5Dmk3+Saab 9000+5000km of aussie outback+stars=time-lapse

[tinoproductions]

Wife and I bought a motorised slider for our first forray into astrophotography timelapses.

We toured for 2 weeks in the proper outback in out trusty 1995 Saab 9000, and these are the results.
It's out first time, so quite pleased with the results. The last scene with the wool shed was on the last night, and I think by then we had gotten the hang of it.
There are SO many variables, and many things that can go wrong with moving time lapses. It certainly gave me a new level of respect for this genre.

http://youtu.be/C_po7GtGwNg
Thanks for watching.

All shot on:
Canon 5D mk3
Samyang 14mm f2.8
Cinetics Axis 360 2-axis slider

Car scenes taken with distance based GPS trigger, Trigger Trap.

[DibblyDobbler]

Great work!

[Gemm]

I like that!

[MikeGTi]

Good stuff

[leggly]

Brilliant

[55palfers]

Wonderful stuff!

[Fordo]

Nice work there!

How'd you find the Cinetics slider? I've used the dynamic perception stuff for move shoot move timelapse, find find it a bit fiddly to use at times

[tinoproductions]

Fordo said:

Nice work there!

How'd you find the Cinetics slider? I've used the dynamic perception stuff for move shoot move timelapse, find find it a bit fiddly to use at times

Thank you for the kind comments.
Yes, it is massively fiddly, far from plug and play. I think this comes down to experience, but it's not perfect.
My biggest gripe is the amount of play in the motors so that if you have a scene where there is a weight shift (a pan where the camera is slanted up) then you will see that in the time lapse. Also, the motors are very slow, so when I have the extension bars on, it takes a solid 2 minutes to slide from one end to the other when used in key frame mode and setting in and out points.
It takes patience and dedication I think, like anything worthwhile really.

I was looking at the Dynamic perception one too, then the cinetics one came up 2nd hand for a great price.

[Pixel Pusher]

Really enjoyed that.

Thanks for posting.

[vexed]

Impressive!

[JulianHJ]

[Oakey]

Fantastic.

Always meant to try something like this but just never got round to it. How often do you set it to take each shot?

Also for the ones that go from day to night I assume you just leave the camera to choose the settings rather than any manual settings?

Edited by Oakey on Sunday 11th January 20:55

[tinoproductions]

Oakey said:

Fantastic.

Always meant to try something like this but just never got round to it. How often do you set it to take each shot?

Also for the ones that go from day to night I assume you just leave the camera to choose the settings rather than any manual settings?

Edited by Oakey on Sunday 11th January 20:55

Glad you liked it Oakey.

So I usually try and set the runtime to about 5-6hours, and the playback time in the 20-30 second window and play them back at 30 frames a second. I did set them at 24 frames on the slider, but I found 24fps was a bit too jerky, so made it 30. YMMV.

For night/Astro shots, my shutter speed is between 15-30 seconds, ISO 3200 to 6400, and always f2.8 or as fast as your lens will go. Allow for camera write time (say 2 seconds), then slider movement then pause (say 2 seconds) to let it stabilise before the next shot, it adds about 5 seconds to the total exposure time. So the interval is 35 seconds between shots for a 30 second exposure etc.
I always use my slider in SHOOT-MOVE-SHOOT mode, which does exactly that, so is stationary while it is taking the pic, then moves, then takes another pic etc.
The other option is continuous movement. Haven't tried that one yet. MIGHT be even better as there would be some movement in the image as video frames benefit from motion blur.
Will try and report back.

There are no shots that go from day to night! If you are referring to the last scene with the wool shed, that is actually moonlight that you are seeing, and then the moon sets at about 3am, and real darkness occurs. Pretty cool effect. That was all done in manual. Iso 3200, 15 seconds, f2.8 14mm.

For the sunset at 0:30 I did set it to AV mode, +2 stops, so it set it's own shutter speed. I really don't like using non-manual modes, as it's not always smooth/predictable, especially if light sources enter/leave the scene and confuse the meter.

There are methods such as bulb ramping(which you can either do with Magic Lantern on Canons or using the slider's own internal computer), but the transition is linear, and you tend to find that going from day to night is anything but. I have seen other people do the change manually, so slowly ramp up the settings in camera as they shoot using a remote or a mobile connected to camera so you don't touch it.
Another technique I like is just using your night time setting, so you are essentially fading from white into a usable scene, and as the sun sets, more and more of the scene will not be overexposed.

Time lapsing is hard.
Add a slider and it's even harder.
Add a day/night/day transition and it's a proper headache.

Other problems I sometimes found was running out of camera battery, and even slider battery if you want to do more than 1 a day. It is relatively easy to power them up externally, but I have not invested in that (yet). Just MORE gear to carry around really.

Let me know if you have any more questions.
Cheers
Tino.

[Oakey]

Great explanation, thanks.

Do you shoot in RAW or JPEG? I'd figure processing some 300+ RAW photos would be a ballache (unless you're running a script to do it?) so JPEG?

Edited by Oakey on Sunday 11th January 22:54

[tinoproductions]

All RAW.
Lightroom makes it a breeze.
Make your adjustment to one shot, copy and paste to all.

RAW gives you WAY more flexibility should you stuff anything up exposure wise, plus way more detail to play with and really extract the information. Plus no noise reduction, which for astro stuff gets rid of way too much detail.

I know people that use JPG only, but I really don't see the advantage, unless you are really struggling for space. It's not like you keep those 600 shots after you have made the video.

I have been using sRAW which is about 10MP on the 5Dk3 to saw space etc, but reading more and more about it, it seems like a bad idea (increased processor load so drain on battery and slow to write, loss of information as it's 12bit vs 14bit etc), so might just stick to full RAW going forward.

[Oakey]

Thanks for replying.

What software are you using to create the video? Is there something that will specifically do it from the images?

[tinoproductions]

Hi Mate,
I am doing the normal editing in Lightroom, exporting everything as JPG with resolution of 1920 x 1080, quality 90%.
I then import them into Final Cut Pro X, drag all the images into the timeline(30 frames per second, ProRes 422HQ codec), retime them so they are 1 frame each.
Make a composite clip.
Export this clip as ProRes 422 HQ
Import the clip you just made and edit is as you normally would.
This export->import step is necessary as many of the functions (transitions/stabilisation) don't work with composite clips but only on 'proper' clips.

I will try and put together a little video tutorial and post it soon.
Let me know if you need any further info. More than happy to share any knowledge/tips. :-)

[Oakey]

That's great, that's how I imagined doing it in Adobe Premiere.

I'm going to give this a go when the weather is nicer although no fancy movement for me!

I should probably dig out the manual for my 20D remote... and maybe order some new batteries

[LongQ]

Oakey said:

That's great, that's how I imagined doing it in Adobe Premiere.

I'm going to give this a go when the weather is nicer although no fancy movement for me!

I should probably dig out the manual for my 20D remote... and maybe order some new batteries

Got a battery grip? Might be useful and possibly available at sensible prices pre-loved.

Tino,

Very much enjoyed your video (and the Saab of course).