I’m always testing and trying to find out more about the tools that I use in photography and image making. This example is taking a bunch of still images and combining them into a video known as time-lapse.
Time-lapse of water flowing on Beaver Creek in Sedona, Arizona
I used to avoid creating time lapse videos because of all the steps that were involved. Making the images, which involved using an intervalometer and hard to follow calculations to gather the photos. Downloading the pictures. Processing the images. And, finally, combining the images through software into the final video.
A crop from one of the stills from the spider play video below
There are two things that have gotten me more interested in time-lapse videos, and both have to do with the ease of getting to the final product.
One is the settings built into the Lumix line of cameras which makes it simple to calculate the frame rate and capture of images without additional gear. AND (this is the BIG on) the capability to process finished time-lapse videos in-camera with a variety of settings including speed of playback and quality. This is huge!
The other is a simple processing program called Time-Lapse Assembler. A very easy to use bit of software. Select your images. Set the playback frame rate. Set the quality. And Viola! Time-lapse video complete.
From the same location I set in a new place and in playing back the time-lapse I found the spiders dancing around the scene. You need to watch carefully as they are small critters. I enjoy the shapes and forms of the ripples as they combine and reshpe due to the combining of still frames verses straight video capture.
I got a bit more creative in putting these videos together using Adobe Premeire Pro. Because I was able to process the time-lapse into 4K video size that allowed me to move within the scene zooming in on the spider action. This also allowed for the sound of water to be added. You won’t get sound when making time-lapse video because you are combining still photos. I recorded some other video to get the water sound track.
Images were made with the Lumix GX8 with a LUMIX G II LENS, 20MM, F1.7 ASPH
Post Focus is a handy mode to have in your toolkit. It makes it possible to create a hyper focus image with depth of field that rocks the house. Here’s an example I made when I was recording the Tech Talk Radio show with Mike Tabback at KAZM Radio in Sedona.
Here’s the Tech Talk Show which aired on May 10, 2017. We chat about the new technology in the Lumix GH5 including an almost endless focus available in using the Post Focus Mode. Find the demo capture and final image below.
KAZM – Tech Talk Show with Mike Tabback and Bob Coates Photography
First, here’s the video clip created with Six K Photo Mode. The recorded clip is less than two seconds. I have extended it to about six seconds in order you to see the camera making its way through the 225 focus points.
Above is the image fully merged using the in-camera settings of show host Mike Tabback.
Sharp front to back! And everywhere in between
Creates an almost image size of almost 5000 pixels.
There would have been no way to have the KAZM logo on the microphone in focus as well as Mike further into the scene no matter what f-stop was used in a single capture. When a lens gets stopped down to the smallest aperture diffraction and diffusion get introduced to the image which can hurt image quality.
Image was made with the Lumix GH5 camera with the 12-60mm f2.8-4.0 Leica DG Vario-Elmarit Lens
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – If you have questions about using this technique or any ideas for future blog posts don’t hesitate to give me a shout. As a Lumix Luminary, I get the opportunity to work with a lot of the new technology including the GH5 Camera and some of the newer lenses that have been released. Leave a comment on this post or email [email protected]
Care and Feeding of Batteries for Digital Photography
There’s nothing worse than running out of battery power in the middle of a job or while out and about making images. I’ve come up with a fairly simple way to ensure that when I need more power for my cameras it is always at the ready. Check out the video.
Hope you find this helpful in keeping your batteries ready to go at all times.
This video was recorded with the Lumix GH5. Fiilex LED lighting with a softbox was used to supplement overhead room lighting. I set the camera for 4K Video and used the tracking mode for focus since I was using a tripod. The camera was triggered using the iPhone and the Panasonic Image APP to control settings, focus, and start/stop during the session.
Through the Internet, I have met an avid advanced amateur photographer/videographer named Aloy Anderson. Aloy is always pushing to learn new and creative ways to use his cameras. I have never attempted stop-motion video myself even though it is a capability built into the Lumix Cameras. When Aloy shared his project with me, I asked if he’d mind sharing some of his thinking and his process with me. And now with you.
I invite you to check out his stop-motion video called Jungle Movie “Be Brave” and turn the rest of the post over to Aloy. Enjoy!
“My name is Aloy; I’m a photographer and Youtube content creator from Miami. From an early age watching Sesame Street, I’ve always been curious about how to make stop-motion animation films. In those days it took a 35mm camera with “miles” of film to develop which was out of my reach. When I realized my new Lumix G7 had the feature built in I was pleasantly shocked. I had to give it a try. My video “Jungle Movie” my first attempt at a storyline video.
When you enter the stop motion menu on the Lumix camera choose whether you will snap each shot independently with the shutter button or the camera can be set to shoot at your preset interval. I do a little of both to give me time to reposition the set pieces and camera placement. For simplicity, I chose 5 seconds between each shot to give me time to move the characters quickly and get out the way.
