lapse video funtion built in

af_thefragile

cambo_gueno wrote: »

http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=u5FfI6s-1xY

the Canon G9 is very handy for this - has a time lapse video funtion built in

That pretty cool...

But how different is that from recording the thing with a camcorder??...
Especially when you've smoothened it out, it looks just like a video recording...
Don't mean to sound blunt... but just a genuine questions...?

PaulieC

af_thefragile wrote: »

That pretty cool...

But how different is that from recording the thing with a camcorder??...
Especially when you've smoothened it out, it looks just like a video recording...
Don't mean to sound blunt... but just a genuine questions...?

dunno :pac:

it records a frame every one or two seconds as opposed to 24 FPS that a camcorder normally would. I guess it save you the hallse of setting up the SLR with an intervalometer and then creating an AVI. This is what the video is like straight out of camera...

Hugh_C

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Does anybody here do this?

Yeah I do a lot of it for work, I've movies on flickr here and a few others here. Some of these were taken on a D70 using an infrared remote every 20 or so seconds, done by guesswork, but the more recent ones on the Nikon D300 are done automatically, you can set it up on interval shooting whereby you can lash off a frame at a rate determine by you.

You're on a D90? It's a shame Nikon didn't offer interval timing on that model because it's a super camera otherwise. I can lend you th IR remote if you like, makes camera shake a thing of the past.

I really like the changing light in yours, I find that my better ones either have a load of clouds, or a lot of foreground movement, it helps give the shot a bit of interest.

Hugh

mobileblog

Hugh_C you have some really great clips there.

Dodgykeeper

I did it, not bad results considering I had never done it and it was dark, will do more over weekend!

Cheers for help re software:

Here is my first attempt!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/fergusmcnally/3180214753/?processed=1&cb=1231457852589

whyulittle

Love the ending.

Looked like you were stalking that white van for a while at the start.

shepthedog

Good job fergie..

GhostInTheRuins

Hugh_C wrote: »

Yeah I do a lot of it for work, I've movies on flickr here and a few others here.

Some great clips there. I love the Cloudland one

Hugh_C wrote: »

You're on a D90? It's a shame Nikon didn't offer interval timing on that model because it's a super camera otherwise. I can lend you th IR remote if you like, makes camera shake a thing of the past.

Thanks for the offer but I got an IR remote for christmas, I haven't used it properly yet though.

Hugh_C wrote: »

I really like the changing light in yours, I find that my better ones either have a load of clouds, or a lot of foreground movement, it helps give the shot a bit of interest.

Hugh

Yeah I know what you mean, I was a little disappointed that there were almost not clouds at all yesterday.

Keep them coming folks

CabanSail

I had a play with Time Lapse on my G9 recently (did not know it did that until mentioned at the Beers before Xmas)

Set the G9 up on top of the cupboard on Xmas day & recorded the dinner being cooked. I have also propped it up on the dash while driving home, which makes a boring trip look wild.

Dodgykeeper

Im obsessed, bit of slippage on tripod at start but was cool after that!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fergusmcnally/3182046679/

Mizu_Ger

This one on youtube is excellent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDfqCFFvfag.

He/she put a lot of planning into it!