Time-lapse photography technique

Time-lapse photography shooting skills 1 Time-lapse photography shooting skills-simple shooting preparation

In addition to the camera, there are only two basic requirements for shooting delay: a stable tripod; A programmable wired releaser (some friends realize the delay function by brushing firmware, so I won't introduce it here).

By the way, my bitter experience: I spent more than 1000 yuan on the Internet to buy Canon original programmable line release, and only 99 copies were released in continuous shooting. It's not as good as the fake cable release of ke continuous shooting, 1, 000 yuan. Later, I bought a cable release with high reliability and unlimited continuous shooting times.

On the right is the original Canon line player, which can only take 99 pictures (what a fool! ), the left side is made of cable release, which can shoot infinite pictures continuously.

Programmable cable release settings are simple. Remember a few words: "Delay" stands for time-lapse shooting mode. "INTVL" refers to the interval time, and "n" refers to the setting of shooting times-this is true for most programmable cable releases.

For example, I want to take a picture of Zhang Yuncai rolling in the sky. If there is wind and the clouds move faster, I will take a picture every 3 seconds. Generally speaking, the number of shots is around 300.

Why take 300 pictures at a time? This is experience-because it was made on the computer in the later stage, each second video clip consists of 25 frames, 300÷25= 12 seconds. You can edit in this 12 second frame. The more shots you take, the more room for later editing.

Time-lapse photography skills-actual combat! Starry sky delay photography

In fact, taking a photo is a delay, so the basic requirements such as light, shadow and composition are the same. Here, taking the delayed shooting of the starry sky in Chaka Salt Lake as an example, the skewed abandoned telephone poles are taken as the main body of the photo and placed at the golden section 1/3. There is a galaxy on the right, which can be used to balance the picture. Then as mentioned before, it takes a long time to release continuous photos with programmable cables.

ISO:3200, exposure time: 30 seconds, aperture: F2.8

Time-lapse photography skills-post-production of picture materials

Post-production is divided into two steps: the first step is photo processing; The second step is to synthesize the video.

I usually use Lightroom (LR) software to post-process photos. LR can be said to be the most used software by professional photographers at present. There are many benefits, the biggest of which is that you can process photos in large quantities at one time. This is a perfect match for time-lapse photography.

Import photos into the interface after LR.

The first thing to do in LR is to adjust the color of the picture, such as increasing contrast and saturation. In addition to the basic color adjustment, there is also a very important option, which is noise reduction. For high ISO shooting with low illumination, post-noise reduction is essential. An important option in LR is the "Color" option in the "Noise Reduction" on the right panel. Pull to the right, and the color noise will gradually disappear. This is very important for low light shooting.

The second task is to set the picture scale. At present, all videos are in 16:9 specification, so we should also fix them on 16×9 when setting them. Then the original 3:2 photo frame is cut to make it conform to the proportion of high-definition video. All the above are adjusted on the first imported photo.

Set to 16:9 aspect ratio.

The third task is to apply the photo settings adjusted for the first time to all imported photos in a "synchronous" way. This batch operation of LR reduces our labor intensity.

Specifically, click the "Copy" button in the lower left corner of the interface.

In the pop-up dialog box, select Cut and then click Copy.

Then Ctrl+A, select all photos, and click the "Sync" button at the bottom right. So all photos can be processed in batches according to the previous settings.

Finally, right-click to export the photo. Needless to say, remember to set the size of the long side of the resizing item to 1920 pixels. In this way, we can get a series of materials that can be used to make 1080P delayed video.

Little knowledge: the application of delay slide rail

The basic configuration of shooting delay is tripod and pay-off. If you want to shoot a better delay, you need to add another delay slide. The working process of the delay slide rail is based on the number of pictures you set to take, such as 300. Then it will automatically divide the length of the slide rail into 300 equal parts. Move one frame at a time, stop to take pictures, move another frame, stop to take pictures ... The video made in this way is that not only the clouds and stars in the sky are moving, but also the ground will move, and the picture is more attractive.

You can also use a tripod to support one end of the slide rail to form an angle. There are many ways to play, so you can study them slowly.

At present, the prices of slightly better delay rails in China are basically above 6000 yuan. And the portability is not good, suitable for friends who have cars to choose.

The black box in the picture is the controller, which controls the movement and stop of the slide rail, and the slide rail is powered by the lithium battery built in the controller.

Turn hundreds of photos into videos.

There are many softwares that turn photos into videos. I prefer the combination of LR+AE.

Working interface of AE

Step 1: Import files in the file menu (check the JPEG sequence, select the first file, and then select Import). It should be noted that before importing, it is best to rename all the photos to be imported in batch in order. For example, ACDSee can be used in Windows and AdobeBridge can be used in Mac.

Step 2: Click the third "New Composition" button to set the parameters.

Drag the JPEG sequence into the "composition" with the mouse.

