Timelapse for a football match

kelack

kelack

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Kelly
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Before anyone jumps, it's not a DataCo breach so could you just let me know if I'm thinking along the right lines

I'm starting it at 2pm and finishing it at 5pm and having 5 second intervals (that should give me 2,160 frames?). I've hired a 11-16mm lens so I can get a nice wide angle on it and get most of the ground in. Now, this is the bit I'm getting stuck on, obviously the light is going to change from being daylight to dusk/dark so will I need to adjust the ISO throughout? I have a Canon 1D mkIII so no Auto ISO, but I think there is a hack for it in the custom menu by doing this: activate C.Fn I-8 (ISO speed) + C.Fn I-12 (correct me if I'm wrong). And the settings, best to put it on f8? What about shutter speed? 1/1000? And obviously keep it on manual focus?

What does everyone think? Has anyone attempted it before?
 
@Tobers has done something similar at Twickenham from memory.

I'd go:
manual focus at hyperfocal length (as close to as possible - it'll alter according to aperture, but not too much at your focal length)
Best guess of ISO
Tv mode with an SS of around 1/125th

You want a certain amount of motion blur in the images otherwise the final render will look to jerky.

That'd work reasonably well for a stadium filling up but the thing I'd be worried about is the amount of positional change during the game at 5 second intervals and whether the output will make sense or not.

But Andrew will know far better than me.
 
Cheers Mark, that's what I was wondering about whether 5 secomd might be too much. Just if I shorten the interval, the frame rate jumps massively.

I don't think I'll hear from Andrew before tomorrow as he's busy at the moment so might have to best guess it
 
Ah, yes I did two similar things. One was a camera placed at Twickenham in the same spot for an entire game, and the other was me moving the camera around at Twickenham with bits of the game from wherever I was sat that half, plus before and after match stuff. The first was done with a 1DIII and the second with a Panasonic GF1 with an intervalometer.

I think I had the camera doing one shot per 10 secs for the first one, and one every 2 secs but in shorter bursts for the second one. Set the camera to record small jpegs as you really won't need anything more.

For a wide angle lens shutter speed won't really matter much. Just set the aperture to f/8 or so and put the ISO up to 1000 or 1600 and let the camera sort the shutter speed for you.

Here's the first one with a stationary cam:


And the second, better (IMHO) one with clips from various camera positions:

 
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This Youtube embed thing is good isn't it.

I had the GF1 on a Gorillapod so I could attach it anywhere. On looking at the second vid it's actually quite cool - I must try another one. And my new Fuji X100T has inbuilt timelapse - whoop.
 
You can see in the second one where the England team bus arrives that cloud comes over and the scene goes dark - that's because I had the cam in manual mode instead of auto mode. Had I set it in aperture priority it would have been much better and more consistent.

You might want to think about how you set the metering - centre weighted or spot would probably be best if you have a wide shot of the pitch, so the pitch itself stays a consistent exposure.
 
the thing about a auto or semi auto mode, a, s, auto iso is that the transition from light to dark, you will get a lot of "flicker" in the images. this transition from light to dark, dark to light is a bit of the "holy grail" of time lapse.
To do well you would be in manual and as light fades, change 1 setting, a iso, or s, a small amount, then run though the sequence for image in software like aftereffect, LT to get rid of the changes to exposure.
try and keep your shutter longer, this will help to make the vid less jumpy.
hope this makes sence. in a hurry and this is a big topic.


some good stuff here.
http://forum.timescapes.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=1871
 
You need antiflicker on movie output as exposure changes slightly every shot
Shutter speed will effect the look, fast might look odd.

If you shot at the ground before you could look at exposure of your shots at similar time or light as game time..

Raw would give you 2 3 stops of exposure leeway
 
Many thanks Andrew, will sit and note it all down, hopefully the wind won't put paid to my idea.

And pingu666 -Raw?? With over 2,000 frames??? I'd need tons of memory cards and to be lightning quick changing them.
 
Dammit. First cock up. Just having a test run at home making sure my intervalometer works and forgot the Tokina 11-16 vignettes on a 1DmkIII! Seems ok at 15mm though. Glad I only hired it and didn't buy it.
 
kelack said:
Many thanks Andrew, will sit and note it all down, hopefully the wind won't put paid to my idea.

And pingu666 -Raw?? With over 2,000 frames??? I'd need tons of memory cards and to be lightning quick changing them.
Click to expand...

2000 20meg RAWs only comes to 40GB, 64GB SD cards are under £30, problem solved!
 
DemiLion said:
And you want to spend all the time cooking them afterwards as well? RAW is just a daft idea.
Click to expand...

I never said whether or not it was a good idea, only that storage space is not really a barrier to it.
 
How did it go?
 
Just trying to put it together now in After Effects
 
ok, other than After Effects, what can I use, I am starting to lose patience with AE. I'm not a very good learner by using tutorials or guides so I need something really easy to use. I'm sure it shouldn't be taking me 3 hours to do this
 
Just found a great video on YouTube from Adorama with a step by step for Photoshop. Done and calm again now. I really do have no patience with anything hahahaha
 
I used virtualdub as recommended on here. Pretty easy to use and works well!
 
I just couldn't get on with it. Photoshop did the trick in the end. Just ftp'ing it to the club now.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't too bad. I think it was too windy really and although I had wedged the tripod, I couldn't think of any other way to protect it.

@Tobers, I'm sorry to say, I didn't get anything else rather than the inside of the stadium. It was pretty much a trial run for another match so now I have a better understanding of what I'm doing, I'm going to try a few more angles outside etc. Thanks for taking the time during your downtime to give me advice though. It was all taken on board (ish, I tend to forget things with nerves) and very much appreciated
 
No worries Kelly. You'll find that it's enough to get 2-3 seconds worth of footage for external views, so may only take a minute of your time if you have a relatively fast frame rate set. It's pretty quick and easy but you do need to think of angles that will get the best feeling of motion.
 
I was chatting to the guys in the press room earlier about it when I was at the training ground, we've got a few good ideas where I could go. Need to have a wander round next home game and scout out the locations and work out my timings
 
just watched it!,
Really great 1st attempt Kelly well done. Kind regards Graham.
 
Cheers Graham. Obviously a couple of improvements needed to get it perfect ie not sit in a wind tunnel haha but pleased with my first attempt. I think the press team have a little bit too busy over the last couple of days to look at it :LOL:
 
I'd be really interested to see this too.

I've long held an interest in timelapse photography (and most recently hyperlapse) and have been fascinated with the prospect of using it around the ground on matchday. So much so, I have a little plan of locations and alsorts scribbled in a pad. In my head, it already looks like a masterpeice :D The club are happy for me to give different things a try, all for their usage obviously, so it's absolutely on the agenda.
 
Unfortunately as it was at a football league ground, I can't post it anywhere due to DataCo. Sorry. But @Tobers has posted some great advice above
 
So how did Bluesman Graham see it, or hasn't he?
 
I showed it to him in a private message as he'd given me advice
 
Only you would twist that
 
It has to be said in a Steptoe and Son accent for the full effect! :D
 
Waaaaaaaay before my time
 
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