Stop-motion can be very tedious and time-consuming, and it’s tempting to take the easy way out by leaving the camera on a tripod in one spot. That would be a mistake akin to watching a whole movie from one angle. I suggest different scenes and locations for variety, using a wider lens to show establishing shots and standard lenses for shallow depth of field moments. Before you begin, have a definite storyboard in mind. I like to use manual focus and exposure for each shot.
Here are some tips.
1) Don’t to move each piece too far between each shot as I did in some of my Jungle Movie. The resulting video will have choppy movement. A few centimeters is a good start.
2) Keep the camera on a tripod or table-top to maintain a solidly grounded scene.
3) Every few shots check to make sure your exposure or focus point hasn’t changed.
4) As you improve, you will know what not to do next time and come up with more complex ways to tell your story.
5) Imperative before you begin, set your camera’s aspect ratio to 16:9 which will allow it to play back full widescreen rather than a smaller 4:3 photo size.
6) Finally, have fun!
I guarantee your first 10-second video attempt may look like a five-year-old did it but you will have a good laugh watching it play back with all its faults.
The good thing about the Lumix is when you’re finished making captures the camera will ask you how to customize your video rendering such as how many frames per second it will be and at what resolution. It will then stitch all those photos together into an MP4 file. The only downside is it will be a “silent” movie. In my case, I imported the MP4 into my video editor and added music and text titles to polish it off. It is crucial to add some form of audio to keep your video engaging. This information is not an exhaustive tutorial by any means, but the fun is learning as you go.
I invite you to visit my Youtube product review channel and my Flickr Photography album. Most importantly I would like to thank Bob Coates for inviting me to write this piece. Hopefully, you will have a good time learning this type of creative way to use your camera.”
Aloy Anderson.
Thanks to Aloy for sharing his first foray into stop-motion.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Most Lumix cameras have the stop-motion and time-lapse features built into the camera. If you have any questions about which camera might be best for your needs let me know.
Yep, I said it. Cool beans. This feature is quite handy when you want to photograph with a macro lens and show some incredible depth of field in your image.
The 4K Photo Mode in the Lumix GX85 and the G85 called Post Focus which allows you to choose the frame with the focus where you want it, after the shot, also allows you to focus stack the images together to enhance the depth of field. One downside to using this method is that we are pulling stills from the video which means there is 8MP worth of file size with which to work. A file of this size will get you to a 20-inch print with no problem, but if you want to go bigger, you’ll need to use a different method. I’ll share that with you in the next day or so.
Let’s take a look.
I call this Green Bug. This image is a single frame grab from the 4K video. Printable and OK. But let’s see something a little better.
Now let’s take a look at the image after all the images in the stack have been combined to show the sharpest parts of each frame in the video.
Check out the detail throughout the photo now.
Here’s a little zoom in on the back leg of my friend the Green Bug.
While out waiting for the moon to make its appearance the night before the Supermoon I worked a couple of cameras. I set up the Lumix GX8 to do a time-lapse of the sunset/moonrise. Glad that I also had the Lumix GX85 as a second camera to mess about with while the time-lapse was being recorded.
Here’s a still I pulled for the time lapse sequence.
The time-lapse was pretty simple. The settings are available in the camera. No need for an intervalometer. Under the Time Lapse Shot menu, you have the choice of Start time which can be immediately (now) or a time set in the future. Shooting Interval which is the amount of time between frame captures. Image Count which is the number of frames to be captured. In this case, I fired one frame every four seconds.
I thought I had a better position for the moonrise which was quite a bit to the right of where it actually showed up. I stopped the captures pretty early after the moon made its appearance. Looks like I need to calibrate my compass.
I was able to add some interest because I choose to have the camera process the still images to a 4K video. 4K video enables you to move around in the image without losing quality which I did in Adobe Premiere. Did you catch that part about the camera processing the time-lapse? A very cool feature. I choose the output settings including quality and frames per second. In this case, I used twenty-four.
For the video below I changed the output settings to 12 frames per second. I did a little color correction and added movement in Adobe Premiere.
Tomorrow I’ll show you what I was photographing with the Lumix GX85.
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.
Fotopro tripods are well worth checking out. You can learn about the ones I use and recommend by clicking on the Fotopro Tripods link at the top of this page. If you want to see what other tripods might fit your needs check out the Fotopro.com website. Check back with me before you buy as a Fotopro Ambassador I’m able to get you discounted pricing including complementary continental USA shipping for my followers that you won’t find through retail outlets.
Learn Photoshop in a fun environment. Aaron Nace applies the right amount of fun with easy to understand and follow tutorials. Actions and brushes are included with lessons!
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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Platypod has become a great resource for being creative in getting your camera gear easily into unusual places. As an Platypod Pro I get to work/play with the gear even before it comes out. Head over to Platypod, subscribe to the newsletter and you will get special discounts reserved only for subscribers.
