Beginner Timelapse Tips?

miker

miker

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Mike
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I'm taking my scout group away camping on Saturday for the week, and taking my 650d with me for both photo and video recording of the week, that we compile into a video/album for parents and the group.

I thought it would be quite cool to do a time lapse of the camp being set up. I have a gorillapod and ballhead, and a kit lens. The camera will probably go on top of our trailer or hanging from a tree.

What sort of speed/interval should I use? I guess I should expose and focus manually, and stop down a bit to keep things in focus? I'll probably also drop image size right down, I don't think I need an 18mp time lapse!!
 
Forgot to mention, I have ML installed. The intervalometer was one of the main draws!

Haven't read the user guide fully though, so thanks for the link!
 
1. Think about how long you want your finished clip to be. It's aprox 30 frames per sec. You want 1 min, that's 60 x 30 = 1800.

2. Think about how long a time period you want to cover. Say 2 hours. That's 7200 seconds. 7200/1800 = 4 seconds between each shot.

If you are shooting in low light and need longer than 4 seconds exposure, you need to adjust.

Goes without saying, use a very heavy tripod and think about how exposure will change over the shooting period.

All settings must be on manual as you don't want the exposure changing in camera.
 
In Europe you should shoot at 25 fps not the US standard 29.97.

It saves so many headaches. Works on all equipment, no lighting flicker, no drop-frame issues...
 
miker said:
Forgot to mention, I have ML installed. The intervalometer was one of the main draws!

Haven't read the user guide fully though, so thanks for the link!
Click to expand...

There is a guide to the features in the camera as well. Go to the item and it will tell you what button to press to bring it up.
 
Tripod will be a gorillapod, most likely mounted to a tree. Should be sturdy enough ;)

Will be daylight, Hopefully sunny! Exposure shouldn't change too much, duration will be a couple of hours. I'm leaning toward a 10 second interval, Over 2 hours that will give me ~ 30 seconds of footage. Should be enough for what I want!
 
Most the important stuff covered here, particularly locking the exposure and focus. Maybe consider fixing the white balance too if you're going to shoot jpeg. Turn IS off if your lens has it.

I would give some consideration to battery and memory usage. You'll be shooting 720 shots plus whatever you shoot setting it up. Since you're unlikely to need anything more than 1920px width, maybe consider shooting on a low jpeg setting for the time lapse shots. Just remember to switch back to your normal settings when you're done (we've all got that t-shirt!). Maybe carry a spare battery too since I'm assuming you'll not have much facility for charging it afterwards.
 
My advice would be to choose a shutter speed that allows just a little bit of motion blur rather than freezing each image. They then blend together better and make the finished film less jerky.

Have fun.

J
 
Well, back now.Had it set up for camp setup, also had a gopro going. Then had a go-pro for pack down. Will get round to looking at how it came out in the next few days. First though, I have an unholy amount of tidying, washing and sleep to catch up on!

In the meantime, any recommendations for software to stitch it together with?
 
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