How to Make Time- lapse Video - Ultimate Guide. Time- lapse photography is an interesting technique that records a scene or objects that has a slow state- of- change and turns it into a video that plays back in high speed. The easiest way to do it is to have your camera stationary on something that changes slowly (e. Hours and hour’s worth of photos are compressed into a video with merely few minutes playtime, thus creating a time lapsing effect. In another word, it allows us to see the progress faster without having to wait along the actual time. Spotting sun’s movement from sunrise to sunset takes about 1. But seeing it rise and set in 1. In this article, we’ll show you how to create your own Time- lapse video. To make things easier to digest, we’ve split the content up to several sections: Understanding Time- lapse fundamentals. Choosing your camera for Time- lapse project. Post- editing your Time- lapse photos. Combining photos into Time- lapse video. Ready? Let’s do it! Understanding The Fundamentals. We’ll start by understanding some fundamental rules. Under normal circumstances, every one second in a video comprise of 2. If you watch a 2 minutes video at 2. To create Time- lapse effect, you basically reduce the interval for each shot and merge them into a 2. E. g., if the sun takes 1. With a 2. 4 fps compression, you’ll have a video of sun rise to sun set in 3. Isn’t it amazing! Breeze Systems Breeze Systems offers a wide range of tethering software options for Canon and Nikon cameras on either a Mac or Windows platform. This page has all our information and news about Canon’s 6D Mk DSLR announced in June 2017. It will cover news and reviews of the 6D as we find it. Twitter introduced an updated privacy policy on Wednesday that has users worried about how their private information is being tracked, stored and used. In the policy. Your subject. You probably already have some ideas in mind, but here’s what we can think of just in case you left your creative cap at home. Sunrise, sunset, or from sunrise to sunset. Fruit rotting. Flower blossoming. Growth of plant. Ice melting. Clouds movement. Stars movement (clear sky required)Movements of a busy city street. Smooth or Blocky? Find out more about Canon EOS 6D Mark II. Discover how the new Canon full frame DSLR camera can give you the creative advantage. Before you get all excited and try out your first Time- lapse photography project, we’d recommend that you start by thinking ahead the interval of each photo, i. Etc. Let’s get into more details. Smooth (Shorter interval) A shorter interval between each photo gives you a smoother video output. It is usually use to shoot something with a slightly faster state of change, e. Shorter interval is usually around the range of 1- 1hour per image. (See an example)Blocky (Longer interval) Longer interval between each photo tends to give you a more blocky video output. It is usually use to shoot something with a slower state of change, e. The pause time between each photo can be quite subjective, it can be 1 hour per photo, 6 hours per photo or even 1 or few days per photo depending on the subject.(See an example)Now that you’ve choose a subject for your Time- lapse, and have a rough idea on the intervals, let’s take a look at how it can be done with various types of cameras, be it d. SLR, point- and- shoot camera or webcam. Choose your camera. I – DSLR Camera: d. SLR (Digital Single- lens Reflex) camera is a better choice for Time- lapse photography compared to point- and- shoot camera or others. It has higher output quality and better control. If you are a d. SLR user, you probably know better. Let’s take a look at some of the equipments needed. Image credit Essential equipments: Tripod. It is important to make sure your camera is stationary and consistency taking photos of the exact same location without moving here and there. Of course, you have do it without a tripod, but the choices of subject will be limited and challenging to have your camera maintain stability. Intervalometers. Intervalometers (some call it remote control) is a device, an add- on that usually doesn’t come with your dslr. Intervalometers is almost essential because you don’t want to manually click on the shutter yourself, not with Time- lapse photography. Intervalometers varies from brands and it is priced around $4. And if you are unsure where to get one for your camera, we’ve got you it covered. Software (alternatives to Intervalometers)If don’t have an Intervalometers, here’s an alternative solution. There are softwares out there that allows your laptop to take control of your d. SLR’s shutter interval. They work like Intervalometers, allowing you to set the interval between each frame. But that means, your laptop will have to be connected to your d. SLR via USB cable the entire time during the Time- lapse project. Here are some recommended softwares capable of doing Time- lapse photography for various camera. Nikon users: Sofortbildapp(Mac)Sofortbild currently supports all newer Nikon digital single- lens reflex cameras including the high models D3s, D3x, D3, D7. D3. 00s, D3. 00, D9. D5. 00. 0. D- Software Cam Control(Win) Allows the user to remote control a Nikon DSLR digital camera from a personal computer. Nikon Capture 4. 