Towering Pictures
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Filming Astro Time Lapse with Tom Lowe
I was fortunate enough to spend a week traveling across Utah and Arizona with Tom Lowe and Dustin Kukuk last month. While I was there, we successfully filmed two shots that made it into Tom’s insane new trailer “Rapture” (shown above). ”Rapture” includes never before seen production footage that he filmed over the summer for his debut film “Timescapes.” I am honored to be a very small part of this revolutionary project!
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Fantastic - Animated GIF is still timelapse :) A series of pictures taken over time.
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“Timelapse of the Day - March 7, 2013 Proud moment. :)” -
Absorb - My latest work, blog on its production very soon! Share and like :)
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A nice simple tip for Premiere Pro Editors This quick tip is something I’ve been doing for years and as I cut my next film, I thought I would post the tip here to perhaps speed up the edit process for others. It’s all about editing to the beat with markers and how to do it in Premiere Pro. I found it on the fantastic Creative COW website and is by Andrew Devis.
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Things to think about if you are an absolute beginner…
I will blog about some very advanced timelapse techniques over the next few weeks but just so it’s covered I’ll mention some basics for now. Purely for the beginners. :)
If you are trying this out for the first time, consider what you are going to need to complete the job.
First off the kit to shoot it:
You don’t need a tripod but it helps. I use a Vinten TV camera tripod to shoot with because I know I can rely on it, it wont move once I lock it into position and I can level it VERY quickly. But beginners won’t be too interested in that. :) You can just put the camera somewhere where it won’t move and hey presto, but having even a small light tripod can be useful when you want to compose a certain shot. The smaller and lighter your tripod is the less you should extend the legs. I have a cheap little Velbon tripod (£30) that I use when I can’t take my big TV camera tripod around and it’s fine, as long as it’s not too windy and I don’t raise it so high it starts to wobble.
Intervalomters are needed for most DSLR cameras, so if you don’t have the function built into your camera, the easiest thing to do is go on ebay and buy a compatible cheap intervalometer for your camera. I paid about £15 for one about 2 years ago and it’s fine. I now have some pretty expensive and complex intervalmoters, but when you’re just starting out, a cheapo one is the best option. Just make sure it’s compatible with your camera and you can get the batteries for it, some only take odd watch batteries so try to get the ones that use AAA or AA batteries for added easyness :)
Space, card space I mean. You will need a few gigs of card space but that’s obvious. :)
Processing the timelapse
Once you have shot the timelase you need to think about how you are going to turn it into a video clip. This requires a computer of some kind that is new enough to handle video. I won’t get into the tech side of this but if you bought a computer in the last few years you should be OK.
Software. How are you going to process this clip? If it’s a mac then Quicktime does it fairly well. But do you have quicktime 7? Quicktime X doesn’t seem to do it so if not you will need to consider what you can use to stitch all those pictures together into a video. There are free apps out there that can do it but I don’t know most of them because I use Adobe CS software to do mine. There is no right or wrong way to do it but Adobe software for me, right now, works well and it’s available to both mac and PC users.
Once you know what you are going to do to get a finished result the rest is just about the composition of your shots and the subjects you are shooting. The software bit being the hardest thing to figure out technically, the composition and subject bit being the hardest creatively. Don’t be scared though, do it a few times and it becomes a lot easier. One of the best videos I ever saw on the subject of timelapsing and using Adobe software was this by the rather well informed “The Red Owl” whom I met on the timescapes forum.
It goes deep but explains a lot.
Oh and yes, the learning curve IS this steep :)
Happy shooting!
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Timelapse beginners go here! If you don’t know who Tom Lowe is you will, this is his forum (click the link above) and really is a very strong source of information. Some people don’t like forums much but I do and if you’re a beginner, this is the place to start.
Happy reading,
Towering Pictures
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Timelapse…can be simple, can be hard.
Hi there!
This is my first blog post and to get started I wanted to talk a little bit about timelapse photography.
After working in broadcast television for over a decade my back finally gave in and stopped me from continuing my career as a TV Camera Operator. To save myself from rotting in a corner thinking my life was over as I couldn’t do what I wanted to do and worked so hard to get to do, I became a teacher of the profession instead. I always wanted to teach so it wasn’t a hard decision to make given that my back had gone, so now I teach the profession and in my spare time I shoot timelapse footage. I shoot for clients and for myself.
Timelapsing is simple.
It couldn’t be easier!
You set your camera up, set your intervalometer, wait, go home and process the images and hey presto, you just made a timelapse!
Timelapsing is hard.
It couldn’t be harder!
There are so many variables to shooting timelapse. From what I can think of in my head right now (I will miss things but you will get the message) honestly, the mind boggles.
- Rain almost always stops play, making timelapsing in the UK difficult.
- Heavy wind always stops play, making being in the UK even more difficult.
- One mistake can ruin everything, if you make a bad choice in your setting up, the whole time taken to get the shot is a waste.
- The tricks you learn to stop things from going wrong are only learned from making the mistakes first. Making learning the craft more time consuming than first thought.
- Getting the shot is difficult most of the time. Be it out in a field in the middle of nowhere or deep within an urban environment, most of the time, it will have been a lot of work to get there. There is the odd break where it’s easy but these are few and far between.
OK so if it’s so hard why do I do it?
Simply, because I love it. It’s nice to do things you love. It’s nice to have something that you do because you love it. It keeps the mind focused and aids in creativity. I couldn’t not do it, I like to work hard and the rewards for doing it are huge when you get the great shot you were looking for.
The pursuit of mastery
They say you need 10,000 hours doing something before you can consider yourself a master at it. I don’t know who said it but it rings true for timelapsing. I’ve worked with cameras for the best part of 20 years, just over ten of those in a career. I have learnt a lot about framing and composition, operation technique and workflow. I use these accrued skills every time I go out timelapsing. If I didn’t have these skills I would have found it so much more difficult. I’m no master though! :)
My point is you have to work at timelapsing to get it right. To get what YOU want. In my first year timelapsing, I don’t think I did one good shot. I THOUGHT I did lots of good shots, but looking back, it was all just practice. Over time I have developed my skills into something that means most of the time, I will get what I want. I still mess up though. I don’t think I would be human if I didn’t. And I still beat myself up about messing up. Not too much, but enough to hopefully stop me from messing up again.
This blog will have mess ups in it, I won’t be able to stop that from happening all the time so I’ve accepted it’s just going to happen. This blog will have a lot of tips and workflow suggestions too, to hopefully stop others from wasting as much time as I have over the last few years.
Happy reading
Towering Pictures
