Anyone shoot time-lapses?

[kye]

I do..  in fact I am right now

[leslie]

i do as well. one of my first was a tropical low that sat off the coast. i had three levels of clouds. each going in separate directions at once was quite interesting

[kye]

3 hours ago, leslie said:

i do as well. one of my first was a tropical low that sat off the coast. i had three levels of clouds. each going in separate directions at once was quite interesting

Yeah, it can be interesting to watch the sequence back and be surprised because there was more going on than what was apparent when you looked at it at normal speed

[thebrothersthre3]

Yeah I shoot them frequently. They are cool for weddings. I need to figure out how to program my gimbal for movement. Or buy one of those devices specifically for that.

[kye]

7 hours ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

Yeah I shoot them frequently. They are cool for weddings. I need to figure out how to program my gimbal for movement. Or buy one of those devices specifically for that.

If you shoot them with still images then you can Ken Burns in post, but yeah, animating a time-lapse can look great.

At a wedding wouldn't you also be using your gimbal for normal speed footage?

[thebrothersthre3]

1 minute ago, kye said:

If you shoot them with still images then you can Ken Burns in post, but yeah, animating a time-lapse can look great.

At a wedding wouldn't you also be using your gimbal for normal speed footage?

Yes it'd have to take a break for the time lapse. I do usually take them with still images, though I haven't figured out the editing workflow yet. 

[kye]

25 minutes ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

Yes it'd have to take a break for the time lapse. I do usually take them with still images, though I haven't figured out the editing workflow yet. 

What editing package are you using?

I'm still figuring out that workflow too for Resolve and the GH5.  Current problem is that Resolve doesn't understand the RAW image format from the GH5, so I either convert them or shoot JPG and I haven't tested if JPG has reduced DR like it does in some cameras.

One thing I do remember is that because cameras are often not 100% accurate with their shutter speed the images might be slightly different exposures, so you have to use a de-flicker plugin in post to even it out.

[thebrothersthre3]

18 minutes ago, kye said:

What editing package are you using?

I'm still figuring out that workflow too for Resolve and the GH5.  Current problem is that Resolve doesn't understand the RAW image format from the GH5, so I either convert them or shoot JPG and I haven't tested if JPG has reduced DR like it does in some cameras.

One thing I do remember is that because cameras are often not 100% accurate with their shutter speed the images might be slightly different exposures, so you have to use a de-flicker plugin in post to even it out.

Yeah I noticed with electronic lenses it tends to flicker. I use Vegas but am switching to premiere pro. Vegas didn't read my raw files properly. I hadn't tried comverting to DNG tho. The XT3 images definitely have a lot more dynamic range and color manipulability in RAW. I know there must be a way to batch edit photos, as editing every single one is crazy. Day-to-night time-lapses are my favorite

[Towd]

1 hour ago, kye said:

What editing package are you using?

One thing I do remember is that because cameras are often not 100% accurate with their shutter speed the images might be slightly different exposures, so you have to use a de-flicker plugin in post to even it out.

I used to process a lot of time lapse footage for an old job.  The standard we used was LR Timelapse.  My memory is sketchy, but I think the process involved grading one raw image for the look you wanted and then running the sequence through the LR Timelapse software and it would calculate exposure variations for you and try to correct for them.  You would then export that exposure data into After Effects and run out the sequence using your raw settings.  

Overall, it produced very nice results even if there was a lot of flickering in the original sequence.  It used to offer a trial version for testing if you wanted to give it a try.

[thebrothersthre3]

3 minutes ago, Towd said:

I used to process a lot of time lapse footage for an old job.  The standard we used was LR Timelapse.  My memory is sketchy, but I think the process involved grading one raw image for the look you wanted and then running the sequence through the LR Timelapse software and it would calculate exposure variations for you and try to correct for them.  You would then export that exposure data into After Effects and run out the sequence using your raw settings.  

Overall, it produced very nice results even if there was a lot of flickering in the original sequence.  It used to offer a trial version for testing if you wanted to give it a try.

Not sure if I have that in my adobe package.

[Towd]

1 minute ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

Not sure if I have that in my adobe package.

It's a separate piece of software you run along side of After Effects.  It looks like they still offer an evaluation version, so you can try it out.

After effects will load a sequence using your raw settings.  LR timelapse takes care of the exposure variations.  It's been years since I've done it, so I don't remember the exact workflow, but it's something along those lines.  ?

Also, never did it this way, but I imagine, you could run out a clip using a Photoshop timeline.  After Effects is just nice because you get its workflow with things like Lumetri color adjustments you can layer on top of your raw grade if you want to tweak things.

[thebrothersthre3]

13 minutes ago, Towd said:

It's a separate piece of software you run along side of After Effects.  It looks like they still offer an evaluation version, so you can try it out.

