Time lapse drawing with d5100

Smokiejam

Hello everyone,

Newbie here to the photography world, and have just bought a second hand Nikon d5100!!

Excited yet nervous I bought it for a number of reasons which are as follows

1. Our new born son
2. My girlfriend makes cakes and will be setting up a website
3. I draw charcoal/oil drawings and want to take pictures and i also want to try a time lapse of me drawing a piece.

This last part is mainly my question here.
Basically how do I time lapse myself drawing a piece....and more importantly when I do 2/3 hours of drawing and call it a night, but want to pause it and continue the next day/week, how do I do this? This is the part i cant find on google. Then I need to know how to put it all together?

Thanks a million for replies and advice and it's all very much appreciated!
Thanks

Kenny Logins

Well I'll be dipped in do..

I never knew the D5100 had this setting -

http://fstop.onthis.net/2011/06/14/nikon-d5100-interval-time-lapse-settings-tutorial/

Set focus and exposure to manual and start it up, you'll then need software to parse all of the photos into one video file.

Smokiejam

Thanks! My question is how do I pause it from time lapse go to bed and then get up and start it again...or if I didn't feel like drawing for a week how do I pause it from taking pictures for a week and start it again?

Kenny Logins wrote: »

Well I'll be dipped in do..

I never knew the D5100 had this setting -

http://fstop.onthis.net/2011/06/14/nikon-d5100-interval-time-lapse-settings-tutorial/

Set focus and exposure to manual and start it up, you'll then need software to parse all of the photos into one video file.

maglite

Set up Time Lapse-Record settings
Start
Draw
Turn off camera

Turn on Camera
Start time lapse with same settings
Draw
Turn off camera

Rinse and repeat.

endacl

Don't forget to first furnish yourself with a massive memory card, and regularly dump the contents to your laptop. Would be a bummer to have a bug gap in the middle, where your camera told you the card was full.

aidanic

Smokiejam wrote: »

Thanks! My question is how do I pause it from time lapse go to bed and then get up and start it again...or if I didn't feel like drawing for a week how do I pause it from taking pictures for a week and start it again?

Not moving the camera, and the relative position of your drawing board would be pretty much a requirement. I assume you draw in spare room, or a corner of a bigger room.

I did a Lego animation years ago, and took over half a room for two or three weeks, with the camera tied down in one spot, as well as the main board where the action took place. Keeping the lighting constant will also help the overall look.

Aidan

tylercollins

Few tips...

> take a few test shots before starting your timelapse so as the exposure is right, one the exposure is right, try to keep the light the exact same
> Turn off noise reduction
> You will want your interval at about 1 or 2 seconds per picture
> make sure the camera is in full manual mode
> turn off auto focus
> worth while shooting in raw mode as well
> large memory card is needed
> for every 25 pictures you take, that will be 1 second of footage in your final video (25fps), so take this into consideration if you are going to be drawing for hours!
> for the timelapse drawing, it may be worth while just recording a video and speeding it up in processing

Smokiejam

Thanks for the replies!! Why set my shutter to 1/2 seconds..not much will change in my drawing in 1/2 seconds? Did you mean 1/2 minutes? I was actually thinking every 10 minutes!
Another question I had was could I have it start as a video of me setting up my work space first, then go in to time lapse while I'm drawing, maybe video again at the middle or end, with a music track added in!? I've seen a few on YouTube like this!

aidanic

Smokiejam wrote: »

Thanks for the replies!! Why set my shutter to 1/2 seconds..not much will change in my drawing in 1/2 seconds?

The shutter time should be normal, 1/120 or what suits the lighting and depth of field.

It's the interval between frames - that's going to be an interesting calculation between the frame rate on the final piece (10 fps or 20 fps or even 30fps), and how much you get done (in the drawing) over a period of time.

