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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
My time lapse experiment (and thanks)
Max Waugh, Photographer
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Bothell | WA | USA | Posted: 7:09 PM on 12.02.09 |
->> I wanted to pass along the results of the time lapse project I just completed in partnership with my university. It would never have happened without the useful information found on this board.
A few months back someone posted a link to Keith Loutit's tilt-shift time lapse work, and I always thought it would be cool to try that out some day, even though I really had no tilt-shift, time lapse or video editing experience (a good place to start from ;). I filed the idea away until a couple weeks ago, when an opening in the football schedule provided a two week window to prepare for an attempt.
I wanted to cover the whole game day experience, from the arrival of tailgaters to pre-game festivities to the game itself. The folks in the athletic department were interested, but it was all on me to pull it off. About a week later, Robert Caplin's World Series time lapse piece was posted here, and I have to thank him for some additional advice he shared.
Finally, the recent music licensing thread on this board was also a big help. It took forever, but I finally found the right piece to license on one of the sites that was mentioned. So thanks yet again, SportsShooter. :)
Some details about the project: My assistant and I spent the entire day shooting and took over 29,000 photos, of which about 3500 were used. There were plenty of stumbling blocks throughout the process (aside from my basic ignorance heading into the thing). One issue was that I was shooting a 7D and my assistant only had a Nikon D80. The disparity in image quality and even the basic look of the images from the two cameras was pretty apparent (particularly in darker conditions). I was fortunate to have the live view function on my camera, which was a huge help when fine-tuning the position of the tilt-shift lens. My assistant had a much harder time finding the focus point (we were both using lensbaby composers). Having an Expodisc to measure and set a manual WB before most of the shots was also a plus. Though this didn't solve everything, it certainly allowed for a bit more consistency.
Football game action was shot at 1 frame/second and streamed at 10fps. Everything else was shot at 1 frame every 2 seconds and streamed at 12fps. Stills were grouped into scenes, batch processed in PhotoShop, organized into streaming sequences in Quicktime Pro, and the video editing was done in iMovie.
For whatever reason, they did not post the HD version, but you can view the final product here: http://www.gohuskies.com/genrel/120209aae.html. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with the results.
Thanks again for all the great tips that made this possible.
Max |
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Joe Morahan, Photographer
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Denver | Co | USA | Posted: 7:19 PM on 12.02.09 |
| ->> Well done!!!! Great video and i will surely watch it again- |
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Andrew Fredrickson, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | United States | Posted: 8:31 PM on 12.02.09 |
| ->> Great job Max! |
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Nic Coury, Photographer
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Monterey | CA | | Posted: 9:14 PM on 12.02.09 |
| ->> that is awesome. I never get tired of tilt-shift time-lapses. |
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Mark Peters, Photographer
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Highland | IL | USA | Posted: 9:20 PM on 12.02.09 |
| ->> Excellent |
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Russ Isabella, Photographer
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Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 12:56 AM on 12.03.09 |
| ->> Nice job, Max. Thanks for sharing your story. I applaud your initiative and willingness to go out and get it done. |
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Daniel Celvi, Photographer
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Schaumburg | IL | United States | Posted: 4:50 AM on 12.03.09 |
->> So a few comments (err, like two...)
Some really cool parts to this—like when the players were all on the field and prepping, running across the field was just awesome looking. But it did lack shot variety. I know part of the purpose is to add that crazy miniature look to it, but I think the next time you do this, now that you've finished that first one and will have a much better handle on it, try playing more with the angles and distances. Second one is always time to go crazy.
I always want to see some closer stuff with these—just to see how it looks. It might fail miserably (seems likely), but I think it could be fun to try. You said you were using a lens baby, right? I know the rules to those are a bit different than with traditional lens movements, but if you use a t/s lens you might be able to do some cool stuff with making trippy infinity planes of focus. I've only used large formats with movements, and no rear movements is a huge hinderance, but it could be fun to try. I just imagine setting up to the side of where the players run out into the field, at a slightly lower angle, with the focal plane set to just a row about where the players head and shoulders would be. But again, I don't know all the limitations of 35mm t/s lenses, but I imagine with the small 7d sensors you would have a lot of latitude in making adjustments without worrying about cutting off the frame.
Just a few thoughts, hope they help. Still overall quality stuff. |
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Michael Fischer, Photographer
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Spencer | Ia | USA | Posted: 9:46 AM on 12.03.09 |
| ->> Very cool! Great job! |
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Scott McCall, Photographer
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Orlando | FL | USA | Posted: 11:25 AM on 12.03.09 |
| ->> That's awesome! |
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Andrew Link, Photographer
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West Bend | WI | USA | Posted: 11:38 AM on 12.03.09 |
| ->> Great job Max! |
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Scott Kane, Photographer
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Edwardsville | IL | USA | Posted: 9:48 PM on 12.03.09 |
| ->> Incredible job! |
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Daniel Berman, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | US | Posted: 10:20 PM on 12.03.09 |
| ->> That was really nicely done Max. I love the musical choice, and so many of the shots it would be difficult to pick only a few! As a Seattleite this was especially cool to watch. Great stuff keep it up Max! |
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Wesley R. Bush, Photographer
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Nashville | TN | U.S. | Posted: 10:35 PM on 12.03.09 |
| ->> Very good work, and something I would like to add as a future experiment if you plan on pursuing again. Although I think the timing of some of the musical elements worked out perfectly, I couldn't help but want the actual sounds of what I was seeing. If you could drop the volume in and out of the song and try to build on those wonderful background noises of the pregame, eventually culminating into a musical crescendo, I think it would be very powerful. Just a thought from someone who has never done time lapse, tilt shift or still frame video editing. Awesome stuff, man. |
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Max Waugh, Photographer
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Bothell | WA | USA | Posted: 1:16 AM on 12.04.09 |
->> Thanks, everyone. I have no idea if/when I'll do this type of thing again, but there are some interesting ideas to consider for next time. Wesley, mixing in the "sounds of game day" with music (as opposed to just having sounds replace the music altogether as one person suggested in the YouTube feedback) is a very intriguing idea, which I think could be pretty cool if done correctly (and time-permitting). I'd love to see/hear that concept put in motion.
Max |
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Dave Sizer, Photographer
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Mountlake Terrace | WA | USA | Posted: 4:03 AM on 12.05.09 |
| ->> Great job Max! It really gives a different perspective of the game day experience. This is really fun to watch. Good stuff! |
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