After effects will load a sequence using your raw settings.  LR timelapse takes care of the exposure variations.  It's been years since I've done it, so I don't remember the exact workflow, but it's something along those lines.  ?

Also, never did it this way, but I imagine, you could run out a clip using a Photoshop timeline.  After Effects is just nice because you get its workflow with things like Lumetri color adjustments you can layer on top of your raw grade if you want to tweak things.

Ah yeah, I've looked at tutorials before. Never took the plunge to figure it out as the wedding footage I shot was just handed off to an editor. The couple I've done for small projects on youtube I just rendered as a video than applied a curve to the entire video. 

[kye]

9 minutes ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

Yeah I noticed with electronic lenses it tends to flicker. I use Vegas but am switching to premiere pro. Vegas didn't read my raw files properly. I hadn't tried comverting to DNG tho. The XT3 images definitely have a lot more dynamic range and color manipulability in RAW. I know there must be a way to batch edit photos, as editing every single one is crazy. Day-to-night time-lapses are my favorite

I'm still trying to work out the best workflow for me.  Photoshop has a nice batch processing function that can convert images but it only offers JPG, PSD or TIFF.  I tried the TIFFs but it turned my 23Mb RAW files into 180Mb TIFF files, so that's not practical.  I haven't tried JPG yet but I'm afraid that the amount I push things around in post (considering that I often do very high DR sequences like sunsets) that the images will break under heavy grading.  I tried Lightroom and the DNG images it can create are great because they have the right bit-depth but are half the size of the RAW images, but it keeps wanting to "help" me and doing random shit like moving my files to some random location on some hard drive I didn't want.  

I should search for a simple utility that just converts all images in a folder to DNGs or something like that.

I just did a test with the GH5 by shooting an image in RAW + JPG and the RAW was great but the JPG had the highlights clipped.  I swear, whoever thought the best way to save a JPG was to just hack the top off the dynamic range should be taken out the back and shot for crimes against humanity.  Seriously, if not for the hassle it causes then for the damage to the environment for all the extra storage space required when a full-DR JPG would have been sufficient.  If photoshop can include the full DR of a RAW image in a JPG then there's no excuse for deliberately programming a camera to not do it.  FFS.

Here's a first cut of the sequence from last night.  Lots of finicky editing - I had two copies of the same clip crossfading from one to the other so I graded one for the start and one for the peak colour, plus a bunch of tweaks to remove foreground distractions and a tricky edge-detect mask to get rid of the nasty CA on the hard edges.  This was with images converted in LR so the IQ was there and Resolve handles DNG files just beautifully - thanks to RAW cameras shooting DNG sequences they even appear as a single clip in the media editor

I'm sure a skilled colourist could make this look a lot better...

 

 

[OliKMIA]

I shoot a lot of timelapse. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm not too bad at it.

 

 

[thebrothersthre3]

Some pretty amazing stuff there. I was a bit floored on how you accomplished some of those shots than it occurred to me maybe a lot of it was shot with a drone maybe? 

kye- nice timelapse, that's a nice view

[kye]

1 hour ago, OliKMIA said:

I shoot a lot of timelapse. Let me know if you have any questions. I'm not too bad at it.

Wow.. great stuff!

Can you share your workflow with us, or any tips?

5 hours ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

Yes it'd have to take a break for the time lapse. I do usually take them with still images, though I haven't figured out the editing workflow yet. 

One thing I was going to mention - a very capable and affordable setup would be a DJI Osmo Mobile 2 and an older smartphone.  I have the DJI and you can set it to the time-lapse mode, physically position the gimbal, set a waypoint, physically position the gimbal again, set another one, etc and then just hit go and it will trace the path and take a time-lapse.  Normally older phones have good enough image quality when taking still images for them to be combined into a video file, so the quality doesn't matter so much, and might be good enough for your purposes?  It's worth looking into as it would leave you free to use the gimbal for your video cameras.

Happy to shoot something for you if you can't find anything online or want to see what an uncompressed still from the video file looks like.  I have an iPhone 8, not too old but not the latest either.

Edit: I can't remember but you might be able to record the time-lapse in a different app while the gimbal still moves it around, in which case you can get a sequence of RAW images (assuming the phone shoots RAW) which should give a lot of latitude in post.

[thebrothersthre3]

25 minutes ago, kye said:

Wow.. great stuff!

Can you share your workflow with us, or any tips?

One thing I was going to mention - a very capable and affordable setup would be a DJI Osmo Mobile 2 and an older smartphone.  I have the DJI and you can set it to the time-lapse mode, physically position the gimbal, set a waypoint, physically position the gimbal again, set another one, etc and then just hit go and it will trace the path and take a time-lapse.  Normally older phones have good enough image quality when taking still images for them to be combined into a video file, so the quality doesn't matter so much, and might be good enough for your purposes?  It's worth looking into as it would leave you free to use the gimbal for your video cameras.

