Time Lapse Photography : Admiralty Bay
12th February 2013
Caribbean Time Lapse Photography
Admiralty Bay
Like the Star Trails from earlier this week, I have been wanting to have a go at Time Lapse photography too, so recently I went up to one of the best viewpoints overlooking to bay and took a series of images.
The process for shooting the images is very similar to that for the star trails, in that you need a series or sequence of images covering a long period of time. For this daytime Time Lapse sequence, I was shooting one image every 10 seconds for about 90 minutes.
For daytime Time Lapse image sequences, the important factors are as normal, exposure, composition and shutter speed, but as I read more into the topic, the suggestion is for a shutter speed of below 1/100th second, especially if shooting moving clouds. The slower shutter speed helps to smooth out the final video.
This initial sequence of images was shot whilst I was out one afternoon and had some time to kill, and BEFORE I had done my homework, so this set was shot at 1/400th and as a result, the Time Lapse is a bit jerky. I have been working on another more recently with a shutter speed of 1/30th, achieved through the use of neutral density filters.
Shooting the sequence is relatively easy once you have an Intervalometer. My Nikon D7000 has one built in, so this help a lot when doing these kind of projects. I set it to take medium resolution JPEG files (as this was simply a trial) and to take one image every 10 seconds, for 90 minutes (90x6=540 shots). Once is was set up, I set it running and sat down and 'Lime'd' the afternoon away with the locals up on Mount Pleasant.
In post processing, there are a couple of ways to do it. If using QuicktimePro, you can automate any processing in Photoshop and then you must save the images as a sequence, with increasing file numbers e.g. Time lapse_001, Time lapse_002 etc. These can then be loaded in Quicktime and the Time lapse developed from there.
I think the easier route is to once again use Lightroom. Edit the first image in the sequence as you want it to look, sync the settings across all the images in the sequence, and then export the Time Lapse using the Slideshow options.
A third and even better route is to use the software LRTimelapse, which helps create a much smoother video file, by averaging out issues with brightness, changes in light levels etc. Its a free download and well worth looking at if you're serious about Time Lapse processing.
Once created, you may wish to add music, titles, and other bits and pieces to the final video and there are many good and relatively low cost video editing softwares out there. I have been checking out Sony Movie Suite Platinum which seems to be a good starting point.
As ever, have some fun with it all and if you really get into it, there is a whole new world of video, dolly's, trollies, and mechanisms to animate the sequence too.
Admiralty Bay
Like the Star Trails from earlier this week, I have been wanting to have a go at Time Lapse photography too, so recently I went up to one of the best viewpoints overlooking to bay and took a series of images.
The process for shooting the images is very similar to that for the star trails, in that you need a series or sequence of images covering a long period of time. For this daytime Time Lapse sequence, I was shooting one image every 10 seconds for about 90 minutes.
For daytime Time Lapse image sequences, the important factors are as normal, exposure, composition and shutter speed, but as I read more into the topic, the suggestion is for a shutter speed of below 1/100th second, especially if shooting moving clouds. The slower shutter speed helps to smooth out the final video.
This initial sequence of images was shot whilst I was out one afternoon and had some time to kill, and BEFORE I had done my homework, so this set was shot at 1/400th and as a result, the Time Lapse is a bit jerky. I have been working on another more recently with a shutter speed of 1/30th, achieved through the use of neutral density filters.
Shooting the sequence is relatively easy once you have an Intervalometer. My Nikon D7000 has one built in, so this help a lot when doing these kind of projects. I set it to take medium resolution JPEG files (as this was simply a trial) and to take one image every 10 seconds, for 90 minutes (90x6=540 shots). Once is was set up, I set it running and sat down and 'Lime'd' the afternoon away with the locals up on Mount Pleasant.
In post processing, there are a couple of ways to do it. If using QuicktimePro, you can automate any processing in Photoshop and then you must save the images as a sequence, with increasing file numbers e.g. Time lapse_001, Time lapse_002 etc. These can then be loaded in Quicktime and the Time lapse developed from there.
I think the easier route is to once again use Lightroom. Edit the first image in the sequence as you want it to look, sync the settings across all the images in the sequence, and then export the Time Lapse using the Slideshow options.
A third and even better route is to use the software LRTimelapse, which helps create a much smoother video file, by averaging out issues with brightness, changes in light levels etc. Its a free download and well worth looking at if you're serious about Time Lapse processing.
Once created, you may wish to add music, titles, and other bits and pieces to the final video and there are many good and relatively low cost video editing softwares out there. I have been checking out Sony Movie Suite Platinum which seems to be a good starting point.
As ever, have some fun with it all and if you really get into it, there is a whole new world of video, dolly's, trollies, and mechanisms to animate the sequence too.