Time-lapse photography

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

I have recently had an interest in making time lapse videos. I have a very old model camera (Epson 850Z PhotoPC) which must be about 10 years old. It is a very good quality and robust camera nonetheless.

I have made a couple of videos so far, mostly of the sunset and cloud movements. They can be viewed by following the link on my sig.

I am currently looking for different subjects to take photographs of. Maybe the sky when I get a clear around here.

[Tinaa]

I like to watch plants grow and flowers bloom through time-lapse photography. Perhaps you could plant a flower seed in a pot and capture the whole cycle.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

I like to watch plants grow and flowers bloom through time-lapse photography. Perhaps you could plant a flower seed in a pot and capture the whole cycle.

I will surely try that. I am looking for a plant that grows quickly maybe bean plant.

Another cool thing is making a time-lapse of yourself while sleeping. Its amazing how much you move during sleep. I found out there wasn't more than 40 minutes that I stayed in the same position of sleep.

[Tinaa]

Oh, btw, I enjoyed the videos on your site.

[DaveC426913]

Um.

I tried your link, it did not work.
So I tried "backing up" by one folder.
And got more than I bargained for.

[Delvo]

I set up a spiffy time-lapse thing once, which was a successful failure. The view from my front window at home is hills covered with trees, and I was going to string together weeks' worth of pictures of the forest changing colors in autumn. But the camera I was using turned out not to be very good at catching wide color differences. And the pictures were for some reason at a much lower resolution than the camera's native still-image resolution (more like its rather low video resolution even though they were taken as one still image at a time). And on top of that, one tree occupying a lot of the foreground happened to be dying during the same weeks, which was a sufficiently distracting effect to essentially turn my video of fall colors into a video of one tree dying.

It was still a good idea, though.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Um.

I tried your link, it did not work.
So I tried "backing up" by one folder.
And got more than I bargained for.


I just tried the link and it worked. Perhaps you could try refresh.

And sorry about your um, experience. The site is basically like Youtube so there could not be anything too offensive.

And Delvo, it depends a lot on the type of camera of course. Some cameras may seem cheap but have an awful quality. I usually do events that happen in a few hours so it is much easier to redo if anything goes wrong. But the plant one is definitely one I'm looking forward to.

[Nicolas]

Maybe you could try to put a metal object into a liquid that allows for fast oxidizing, and capture that process?

Fruit rotting could also be interesting in a strange way ;).

I also like tides, but I don't know if there's any tidal waters around where you live.

Or the daily "lights on/lights out" cycle in a large appartment building viewed from outside.

Do you automate the time lapse pics or do you manually click every x minutes? How do you deal with the amount of storage space it requires in the camera?

I liked your vids!

[SeanF]

The site is basically like Youtube so there could not be anything too offensive.
I'm thinking you haven't spent a lot of time on YouTube. :)

BTW, I liked your videos. There seems to be a jump at about the 7 or 8 second mark of the sunset video - did the camera get moved?

[Captain Kidd]

Frost forming on glass has always fascinated me. Mold growing, plants blooming/growing, etc. Had I thought of it soon enough, I'd have taken a photo of our child's face at the first of each month and time-lapsed it.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Or the daily "lights on/lights out" cycle in a large appartment building viewed from outside.


http://www.metacafe.com/watch/812245/moonrise_x_200_speed/

The link should be available after 30 minutes of posting this.

It shows a moon rise over some buildings in the horizon and at the end you can see the lights on/off in the distant building.


Do you automate the time lapse pics or do you manually click every x minutes?

Its a function of the camera which allows you to program it to take a picture every so often seconds/minutes/hours.


How do you deal with the amount of storage space it requires in the camera?

Depends, by the current memory storage I can take about 200 shots which when played at 10 frames per second will give me about 20 seconds worth of video. It takes roughly 5 minutes to upload all the pics and format the memory card so if thats less than the time I take between frames I could download and save pictures as long as possible. i.e. have any continuous length of time lapse video


BTW, I liked your videos. There seems to be a jump at about the 7 or 8 second mark of the sunset video - did the camera get moved?

Thanks :) Yes that was one of my first attempts and me being a noob :) I forgot the flood lights would leave the rest of the picture dark, so I moved the tripod to the right shortly before realizing the effect could have been better if I moved a little at a time in each frame.


Thanks again for all the comments :D

[Nicolas]

I should have that "take a pic every X seconds" function on my camera. Just like I'd need a tripod to do some stop-motion experiments :).

Why don't digital cameras come with these remote (wired) triggers anymore these days? It appears to me that even on a tripod you'd shake the camera if you have to firmly push a button on the camera body itself.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Its kinda strange that some new products lack the cool features that were included in ancient models.
If you use the webcam though, I think there are softwares that do this for you.

