Here’s a different time lapse from the same location as a few days ago at Sound Bites Grill. Was able to set the tripod up on the deck that overlooks this wonderful scenery in Sedona.
This time I set the camera behind a red rock stone column in order to stay out of the gusts of wind that caused some extra work on my last time lapse at this location. I also unclasped the camera strap and tied down the camera for even more stability. I was able to do this quickly because I have the Peak Design Camera Strap. I really enjoy the ability to quickly be able to remove the camera strap when shooting video or time lapse images. This cuts down on the wind profile of the gear leading to to steadier capture. It also make it easy to change the type of strap if I’d rather use a wrist strap instead of over the shoulder. This is a pretty cool system with lots of options.
But I digress… How about the video Bob? Here you go…
Sunset time lapse in Sedona
I used similar settings as the last time lapse on the Lumix GX8 capturing a frame every three seconds processing out to a 4K video .MP4 in camera at 24 frames per second. Then taking that video into Adobe premiere Pro to add some Ken Burns movement through the scene.
I was hoping that the clouds your view scudding across the scene were going to be there as the sun snuck beneath the horizon and giving spectacular color, but alas, it did not. Such are the vagaries of predicting the weather.
Of note, as you study this time lapse be aware of the look of the red rocks after the sun has gone down and the sky begins to move toward cobalt blue and the density range begins to tighten up. This is an ideal time to capture the red rocks as the light is being reflected off of clouds and there’s lots of depth and dimension and beautiful color. I can’t tell you the number of times I will be at a scene with other photographers and they pack it up and leave moments after the sun sets. I wait that extra fifteen to twenty minutes AFTER the sun goes down to get much more intense images. Does it always work? Nope. but way more often than you might think and the rewards are worth it. I’ll address this in more detail in a future post.
Lately I’ve been capturing time lapse sequences of sunsets here in Sedona, Arizona. And by photographing them I seem to have reprogrammed my brain for the way it sees light change. Almost as if by capturing and working with images that compress time into a shorter period I am extending my vision of light and time.
Let me explain.
Because of this new awareness I am now seeing the shadows slowly crawl across a scene as if I am becoming hyper-aware of the changes. Capturing a time lapse makes you take time to slow down because it takes a fair number of images created over a relatively long time period to have enough material. In a sense it becomes a meditation.
Now in this particular case it was a bonus to set the camera up then retire to the bar to observe the changes taking place which was a fun way to work/play on a personal project. My wife and I got to enjoy a glass of happy hour wine and one of their stellar appetizers. (it was the calamari, cooked perfectly and served with a sweet/spicy sauce over a bed of carrots and light greens)
Images captured with the Lumix GX8 & 12-35mm f2.8 Vario lens. Time lapse was processed in camera then imported to Adobe Premeire CC 2015 for processing slight movement. I was hoping that the clouds you saw in the beginning of the video would have hung around and colored up to spectacular… and they did as they moved out of the frame. Color was bright salmon to the south… Oh well, still nice movement of light on the red rocks.
Time lapse Photography – Sound Bites Grill & Snoopy Rock
aka – Snoopy Goes to Sleep
I get to spend quite a bit of time at Sound Bites Grill, being the house photographer. So I am very familiar with the view. And as many times as I see the sun set on the red rocks I am always amazed at how each sunset differs from the one before. On this day with no clouds to help I decided to concentrate on the comic feature built into the red rocks a Charles Schultz character called Snoopy.
Snoopy Rock Time Lapse Video
The initial images were captured with the Lumix GX8 with a 35-100mm f2.8 Vario lens. The settings were for an image captured every 3 seconds. The video was processed in-camera in the GX8 to 4K video with playback speed at 12 frames per second. I had previously processed the 916 images into a 4K 24 fps video and felt it was too fast.
One problem that I wasn’t aware of during capture (cause I was having dinner at the bar) was there were some very severe wind gusts shaking the camera. That’s not a good way to view video. Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015 to the rescue. Opened the file in Premiere Pro then added the graphics and music. Even more important used the Warp feature to examine and fix the shaky wind buffeted footage to rock steady. Also added a slight Ken Burns effect zooming slowly into the image featuring Snoopy that is possible because of the 4K size files that still leaves you plenty of quality on an HD timeline.
As an added benefit to shooting time lapses there are individual images to choose from to create stills from the same scene. Here’s one with just a bit more color correction in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop.
