I think that sometimes we get a little too comfortable doing what we do best and forget about how exciting learning a new technique or style can be. It's good exercise for the right brain stimulating creative juices that help you think outside your comfort zone. Basically we use the same set of photography skills with the different styles of photography that we do. Common skills like using manual mode and the knowledge of how shutter speed, aperture and iso work together to expose light. It's all similar stuff so applying what you already know in a slightly different way makes it a little easier to learn new tricks. I have been curious about time lapse photography and decided that now is a good time to learn how it is all done. I knew that my Nikon had a feature to set timer intervals but not much more than that. So I hopped on my Google machine to find out some answers on how to get started. It turns out there is a ton of good info out there in cyber space… But there is nothing quite like jumping right in and figuring it out as you go.
Note – click on the images to watch the time lapse videos.
My Questions?
Question: How much time between images 1 second, 5 or 10 seconds, a minute.
Answer: It turns out that there is no best amount of time. It all depends on how you want your movie to look, smooth transition or choppy each has its own cool effect. More frames with a shorter amount of time between result in smoother video play back.
Question: How many frames will I need to shoot to make a video.
Answer: When doing the math at 24 frames per second rendering, in one of my examples it required 300 frames to produce a 10 second video. 300 frames x 5 second intervals = 1500 seconds or 25minutes to capture. I would advise taking 300-600 images for a short movie and a 999 or so for a longer movie.
Question: What is the camera set to, A, P, S or Manual
Answer: Everything in Manual Mode, Aperture, Shutter Speed, Iso and Focus.
Question: What do you do about changing light conditions on a sunset.
Answer: Nothing leave the camera settings alone, it will look natural as it gets darker.
Question: How do I stitch them together and what software do I use.
Answer: Good question…. See next week's part 2 article on "How to Put it All Together"
Gear Needed
- A sturdy tripod
- Extra batteries
- Extra memory cards
- Manual mode knowledge / menu functions
- Camera with interval settings (preferred but you could keep pressing the shutter button or use remote software)
- Your favorite lens, mine is an 18mm-200mm VR
- * Optional laptop and usb tethered remote software
- Something comfortable to sit on, a rock or a stump will do
- Snacks and a coffee
10 Steps
- Choose an interesting scene, fast moving clouds, moving people and objects, sunset or sunrise, stars and moon, new plant growth, melting ice, decaying fruit etc…
- Set you camera to manual mode and manual focus
- Make sure you have fully charged battery installed and an empty / formatted memory card
- Setup your camera and tripod, frame and focus your scene
- Set aperture to f6.3- f11 for landscape scenes
- Take a meter reading and adjust the shutter speed until the meter is centered
- Take a few test shots checking for proper exposure, proper focus, and an interesting perspective (tethered laptop and Nikontrol work well for this)
- Thru the menu select the interval timer and set the timer for 1 shot every 5 seconds (or your preference) for X number of shots (desired movie length or event duration) My example had 300 selected. You might want to check your owner's manual on interval settings prior to getting out in the field
- Press ok, sit back and watch the show (being careful not to bump the tripod of course)
- Have a snack or a coffee it will be awhile
* It is always geeky to use my laptop tethered to my Nikon using free software called Nikontrol to remotely access my camera functions and settings. An added bonus is being able to instantly view the images on my laptop for framing, proper focus and exposure
Tips
- Use slower shutter speeds for smoother video playback
- Interval time, the time between frames can vary depending on your scene. Slow moving scenes use a longer time between frames / Faster moving use less interval time
- Take and use as many photos as possible, don't be afraid to take 500-1000 photos
- Use jpegs instead of raw files, one step less of processing time
- Adjust quality size on your camera for easier processing
- Using a tethered computer to the camera can help make sure everything is in check before you starting shooting 500 photos
I enjoy a good challenge and learning something new but I still have a lot to learn about time lapse photography. It seemed a little over whelming at first with having to learn both computer and camera skills for TLP but in the end it really wasn't that difficult. The biggest plus was that after all the gear and camera setup, it was nice to sit back and watch a sunset without watching it thru a view finder. Having my camera set on a tripod automated to take a few hundred images was a relaxing way to end the day.
Read next week's post on how to take your images and turn them into a time lapse movie using your computer and easy to use software.
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