Time Lapse Take Two

Second time lapse test completed! Last night I was dreaming of the sun rising and hitting the clouds in formations of light that looked like it was shooting through blinds before hitting the clouds from below. Super crazy, but I'm totally psyched! I woke up to find that the cloudy forecast for all of today was not entirely accurate. The sun rose for maybe ten minutes before shining direct beams, as opposed to a diffused clouded light.

I ran around, got dressed, set up the capture on the computer, checked the camera's position, focus, exposure, shrank the the image size of the RAW files, and started to click away. Still, it will probably be a few days until the timer/remote comes in for the Mark ii, so I had to manually click the capture button on the computer once every fifteen seconds for an hour and twenty minutes. I started the session just as the sun rose above the remaining clouds from last night's storm were moving on. This is way better than the one last night, but nowhere near where my goal for this really is. I'd say not bad for learning how to do this last night, and taking less than five minutes to set up!

About a half an hour later, everything was ready to post. I adjusted the temperature to give the video some heat. The shadows have been brought back in some areas as well. Sadly it's not the most exciting shot, so I've got to work on taking the time to really scout out before set up. I was also limited to a small window of time for setting up in an unanticipated rush, computer charger distance, and tether cord distance (which luckily is 20 feet). I do plan on practicing at this and hope to bring in a many more exciting time lapses. 

For a starting point, I am thrilled with the results here. In the world of photography you always have to prepare for the worst, but really, I had a great situation to work with, especially considering that I was expecting to have, well, none. True, I could have sat and done a really long capture session for the whole day, but the reality of the situation is still that I would have to capture manually, with a computer in my lap. I've got patience, but eight hours of that is not happening.

Without further adieu, here is the screenshot of the process just before finalization, as well as the final product below. I do plan on putting more research into video quality, but I do feel blogger has something to do with the delivery. Oh well, it's just more to research, which is always necessary. 

The images for this video were shot at 125 ISO, 1/250, f/4.5. The video was exported at 1080p, 30fps.

Post Script: If you do try out the method used with the videos in the previous post, then keep this in mind. When you export the video file, if you'd like to play it in Lightroom to check it out before putting it on your website, youtube, facebook, or whatever have you, than I have a workflow suggestion. Export it to where ever it is that you keep your Lightroom RAW files that you import from you camera. This way you can save SO much time to import your exported video back into Lightroom, but when you import back into Lightroom as a fully rendered video, make sure you use the "Add" option, and double check where the file is going. It should look like this:

Time Lapse Attempt Nummer Eins!

I did it! Wow that was a lot easier than I thought. Alright, I'm gonna state right now. This is a sample time lapse, and the first one I've ever do, so don't be hatin'. I hope this renders clearly, but please enjoy!

I got all the info on how to do this, as well at the time lapse templates for Lightroom 4, from this site here, StillFrameMyLife. If you know very little about Lightroom, then you're in luck! He goes over every step, even if slightly painfully so, but the positive side is that this makes it easy to follow. He does reference this Pixiq page, which is where he learned it, as well as where you grab your free to download presets with matching instructions. Again, this is for Lightroom 4. I'm not sure how it would work for Lr3 personally, but I don't discourage the attempt in the least if that happens to be what you're working with at the moment.

A side mention of great importance, if you do use this. When you're at Pixiq, make sure you pay great importance to where you're looking when you do place in the templates. In both movements of placement and finding them, make sure you remember to be snooping around slideshow, instead of the usual, Library.

No, with that in mind, please enjoy!

Post Script: This isn't the clearest in the world. I'm guessing it has something to do with how the file is uploaded by blogger, but I'm still excited I did this without a clue or assistance!

Back & Excited

So, if you've been reading the blog, you'll notice a jump between this post and the last one. Life's been a little busy, but that is not an excuse. As all habits go, they take time and discipline to mature into a continuous practice. Here is my second beginning, so to speak, to make this a relative habit once more! 

On one note, I have decided not to make the book idea a permanent part of the blog. If something really stands out, and I simply must, "...SHARE THIS WONDERFUL THING WITH ALL THE WORLD!" then I'll post about it. When I get around to books like "Business & Legal Forms for Photographers," or Susan Sontag's "On Photography," then I will absolutely share a review, without question. 

In addition to the meandering book review idea, I'll be sharing helpful things that I see up from sites like PopPhoto.com, Creativebloq.com, 99u.com, or ASMP.org. I personally used to hate it when I'd sit on one site all the time and try to mooch it for all of its wisdom, but that habit is simply one to "shutter". It's like the never-ending facebookathon some of us get trapped in. Most of us are familiar with the self-perpetuating vortex of likes, shares, and angry opinion sharing. No bueno I say. As I'll be checking all these sites with you guys in mind, hopefully I'll build some sort of way to filter out all the not as useful posts from awesome ones more quickly, and slowly create larger windows of time in my day where I can do things like, I don't know, shoot stuff. 

What's the point in having a Canon if you can't just shoot with it all the time? My goal this summer is to take a sick shot of fireflies along the horizon with good ol' Vera. (Please get this reference.) 

Either way, I digress. My point is I will filter out great articles from numerous sites far all of you, so you don't have to go through that process yourselves! Not that you can't do this, but some of us have insanely busy lives. To that I say, "Great for you and congratulations. You're living life!"

To close this post, I am tossing out my attempt into new horizons tonight. Literally. I'm working on my first time lapse tonight. I sat for a little less than a half an hour, and pressed the capture button in Lightroom, once every ten seconds, while tethered to the camera via USB cord. I'm waiting for the remote/timer for the Mark ii to come in the mail any day now, but for now, my impatient self is going to play it out tethered. It's not going to be a great shot, since it's through trees, but I'm hoping for at least smooth results. Tomorrow morning shall be attempt two. Hopefully, though tonight I'll have the plug-ins and software to do this figured all out. Unluckily for yours truly my wonderful audio-visual tech of a boyfriend is working a noon to midnight shift tonight in center city, so I'm without a crutch on finishing off any video.... stuff.... I think.  I know how to edit in Premier, but I'm not sure I'll even need it. Does that make sense? Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll have something to post by morning, before I shoot the sunrise time-lapse.