0(Win & Mac)Powerful and intuitive image- editing software that optimizes workflow and maximizes potential. Canon users: DSLR Remote Pro (Win & Mac). Check out Mac’s version here. Photo Capture(Win). Works for Olympus camera too. II – Point- and- Shoot Camera. Point- and- shoot camera, also known as compact camera usually comes in pocket size, with lesser functions compared to SLR but that doesn’t means they can’t do Time- lapse photography. If you’d like to try doing a Time- lapse experiment and does not own a d. SLR, this is probably your best bet. Let’s take a look at some essential equipment you’ll need for Time- lapse photography: Essential equipments: Tripod / Gorillapod. Point- and- shoot cameras are smaller in size, however that’s also one of its disadvantage to maintain stability while shooting. Small tripod is recommended, or a Gorillapod would be good to counter obstacles and uneven surface. Time controller device / software Pclix is a portable that is capable of triggering your camera’s shutter every second or every hundred hours plus anywhere in between all in one second increments. It does not work with all point- and- shoot cameras, but covered pretty a lot of models. Here’s a compatibility list of Pclix supported cameras. Note: Some point- and- shoot cameras do come with Time- lapse function. Always check with your camera’s instruction manuals first. III – i. Phone. You can even do it with an i. Phone. Here are two i. Phone applications that allows you to do Time- lapse photography. On a side note…Like everyone else, we tend to fail on the first attempt. Even when we are well prepared, some things somewho tends to fail or dissapoints. Here are some tips, drawn from our experience so you be aware of and reduce the chances of failing in a Time- lapse photography project. Do test shots. Don’t start shooting right away. Always do some test shots to ensure you are getting the right angle and composition you want. Take photo in basic JPG. Set your camera to take photos in the most optimum JPG quality else you’ll be running out of disk space very fast. Manual mode for all. It is recommended that you shoot in manual mode with manual shutter speed, aperture, exposure and white balance to avoid camera trying to adjust itself when the environment of the subject gets unexpectedly darker or brighter. Extra batteries. If you are time- lapsing outdoors then good batteries are essential. It’s good if your camera battery can be changed without removing the camera off the tripod. If the Time- lapse is taken indoors it is better if you use the camera’s main charger to avoid draining the battery. That includes taking care of your laptop’s battery too if you are depending on your software to control the Time- lapse interval. Extra Memory cards. You need to make sure you have enough memory space for the Time- lapse. You can make your own calculations to get free memory amount you need for your desired Time- lapse. Just find out what’s the file size of one picture and then calculate how much pictures approximately will be taken, and you can do the math to get a result of memory space you need for your Time- lapse. Choose a strategic spot. Set the tripod up securely and in a place where it will not be moved or knocked over easily, especially if you are shooting in a busy street. Keep an eye on your camera. Always keep your camera and the equipments at sight during the shooting or at least make sure they are safe from filching. Post editing Time- lapse photos. After you are done shooting, you’ll be left with hundreds (if not thousands) of photos, depending on the length of your project. Sometimes there can be some small little things that you want to tweak before merging them into video, e. Editing a photo at a time can be really tedious. Here are two ways how you can tweak them at a way quicker rate. Choosing Tethered Shooting Software for Nikon DSLR Cameras. Most Nikon DSLR owners are unlikely to have experimented with tethered shooting for one simple reason: Nikon charges in the order of $1. Amazon) for the required software, where as Canon ships tethered shooting software with their DSLRs at no additional charge. There have been free alternatives available for some time now but they weren’t that easy to locate or use and had to rely on approaches (e. WIA) that couldn’t take full advantage of all of the camera’s capabilities. Nikon’s public release of newer SDKs redresses that and has spurred developers to produce more sophisticated alternatives. These may finally bring tethered shooting to the Nikon masses. Why Shoot Tethered? Photographers use tethering for two main reasons: Image Review and Workflow – Shooting while tethered provides immediate feedback about your work on a larger screen, making it easier to review and adjust your approach mid shoot and let the “keepers” enter your digital workflow more quickly. (More detail)Remote Control – Previewing, configuring and triggering your camera remotely can be extremely helpful when doing product, macro, time lapse or self portraiture photography. The feature set for free tethered shooting software has traditionally focused upon the needs of “Image Review and Workflow” users. The new Nikon SDKs allow better support for “Remote Control” users, especially with the introduction of Live View. Selecting Your Software. The most appropriate tethering software for you will be dependent upon a number of factors: User Type – Are you using tethering for “Image Review and Workflow” or “Remote Control” purposes? The latter user type has fewer options to chose from and may need to resort to commercial options to meet all of their needs. Camera – Cameras released prior to the D8. SDKs for older models must exist but Nikon have only released SDKs product July 2. D3, D3x , D4. 0, D6. D8. 0, D9. 0, D2. D3. 00, and D7. 