Time Lapse Video

If you've seen Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyqatsi or Baraka you know just how spectacular a motion picture time lapse can be. More contemporary timelapses are seen on "reality television" intros such as the Apprentice and Survivor.  You know, the shot where the sun sets in a matter of seconds...

If you've ever tried to re-create this look you know that it's quite difficult to do properly.  Shooting a real time lapse on a large format motion picture camera is prohibitive in terms of equipment and cost.

My friend's solution is to shoot high resolution digital images on a digital slr camera and then animate the images in After Effects.  This technique uses the same persistence of vision concept that films are based on to create movement.  Here's an example of a time lapse he shot out the window of my apartment.  It's a big file (~15mb) because I wanted to keep the quality alive.  That and I don't know how to use good codecs properly...

More of these to come soon.

Comments

[alex]

cool, how many images were taken to make that?

[Michelle]

That's so cool, I didn't realize it was that difficult.

[Michelle]

That's so cool, I didn't realize it was that difficult. Oh, and your new schtzee looks great too.

[CRU]

so sick. i have to learn how to do this. oh and get a DSLR.

[HTB]

It was shot using a Canon EOS 20D : aperture 2.8, shutter .8 secs, resolution 3504x2336. There were about 420 images taken.

[Duncan]

Bert forgot to add that the images were taken 5 seconds apart.

[CRU]

very awesome. but what program did you use to engage the camera to take the pictures? is it firewire or usb? tell me all your secrets!!! booooo hahahahaha

[CRU]

oh, also, how much time elapsed? 20 minutes? 1 hour???

[HTB]

The program actually comes with the camera. It's called EOS Capture 1.2 and works with a USB 2 connection. I've used another program called Hyper Utility for the Fuji S2 Pro as well which is Firewire, but they are all pretty much the same.

The time that elapsed was about 35 minutes

[JON]

all i have to say is RAD

[Uhf]

My solution to using my 20d for time lapse is as follows. I have 2, 1 GB CF cards and a USB OTG brige (from iperris $30) and an 40gb external USB harddrive (pocket sized). I purchased a Canon TC-80N3 Timer Remote Controller (230 Cad). I took me a little research to find the OTG device, but this device enables me to dump my picture from my CF cards to the external harddrive without using a computer ( it runs on 3 AAA batteries). with this setup I have a 42 GB capacity without ever having to look at my computer.
Thats around 5000 photos in RAW. Im going portaging for a week at Algonquin park this summer, and plan to do a time lapse of our campsite for the whole day.
24 hours, 1 pic/min, at 24 fps, that's equals 2440 pictures for a one minute of time lapse.

[Dave Berry]

Wondering if you have any problems with flicker in the exposure ? I am experimenting with this, and have discovered that with some digital SLRs the aperture varies slightly from exposure to exposure (even with manual settings). BTW, the Quicktime wouldn't play in my browser, would love to see it in motion.

[DADA]

http://www.bmumford.com/photo/TimeLapse/tl.html

to encode H 264 To reduce file size.