Saturday, 24 September 2011
Timelapse Attempt #1
This was done with Windows Movie Maker with each photo at 0.125 seconds and speed doubled, so take it as 16fps. 439 photos on the bridge and 128 at the junction, taken at 10 second intervals. That makes it a total of 567 photos taken over 5670 seconds, which makes it approximately 94.5 minutes.
This is actually an extremely short period of time for a timelapse, hence explaining the lack of footage even at a measly 16fps. I think I'd need at least 24fps like Ross Ching's so that it doesn't look that choppy; right now it looks more like stop-motion animation.
As you can see it is still very very raw both because I haven't yet learnt how to use superior video-editing software, and also because there is significant tripod shake with the lack of a remote cord. My tripod was a freebie and hence isn't very stable as well, the legs gradually give way very very slowly hence resulting in a bit of shifting also.
I was a bit ambitious in trying to do a timelapse of the sunset, didn't manage to capture the red hues of the sky since it was very cloudy, the sun was behind me and most of it was blocked off by clouds/buildings anyway, so the sunset is pretty dull. I did everything on manual mode including focus so that the images stay consistent (or they are supposed to anyway), and the exposure was metered from the start of the exposure, i.e. in bright daylight. Hence, the end part after the sunset was very underexposed. It created a sort of fading away effect but I wasn't too satisfied.
Perhaps next time if I were to expose for both before and after a sunset I'd have to overexpose by quite a bit at the start of the sequence.
I make stupid mistakes like not really thinking about the composition/checking that my tripod was entirely level/even checking the focus properly because I was too eager to get started AND rush home for dinner. I even bumped into the tripod accidentally in the middle of the exposures for the sequence of the road junction, so I'd have to work on that.
Otherwise, it's still a pretty interesting effect that I really wanted to see and the good news is that there is still lots of room for improvement! =D
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I think it's a pretty awesome place, only if the big machines are working on the earth too. And it would be better too if there's a symmetry of the trees on both sides.
ReplyDeleteFor this time lapse project, maybe you can try brainstorming for something never done before ie not people, not cars. Good luck and hopefully your shutter doesn't burn out!
I'm probably in no position to give you advice on the photography, but I think you should try using video editors that allow you to tween between the photos, ie. let the editor "fill in the gaps" between your photos so you can, for example, push the fps up to 60 even though you are only using 16 images per second. Think u know what I'm talking about.
ReplyDeletehi howie hahaha the first time i tried doing a time-lapse video was with ming yang on the sheares bridge, facing the cbd; i did the same thing as you & ended up with awfully underexposed shots that didn't capture the beauty of the night skyline.
ReplyDeletebut then i thought about cna's time-lapse commercials & then from my window i tried making a video of the sunset over pandan reservoir, this time using aperture priority, which was much more satisfactory than using manual metering / exposure / etc. obviously there are problems with using aperture priority but it's handy for simple night shots!
@weihan easier said than done... having said that i'll brainstorm for more stuff, maybe insects scurrying around or some other stuff...
ReplyDelete@cyclo actually i don't know how to use the editors properly since i've never really played around with video editing software, i'd have to actually go learn it to understand what you mean D= maybe you could show me next time? =s
@willywongka ahaha but aperture priority will change the exposure every time you take the shot along with other settings - it will expose for the light available at that moment so you don't get to see the sky and everything gradually getting dark... idk you'd get this unnatural transition where everything is still (relatively) well lit throughout the day and night no? not too sure actually haha i was thinking of splitting exposures into just day and night separately to avoid the transition. it'd be actually quite cool if i manage to figure out the sunset. maybe you could show me what you did with the sunset and aperture priority? :D