Snoopy Rock still photo at sunset.
I’m really enjoying the ease with which time lapse videos can be made with the Lumix cameras. You don’t need to take the subsequent video into and additional processing program but that enables the addition of information and flourishes depending on your final output.
The Imaging USA trade show put on by Professional Photographers of America is always a popular part of attending the annual convention, especially the first day…
This was captured hand held with the Lumix GH4 and the 7-14mm Lumix Vario f4 lens at the bottom of the escalator in the Georgia World Congress Convention Center. Time lapse was processed in camera. Then it was downloaded to Adobe Premiere Pro for some massaging. Video was smoothed out. A little color correction was applied due to the extreme lighting conditions. Titles, slides and music finished off the video.
Thanks to Eric Miller for the use of the music!
Time Lapse Video captured at Imaging USA in Atlanta, Georgia January 2016
Time Lapse can be a great way to tell a story ’cause that’s a pile of people!! Approximately 560 images, with a frame fired every 3 seconds, were captured and combined. Output at 12 frames per second in 4K video.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – See you at Imaging USA in San Antonio next year??
When making a time lapse (view time lapse video here) image you can leverage a thing I often do to create a solid look of a scene by using images captured over a time period to get the best of all worlds. As our eye can change the size of the pupil in any scene when looking into the shadow or highlight area we sometimes need to arrest time and blend it into a single image to represent what the eye would actually see. I call this an advanced form of HDR imagery as the images are not captured in one go but with the camera on a tripod blend images that were made while the sun was up, as it was going down, and long after it had crept below the horizon.
Here’s the final image.
Here are the images combined and used to create the final. The photo on the left was used for the treeline across the bottom. Next image was used for the cloud formations. The third image was used for the red rocks. and the final image was blended for the deep colbalt-blue sky.
Why use Multiple Images?
I went back and selected images based on the subject matter that was exposed exactly for the area of the scene and using masks blended them together for the final look.
The use of images captured over time verses capturing all the images in a single HDR capture is the quality of the information in the highlight areas and shadow areas as they are captured exactly as they should. This will give you less noise in shadows and cleaner highlights, allow the glow of light in a scene and more.
Gear
A Lumix GH4 was mounted on a tripod with the 7-14mm f4 Vario lens. Images were captured every three seconds over a long time period for the time lapse video. If I was using this for the ultimate capture of a scene verses also for a time lapse I would set the interval for more like an image every five minutes or so.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – this technique can also lead to multiple iterations and mood of a scene… Try it you’ll like it!
It’s a feature I wasn’t sure I had a reason for but again in the studio I used the Post Focus Setting on the Lumix-G7 to focus stack to get a different look from my 45mm Macro lens. This image started with a seven second video clip with the focus point being moved by the camera as the camera searched through all of it’s focus points. I’ve found the camera to capture as little as one second of video to as much as ten seconds depending on subject matter and how deep the focus goes through the scene.
This is my favorite rendition of the rose.
Create the Image from the Video
The steps I used were to download the video. Open it in Adobe Premiere Pro and select the still frames I wanted to work with and saved them as TIFF images. I wanted a soft and sharp movement through the final image. All 17 selected images were loaded into a single Photoshop document by using the Adobe Bridge command Tools>Photoshop> Load Files into Photoshop Layers after selecting all the images. Once the images are in Photoshop all layers were selected and under the Edit menu the Auto-Align setting was applied. Then under the Edit menu Auto Blend Layers was selected with the settings Stack Images with the Seamless Tones & Colors checked. This will take all the ‘Sharp Bits’ Of the image and mask them in.
The set of images saved out to individual files for the Post Focus video capture.
Layers Palette after adding images to file, aligning images and blending. Photoshop automatically created the masks.
Rose photograph after blending and cleaning up imperfections in the flower. Used Photoshop Tools then moved in to NIK Color EFX Pro 4 for further modification.
Talking Photography Tools
The tools we have to work with like Photoshop & NIK Color EFX Pro 4 can take images to an entirely new level and I keep trying to push to see what I can do. I hope this has been a help to you and at the very least given you some inspiration to think about image making in a new light.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – The Google NIK entire collection of software plugins is only $149. Great suite of tools!
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
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Lightning, waterdroplets, sound, time-lapse, HDR sequences, smiles and much more control for your camera!
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A High Speed Smart Camera Remote
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