[Type here] Timelapse Photography A (VERY) BRIEF INTRODUCTION Derek Carlin | New Westminster Photography Club | March 27, 2018 1 Why Shoot Timelapse? I find there are three main reasons I personally shoot timelapse: • To reveal motions that are not normally perceived by the human eye at normal timescales (natural processes of growth or decay, changes to the position of the sun and clouds, etc.) • To speed up slow moving processes (slow moving construction vehicles, river traffic) • To reveal patterns when total motion is viewed as a whole (patterns of traffic in the city, flow of fog or clouds over obstacles like mountains or tall buildings) What Do You Need? You can get started in timelapse cheaply. If you have already invested in some photography, you probably already have what you need for basic timelapse work. Any additional equipment that might be needed can be obtained at modest cost, at least until you’re bitten by the timelapse bug, then it can become a money pit. The basic items to start: • A camera — depending on the types of exposure you do, you may need one that supports the “bulb” setting (see “bulb ramping” and long exposures below), also a connector port for a remote shutter release if necessary • A tripod — some support to keep the camera in the same position over many frames while shooting • An intervalometer — basically a remote shutter release attached to a timer. Some higher end cameras will have this functionality built in (notably Nikon models and high-end Canons). Online shopping will find cheap intervalometers for about $25 to $50, be sure you find the right device that will connect to your model of camera. Beware of paying for name brands! At the time I bought mine, the Canon branded intervalometer for my camera cost about $90. The exact same piece of hardware (and I do mean exact same!) but branded with a no- name type brand out of Hong Kong sold (and still sells) for $25Cdn. More feature-rich intervalometers (see “bulb ramping” below) will set you back more, often $100 and up. So, start simple to see if you like doing this! • Batteries — depending on the sequences you will shoot, you may be operating your camera for hours at a time. During such a long shoot, you may need more than one battery. I have a “camera grip” for mine that holds two batteries, so I can shoot twice the length of time. There are also often external power options for various models (either using a dummy battery pack, or a separate power plug on the camera body) that would allow you to use high capacity “power banks” (higher end cousins of “cell phone chargers”) or AC power if you have an outlet handy. • Software — to assemble the frames you shoot into a video. We will discuss more about this below (see “Some Assembly Required”). DEREK CARLIN | New Westminster Photography Club 2 Common Intervals What interval (the time between frames) you shoot will depend on the subject and your artistic intent. These are some of the more common intervals you’ll find tutorial sites talk about: • 1 to 3 seconds: faster moving subjects like cars, people, moving animals, clouds on a windy day, some people mount a camera on their car dash, shoot every 2 to 3 seconds and capture a road trip at “warp speed” • 3 to 5 seconds: slower moving subjects like river traffic, average cloud movement, or capturing the movement of the sun on the horizon • 15 to 30 seconds: makes movement of the sun (or shadows) across a scene more apparent • 2 minutes: plant movement during the day, especially blossoms that open/close during the day (sunflower head moving to follow the sun?) • 5 to 15 minutes: very slow-moving subjects such as certain construction processes (moving a bridge span into position), or following the growth of plants over several days (or the decay of a corpse) • 1 day: for very long drawn out processes such as human growth. You will find a lot of people capture a photograph of their baby once a day. How dedicated they are shows in how long they kept it up! (The longest I’ve seen is one that followed the child from birth to age 14!) Know your Tools! Get to know your camera! It can be frustrating to arrive at a location, ready to shoot a multi-hour timelapse sequence and find yourself fighting with the equipment! Read your manuals and know how to perform the tasks that are required of you by this genre: • How to lock focus (a “focus lock” feature, or “manual focus” feature) • How to do manual exposure setting, either using the camera’s built in light meter, or an external one • How to lock aperture (“aperture priority” or how to set it when doing manual exposure) • How to shoot repeated frames (using an external or internal intervalometer) – setting the interval, the number of frames required, and the shutter speed (if necessary) • How to quickly change memory cards and batteries, how to connect to an external power source, and be sure you can do this procedure while the camera is mounted on a tripod (and rapidly set up your exposure/shooting settings to your sequence is not overly interrupted) • Have a good feeling for how long a battery will last when shooting continuously (how many shots you will get) bearing in mind many factors affect this (are the camera displays running, is it overly cold outside, how old is the battery, etc.) • Know how many frames will fit on the card you are using (either in JPEG format or RAW depending on your preferences and requirements) Timelapse Photography | A (VERY) BRIEF INTRODUCTION 3 Shooting in the Field When shooting in the field, you will follow these simple mechanical steps: • Depth of field should not change (usually) — this means you want to use the same aperture for the entire timelapse sequence. This means shooting in “aperture priority” or better yet, manual exposure. • Focus should not change (usually) — so this means setting your focus before you start shooting and locking it (or using manual focus) • Your ISO should not change — this means disabling the “Auto ISO” setting in your camera, especially if you are using an auto-exposure mode (e.g. Aperture priority). • Cover your camera eye-piece if necessary (mirrored SLRs that use pentaprisms to view through the lens, if your eye isn’t in the eye-cup, this can leak enough light into your camera to cause flaring or mis-exposed images) • Set the interval on your intervalometer • Start the shooting sequence • Contemplate life — but be ready to change those batteries and memory cards! Shooting Considerations When shooting in the field, there are some basic considerations to keep in mind. First and foremost: compose your image! You are still creating a photographic work. If you are merely practicing technique and mechanical setups, this is less of a concern. But if you are ready to create a timelapse you will want to share with others, then consider the environment you are capturing. Is the motion concentrated in one area of your frame? If so, it becomes the key subject and you should compose your frame around it (placing the action at a Thirds point (or centered if that makes more sense, can you make use of composition elements like framing or leading lines, etc). RAW VS. JPEG The debate which rages for still images continues in timelapse (of course pro RAW shooters insist shooting RAW is the only way!). Shooting JPEG Pro’s: • you need to be more confident in your exposure settings, colour saturation, etc. • More images will fit on your memory card • Most cameras will be able to pick a JPEG size that fits your video resolution (if you plan to create a video that uses the full frame) — typically 1280x720 (720p HD video) or 1920x1080 (1080p HD video). Or if you want 4K video: 3840x2160, etc. • JPEG files are typically smaller than RAW, so will write to your card faster Shooting JPEG Con’s: • Mistakes made in exposure are harder to correct in post, there is limited data outside of the pixels in the image Shooting RAW Pro’s: DEREK CARLIN | New Westminster Photography Club 4 • Exposure that is “in the ball park” can be fixed or tweaked later • Extra exposure data allows for more radical exposure tweaking in post Shooting RAW Con’s: • Fewer images will fit on a memory card (will you need to change cards one or more times during a long sequence?) • Files take longer to write to the memory card, so may limit how short an interval you can shoot SHOOT MORE THAN YOU NEED? You may enter a situation where you expect to need a certain interval to achieve a desired look. But you may want to consider shooting at a shorter interval “just in case”. Consider the case where you expect to shoot with an interval of every 10 seconds (e.g. moving clouds). If you get back to the desk top and see that the clouds were moving faster than you anticipated, you don’t have any alternative that can fix it than to go out and shoot again. But if you shot at an interval of every 2 seconds, you have more choices. If you choose every 5th frame, you now have your original interval of 10 seconds. But if you decide that motion is too choppy because the clouds are moving faster than expected, you can select every 3rd frame to see how it looks with an interval of every 6 seconds.