00). Operating System – Few tethering software vendors support both the Windows and Mac platforms. Only one Linux option appeared in my brief search on the topic. Budget. I had access to Windows XP and a Nikon D7. S while preparing this post. As such I was unable to test Mac and Linux specific software or perform in depth testing of programs utilising the Nikon SDKs. Also some software has been released in German only and could not be reviewed. The material below focuses upon the free alternatives available, and has split the free choices into separate “with Extensive Camera Support” and “with Modern Camera Support” categories. Commentary about my experiences is included when I’m able to test the software. Where I can’t test software directly I’ve included links to relevant publicly available data. This can be used as a starting point if you wish to conduct your own investigation into application suitability for your needs. A list of commercial alternatives has been included for completeness. Limited detail is provided and I suggest readers use the vendor websites to gain a better understanding of the vendor’s solution. My Picks. Keeping in mind that I tether for “Image Review and Workflow” purposes and use a Nikon D7. S and Windows XP, my top picks are: DIYPhotobits. Camera Control – it works, and has the widest feature set of any non- Nikon SDK tethering software on Windows Loligo Tether – visually more appealing but had reliability issues during testing If I upgraded my camera body to something a little more modern my list would become: DCam. Capture – use of Nikon SDK should result in more robust and fully featured connectivity with the camera DIYPhotobits. Camera Control – it works, and has the widest feature set of any non- Nikon SDK tethering software on Windows Mac users should definitely look into Stefan Hafeneger’s Sofortbild application. The feature set is impressive and I wish that DCam. Capture’s feature set was as rich! If you use both a Mac and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, or require support for older cameras, then Studio. Tether would be preferable. While Sofortbild has more advanced features than Studio. Tether many of them would become redundant when added into a Lightroom- based workflow. Photo. 2 was the only option I found for Linux users though I’m sure there are more available. See this post for details. Good luck with your adventures with tethered shooting, and please share your experiences with us in the comments section below. Free Software with Extensive Camera Support. Tethering software in this section uses the underlying Picture Transfer Protocol, rather than Nikon’s published SDKs, to talk to your camera. This provides wider compatibility at the expense of supporting more advanced camera features such as Live View. Two options were tested to confirm whether they could meet my needs, with the results outlined below. An overview of all options (including those I couldn’t test) is included at the end of the section. DIYPhotobits. com Camera Control DIYPhotobits. Camera Control is a hosted script using WIA over a PTP link to interact with your camera. It provides features for both Image Review and Remote Control users. It is designed to solely manage the link to the camera, with more advanced workflow tasks being left for the user’s preferred viewer/workflow tool. Personally I prefer this approach because there are plenty of viewers and workflow tools to choose from and I’d rather the author focus on getting the tethering right. The interface was a little slow on the initial connection – times of more than 2 minutes were common – but this seems to be a common complaint with WIA based applications. So be patient and give the application time to connect. The hosted script development approach means you may see the odd script error message pop up and be asked whether to continue running scripts on the page. In practice the program seemed to recover and continue performing its duties if you selected “Yes” to continue running scripts. There was one repeatable (and long standing) issue that will impact Remote Control type users. When you use the “Shutter Release” and “Download Immediately” features together the image capture format is swapped. e. JPG and “Download Immediately”, click the “Shutter Release” button, and an NEF format file will be transferred to your computer. Strange, but once you know the issue is there you can easily work around it. Despite my concerns with the hosted scripting development approach, this was the only program I could get to consistently work with my Nikon D7. S for tethered shooting. I’d recommend trying this program first if you have a camera not supported by the Nikon SDKs. Loligo Tether. Download Here Loligo Tether is a . Net framework application using WIA over a PTP link to interact with your camera. It is designed for Image Review type users. It includes some basic image viewing capabilities but for best results should be combined with a dedicated viewing or workflow application. I had high hopes for this application and was planning to use it in preference to DIYPhoto. Bits. com Camera Control. Unfortunately there was one minor issue that got in the way: I couldn’t get it to consistently work with my camera when using either my camera or the program to trigger the shutter. To be fair to the author they did describe this as an alpha release so my expectations were unrealistic. This problem may be specific to my environment so you might want to test it yourself. I will keep an eye on the application’s progress but until reliability improves it is hard to recommend this for general use. All Options Considered in Free Software with Extensive Camera Support Category. Name. Compatibility. Suitable For. Features. Comments. DIYPhotobits. Camera Control$0 Current Version: v. Camera(s): All OS: Win XP, Vista Language(s): English. Image Review, Remote Control. Image Review: Auto Sync, View Exposure Settings, External Viewer, File naming prefix Remote Control: Remote Trigger, Time Lapse, Set Exposure Settings, Set File Format, Bracketing. Basic Image Review and Remote Control features. No Live View. Would need to be used with an external viewer/workflow application. Written as hosted script, so can be more error prone than a true application. One of the more mature free tethering programs. Photo. 2$0 Current Version: 2. Camera(s): D4. 0, D4. D5. 0, D6. 0, D7. D7. 0s, D8. 0, D9. D1. 00, D2. 00, D3.
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