time lapse obsession
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010I have been intrigued by time lapse videos for quite a while now.
The original TLW video is made up of 1.400 pictures, and there were other instances during the walk where I tried to record time lapse videos by speeding up standard video:
…or by stitching together hundreds of individual pictures taken with the DLSRs:
- time can what time doesn’t
- the last beach, lucky bastard
- night music
- the white yak, the majestic, and the worm.
Now I’ve taken up this obsession again, and – once more – feel myself going through the process of learning things.
Here’s a video I made a few weeks ago in the Karwendel on the border of Germany and Austria:
It’s made up of 117 individual shots (tripod, remote, manual settings: 1/200sec. f8.0 ISO50 35mm 10sec-intervall)
The problem: I didn’t use an automatic timer, meaning I had to press the button on the remote every 10 seconds. So I got tired of it after a while, and I didn’t take enough pictures. Another problem is I didn’t crop the pictures to a snug 16:9 ratio, hence the vertical black bars. Also, I think using a wider angle would have yielded a more interesting result.
A few days later I made a new video, this time on the Isar riverside in Munich:
222 shots (tripod, timed remote, AV settings: 1/200sec-1/80sec f6.3 ISO50 16mm 5sec-intervall)
This time, I used a timed remote, but I forgot to use manual settings. This means that the camera would adjust to changing light conditions, hence yielding a slightly flickering picture. I was very upset about this obviously.
Take 3 was on the Isar riverside as well:
617 shots (tripod, timed remote, manual settings: 1/125sec. f8.0 ISO50 16mm 10sec-intervall)
This one was fun: I used the towers of Saint Maximilian as stabilizing elements in front of the moving clouds. I took a sufficient amount of pictures. There were no major hick-ups during this take. There are still some flaws in it though: the treetops are moving irritatingly fast in the wind, there is a dust spot on the left of the church tower. Anyways, I was pretty satisfied with this one, so I went looking for royalty free classical music on the net, and found my favorite J. S. Bach – a perfect soundtrack for the clip!
Soundtrack: Johann Sebastian Bach (Gould) – Aria