Happy to shoot something for you if you can't find anything online or want to see what an uncompressed still from the video file looks like.  I have an iPhone 8, not too old but not the latest either.

Edit: I can't remember but you might be able to record the time-lapse in a different app while the gimbal still moves it around, in which case you can get a sequence of RAW images (assuming the phone shoots RAW) which should give a lot of latitude in post.

Thanks on the offer. The DJI Osmo plus smartphone wouldn't be a bad idea. I just remembered I have two gimbals so it shouldn't be an issue haha. Starting to have so much gear I lose track. 

I know my Beholder DS2 has a timelapse mode, I just don't know how to use it lol. I know you set the start and end position but not sure how you set the time. I got it once but it was only like a 10 second pan haha I need like a 10 minute one or longer. 

[leslie]

main issue with modern and af lenses is the tiny amount of shutter variation between photos results in flicker. time lapses with canon are easier in some regards. you can use the lens twist method where you unlock the lens just enough so the contacts dont touch but the lens doesn't fall of the camera or you can shoot with manual focus lenses . another benefit of canons is that you have an inbuilt intervalometer with magic lantern. also ml can do day to night or night to day as well but its not exactly set and forget but ml does make it easier. you can use jpegs but sometimes you will get banding from them. if your cheap like me the easiest way is to shoot raw then convert to tiff or another lossless format virtualdub is nice and free for making the actual time lapse sequence you can also get donald degrafts deflicker plugin for virtualdub which does help with flicker. thats how i did mine. i'm cheap so i know most of the free programs i think. one day i might upgrade to lr timelapse or one of the other programs maybe.

most of my experience comes from my canon, gopros have inbuilt intervalometers as well, i think some nikons may have timelapse built in as well i'm not sure which models however. some canon point and shoot cameras can have chdk installed as well, its kinda like putting ml on a canon dslr but different

i can recommend for all your timelapse needs http://www.timescapes.org/

[kye]

4 hours ago, leslie said:

main issue with modern and af lenses is the tiny amount of shutter variation between photos results in flicker. time lapses with canon are easier in some regards. you can use the lens twist method where you unlock the lens just enough so the contacts dont touch but the lens doesn't fall of the camera or you can shoot with manual focus lenses . another benefit of canons is that you have an inbuilt intervalometer with magic lantern. also ml can do day to night or night to day as well but its not exactly set and forget but ml does make it easier. you can use jpegs but sometimes you will get banding from them. if your cheap like me the easiest way is to shoot raw then convert to tiff or another lossless format virtualdub is nice and free for making the actual time lapse sequence you can also get donald degrafts deflicker plugin for virtualdub which does help with flicker. thats how i did mine. i'm cheap so i know most of the free programs i think. one day i might upgrade to lr timelapse or one of the other programs maybe.

most of my experience comes from my canon, gopros have inbuilt intervalometers as well, i think some nikons may have timelapse built in as well i'm not sure which models however. some canon point and shoot cameras can have chdk installed as well, its kinda like putting ml on a canon dslr but different

i can recommend for all your timelapse needs http://www.timescapes.org/

I thought it was shutter variation but as I read your reply I think it might have been aperture variation as the camera opens and closes the aperture for every exposure.  I used a manual lens for the one I posted above and it didn't need deflickering, so that seems to back that up.  The GH5 was in aperture priority mode, so I set manual ISO 100 and let it expose with the electronic shutter which it seemed to do very well.

I think if I'm recording RAW then I might underexpose a little more next time.

I've recorded other time lapses with the GoPro - it's great that you just set and forget but with my older Hero 3 it doesn't have any controls so it tends to blow out the highlights a bit much.  This was a GoPro one:

I've also shot some with my iphone and there are some good apps for that too, allowing full manual control and saving images instead of just a 4K video etc.

[OliKMIA]

21 hours ago, kye said:

Wow.. great stuff!

Can you share your workflow with us, or any tips?

Thanks. Basically

1. Shoot raw
2. Import the raw in AE, do some basic color correction there
3. Export in intermediate codec in 10 or 12 bits. Usually I like Cineform or ProRes
4. Throw the videos in my regular NLE (premiere or DaVinci) for final editing with the full resolution 10/12bits timelapse videos.

This is very intensive for the computer (raw + high resolution) so I usually stack my rendering and launch it at night before going to bed. But you can speed up the process by changing step #2. Instead of doing the raw import in AE, do a raw to TIFF conversion in LR which is much more efficient than AE, then import the TIFF in AE and it will render much faster without degrading the quality (16bits TIFF).

22 hours ago, thebrothersthre3 said:

Some pretty amazing stuff there. I was a bit floored on how you accomplished some of those shots than it occurred to me maybe a lot of it was shot with a drone maybe? 

kye- nice timelapse, that's a nice view

Tks, it's a mix of drone and timelapse/hyperlapse