Step four, export. Press CTRL+M (Command+M for MAC), set the path, and then click the "Render" button. AE is exported lossless by default, and the file size is relatively large. If the hard disk is tight. You can also choose a relatively small format as needed.

At this point, the basic delay segment is completed. If you need to go further, use editing software to edit the video material, with music subtitles ... that's how tourist short films are produced.

Time-lapse photography shooting skills 2 daytime shooting

Basically, you can set the exposure mode in the aperture priority mode, automatically select the white balance, and reduce the ISO value as much as possible. Most importantly, the shutter speed should be as slow as possible. If you shoot with a high-speed shutter of11000 seconds or 1 /2000 seconds, you will get a condensed instantaneous picture. However, it is suggested to slow down the shutter speed as much as possible, for example, using a speed below 1/50 seconds, because it needs to be cut into flowing film later.

The subject of time-lapse photography is mostly landscape, so the related photography concepts and skills of landscape photography can almost come in handy in shooting. However, compared with shooting a single photo, the need to combine into a film should be considered in advance when shooting a delayed photo.

I suggest you shoot in manual mode (M mode) at night. In the white balance section, if there is light, you can use automatic white balance. If there is no light (such as mountains), it is suggested to adjust the color temperature and white balance to 3300K, so that the picture will look blue and pleasing to the eye. If you use automatic white balance in a dark environment, the picture may appear brown or yellow tone. Before shooting, use a higher ISO (such as ISO800), aperture F5.6 and shutter speed of 30 seconds for Shoot, and observe the details of the scene and environment (such as whether the composition is stable, whether there are unnecessary objects such as telephone poles in the picture, etc.). Basically, the exposure time cannot exceed 30 seconds, because if the interval time is added, it may take more than 40 seconds to take a photo alone, and the image connection in post-production may not be smooth, because the time difference is too large. If the exposure time is controlled within 30 seconds, the continuity of the scene will be ideal.

At this moment, the camera must record the whole process from day to night or from night to day. For shooting from day to night, you can choose the aperture priority mode, first use a small aperture, and then gradually increase it (for example, from F22, F 18, F 16 to F5.6, F4), so that the shutter speed can be as close as possible when shooting from day to night. If the gap is too large (for example, 1/60s during the day and 30/60s at night), you can also try to fix the aperture and shutter speed, which can automatically improve ISO, thus maintaining the balance between aperture and shutter speed, but the disadvantage is that the image quality is degraded due to high sensitivity. In addition to the above basic concepts, I will also share the setting method with you from several aspects related to time-lapse photography.

How many shots of a scene can be considered as a project file for time-lapse photography? I suggest you take at least 250-300 pictures. In the later stage, it can only be converted into the number of similar pictures of about 10 second, and because time-lapse photography is presented in a flowing way, it takes about 2 seconds to deduct the special effects (such as fading in and out) between the scene and the scene before and after editing, so the actual film presented is only 6-8 seconds. In the visual experience, a picture of about 6 seconds can keep the viewer's attention, and the same picture is played for too long, which is easy to make people feel impatient; Of course, if the captured image is particularly bright, you can also consider playing it for a while.

The file format selected for shooting.

If you encounter the environment in Gao Fancha, I suggest you shoot with RAW files, and then highlight the dark parts in the post-production. If you shoot with a smooth light source, it is sometimes useful to shoot JPEG files directly. In addition, when shooting at night, the post-production space will be larger if RAW files are used. If you can choose the camera at hand, it is recommended to choose the RAW file of 14bit (or the RAW file that occupies the most memory card capacity), because this tolerance will be higher, especially in the environment of Gao Fancha, which will help to remedy the mistakes.

measure

It is recommended that you use comprehensive/average photometry (matrix photometry, weighing photometry), because the shooting time of time-lapse photography is very long, during which the scenery changes constantly. If you choose central dimming or spot metering, there may be metering errors, resulting in the problem that the bright part is too bright or the dark part is too dark.

Exposure compensation

Generally speaking, if shooting can be reduced by about 0.3EV, the color of the picture will be saturated; If you don't add/subtract light at all, the overall color will be very dull.

concentrate

When shooting during the day, you can turn on autofocus first, then turn off autofocus and switch to manual focus. This is to prevent some moving scenes, vehicles or people from affecting the focusing system during shooting, resulting in the focusing area running to the wrong range.

Hand shock prevention

Nowadays, many new lenses or fuselage are equipped with convenient functions to prevent hand shock, but time-lapse photography is similar to landscape photography. When shooting with a tripod, the hand anti-shake related functions are turned off, which can obtain a more stable shooting effect.

Mirror pre-lock

If the camera at hand has this function, I suggest you lock the mirror in advance, which can reduce the vibration of the mirror when shooting and make the picture quality more delicate.

Although the basic shooting method of time-lapse photography is to take one picture every once in a while, the actual shooting interval will vary according to different themes.