[Nicolas]

Indeed. As my camera cannot be used as a webcam, it will not be able to use that software though.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

One thing I do - to avoid the camera shaking when capturing no-flash pictures without tripods - is to set it on timer so that it waits a few seconds after you press the button.

Or if you are a good with LEGO you could always try building one of these (http://www.philohome.com/legophoto.htm).

[Nicolas]

But a good tripod holds the camera firmly enough to assure no camera shaking when pressing the button (and not using delay)?

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Sort of depends on the shutter speed, doesn't it? And if you put it on automatic or manual. Its almost impossible to get a blurred image due to movement when its bright and set on automatic shutter. But sometimes when I try to get 4 second exposures in the dark I have found out its much better to use timer+ tripod to get a clear image.

[Nicolas]

Of course it heavily depends on shutter speed. But I was hoping that a tripod would keep the camera steady enough to avoid bluring due to pressing the button.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Tripods are pretty good but theres an inevitable shaking of the hand. Depending on your model of camera there is usually a half second delay between pressing the button and shutter to avoid shaking caused.

[Delvo]

There are still cameras with shutter buttons that can be activated by an attached cable control. Mine is one of them (a Fuji S9100, not the same camera I was referring to before!). It's just that doing that kind of photography normally involves choosing the camera's mechanical settings yourself, so it would be an unneeded complication on the automatic cheapies that do it all for you and lack the flexibility that's normally a part of that kind of photography, so you just need to get one with manual controls and a wider range of settings in order to get it.

[Nicolas]

My cam has manual controls (exposure time, iso, F-stop, focus, colour correction...) but it's still an el cheapo and lacks some functionality. It has delay, but no time lapse mode and no remote mode.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/815757/building_a_working_robotic_arm_from_lego_x_100_spe ed/

This is me building a robotic LEGO arm that actually works. I have the clock set beside it to record passage of time. Enjoy! :)

The Robotic Arm is built from the LEGO Mindstorm set which is a great gift for you child if he/she shows interest in mechanics/programming. Though mine wasn't so much as a gift but rather I had to save from weekly allowance to pay for the $250 set.

[DaveC426913]

Tried itr again and it worked.

Very cool. Liek to see more like the candle.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Glad it worked. Right now the camera is all set to record some bean plant growing action at 9000 x speed (1 frame every 15 minutes, 10 fps). I have thought of putting a clock near the event to better visualize the passage of time.

Will do some more candle. Its cool to see the melting accelerates, probably due to wax already being hot after melting.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/822701/ink_rising_time_lapse/

I put some colored dots on a paper and dipped it in some ethanol. The video is at 2400 times speed.

Say does anyone know the correct scientific term for this action?

[Delvo]

You mean the word for the movement of the liquid up through the paper? That's the "wick effect".

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

hmm ... wikipedia seems to indicate its more specific http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wick_effect

[Paracelsus]

I enjoyed your clips also. Plants blooming is a good suggestion. A more long-term project would be to make a video of yourself, where you look at how you change over the course of, say, 10 years. One changes quite a bit in one's teens and early 20s, and a time-lapse clip of this sort would be very entertaining. I'd recommend taking pix every month, instead of every 30 secs, otherwise the vid would be very long. :D

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

Yeah something like those "Hot Asian took a pic of herself every day!!!" videos you see in the tubes which shows the same exact expression everyday for 6 years. :D

[Paracelsus]

ROFL!!

Is there really??

I need to search YouTube more often...

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

http://www.atomfilms.com/film/me.jsp?brand=filmmaker

I see nothing changing in the pictures other than her clothes and hair.

[Neverfly]

http://www.atomfilms.com/film/me.jsp?brand=filmmaker

I see nothing changing in the pictures other than her clothes and hair.
Got this:

You have reached a page at AtomFilms that has been moved, renamed, or deleted. To continue using the site, please try one or more of the following steps:

Click your browser's 'Back' button to return to the previous page.

Click your browser's 'Refresh' button to try reconnecting.

Return to the AtomFilms home page.

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

It worked for me fine, firefox, scripts enabled.

[Neverfly]

Guess I'm outta luck.

Was she cute?:p

[SeanF]

I see nothing changing in the pictures other than her clothes and hair.
Her glasses popped in and out occasionally. :)

But, yeah, something like this would work better if it were done between the ages of, say, two and eight. At her age, there aren't enough changes in six years.


Guess I'm outta luck.

Was she cute?:p
Well, she's not the cutest (http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1194279144&size=m) Asian girl I've ever seen, but not bad... ;)

[The_Radiation_Specialist]

I'm out of ideas... Any suggestions?