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??
Always found myself interested in time lapse imagery. The Netflix Original series House of Cards show intro brought back the ‘want’ to try to create some of my own. The short time lapse clips used were quite captivating! I had held back in the past because the techniques were too cumbersome and software was a bit of a PIA to manipulate to get some good results. For most cameras you had to have a separate timing gizmo (called an intervalometer if you need one) for a camera to capture your images and be able to program it properly.
Fast Forward to today
Like many things there have been some incredible changes happening in camera technology. Most of the newer Lumix cameras (and other brands and cell phones) have the time lapse capture built right in. You can easily program the camera to capture X number of images at X seconds for X number of captures. The camera will tell you the time the shooting will be completed. OK here’s the really wonderful part. The camera will even process the images into a finished time lapse giving you many choices of quality, size, number of frames per second and output format. This takes a lot of the hassle out of creating time lapses. Now you can use that as a finished file or take it to an editing program like Adobe Premiere Pro to add some more action.
Here’s the Time Lapse
Cloud Time Lapse captured 700+ images with one image every three seconds. Processed in camera at 24 frames per second.
Final Time Lapse Video Thoughts for Today
Used the Lumix GX8 with the 7-14mm f4 Vario lens. Couple of things to think about when setting up the capture. How often should you fire the frame? Subject matter and speed of moving objects need to be considered. Manual or Aperture Priority exposure? How many frames are needed? How long do you want the finished video to run. We’ll talk about these settings and processing in a day or two.
Make one camera do the job of two or three. I’ve been thinking about this possibility for a while. And now I’ve figured some of it out.
In this test i’ve captured a couple of my favorite musicians performing at our local restaurant. It’s the Millers on guitar. Robin Miller the father and Eric Miller the son. You can hear the magic as you can see they ‘get’ each other. Almost as if they can read each others musical mind. This song was written by Robin. I think the title is Change in the Weather. It’s a crowd pleasing winner of a song.
Because we now have the ability to shoot in 4K during capture we have a video that’s four times the size of 1080p. What this enables is moving around inside the frame which means we can create Ken Burns movement effects and zoom in for close-ups in different areas of the frame. It’s like having the look of several cameras from a single camera position.
The video below was captured with the Lumix GX8 and the 12-35mm f2.8 lens in 4K. Please don’t worry too much about the color as I shot this on the spur-of-the-moment hand-held while hanging out. The video was processed in Adobe Premiere Pro 2015.
Robin & Eric Miller live in Sedona, Arizona
Timeline from Adobe Premiere Pro. I copied the video layer two times and used one of the layers as close up of Robin and the second copy as Eric. The bottom layer was the two of them and the overall stage.
If another camera was added with a different lens you could rove the room getting even more angles and tight detail shots for a full production look to the video. This just practice and play to learn new techniques.
By the way, I would also have better sound in a real production. Sound for this video was captured on the fly by the camera with a little tweaking in Premiere… and it ain’t too bad!
Creative possibilities abound in this new 4K world. What are you doing with it?? Let me know…
The gift of Professional Family Portraiture to a family that is losing a child at birth… Is priceless.
It’s recruitment month at Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep and I encourage you to consider becoming an affiliated photographer. There is a tremendous need. When I first heard about the organization and it’s mission I thought, “There’s NO WAY I could ever do that!” Eventually after attending a seminar put on by Sandy Puc I decided to try. Over the years I’ve been with the organization in many roles, as a photographer, trainer, board member & image reviewer as I see this is an amazing way to give back to the community.
You can do it.
Is it easy? Nope
Is it rewarding? Yep
“Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is one of those ways that I enjoy serving my community as a photographer. When a Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep call comes in, I remember why I love photography.”– Mike Fulton, NILMDTS Area Coordinator and Affiliated Photograph
Learn more from the videos below and the NILMDTS web site.
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.
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!
Best embroidery ever. Give Queensboro a try, get a $20 instant credit to get started by clicking on the logo! They specialize in great quality custom logo apparel and promotional products with the best customer service.
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.
Snoopy Rock still photo at sunset.