For sunrise/sunset time lapse, it's easy, as the event takes place in (say 45 minutes), and you want a 1 minute final at 12 fps. You need 12 x 60 x 1 frames. 720 frames. In the 45 minutes you're planning to film, there are 2700 seconds. Your interval will be around 3.75s. Your camera will be taking a normal frame every 4 seconds. You'll end up with near 800 frames, and then will put that together into 60 seconds of final video.

With your drawing, you'll need to get some ideas in advance of how long it takes to do the picture and how long you want the final video to be. The rest is simple maths.

You should do a few practice runs (with clouds or sunsets), and see how it works out.

I have some 4000+ frames from three different time lapses, that I need to process, if I ever have a moment

Smokiejam

Thanks a million! So if my drawing takes 30 hours altogether..and I want a 3/4 minute video at the end (basically the lenght of a song..what way does the maths work there!?

magicbastarder

let's say you want 400 seconds (happy medium between 3 and 4 mins).
if you want 25 frames per second (which is normal for telly), that's 10,000 shots. or just over 300 shots per hour, which is about five or six per minute.
you could potentially go for a lower framerate, so maybe three per minute.

Smokiejam

So I'd be wrong in saying take a shot every 10 minutes? 3 shots per minute sounds like a lot!!

Kenny Logins

Smokiejam wrote: »

So I'd be wrong in saying take a shot every 10 minutes? 3 shots per minute sounds like a lot!!

A standard video has ~25 per second.

Smokiejam

25 pics per second!? I'm confused! I thought interval time would be every 10 seconds camera would take a pic

Kenny Logins wrote: »

A standard video has ~25 per second.

Kenny Logins

Smokiejam wrote: »

25 pics per second!? I'm confused! I thought interval time would be every 10 seconds camera would take a pic

Sorry, I get it now - you said 10 minutes, but meant 10 seconds?

Think about it - video is 25 fps, if you take one shot every second that will speed the process up x 25.

tylercollins

Kenny has explained ten times better than I could! Cheers Kenny

Also, the best explanation I've read to date has been Preston Kanak's

magicbastarder

Smokiejam wrote: »

25 pics per second!? I'm confused! I thought interval time would be every 10 seconds camera would take a pic

no, we are talking about the rate at which they are played in the resulting video, not the rate at which they are taken when you are drawing.

tylercollins

For every 25 pictures you take, this will be 1 second of video footage.

Smokiejam

I still don't get it..I'm a dope...I meant every 10 MINUTES I thought I could set my camera to take a shot..

tylercollins

Smokiejam wrote: »

I still don't get it..I'm a dope...I meant every 10 MINUTES I thought I could set my camera to take a shot..

When you play back timelapse footage or standard video, it's usually at 25 FRAMES PER SECOND

If you are going to take 1 photo every 10 minutes it's going to take you 4 hours (approx) to get 1 second of footage.

Because so much is going to change in 10 minutes of you drawing, the effect you are after isn't going to work as you want it.

Smokiejam

I think to show you exactly what I mean...if you type in 'huge clint' in to YouTube you will find a video of a man drawing clint eastwood...this is nearly exactly what I mean!!

tylercollins wrote: »

When you play back timelapse footage or standard video, it's usually at 25 FRAMES PER SECOND

If you are going to take 1 photo every 10 minutes it's going to take you 4 hours (approx) to get 1 second of footage.

Because so much is going to change in 10 minutes of you drawing, the effect you are after isn't going to work as you want it.

tylercollins

That looks to me as it has been taking at an interval of roughly 2 seconds. How I know? The guy walking across at 10 seconds, you see him literally move across the entire frame. If this was set to 10 minutes, your man walking would magically appear and disappear.

I think what you are going to have to do is do some test shots, and then work from there.

Here's a Youtube video which is over 24 hours total, taking 1 picture every 5 minutes, total length of video? 10 seconds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5k75FKatfVY

Kenny Logins

For example: If a drawing takes 6 hours and you want a 3 minute video -

3 minutes = 180 seconds
180 seconds = 4500 frames/shots (final video @ 25 frames per second)

6 hours = 21600 seconds
21600 seconds/4500 shots = 4.8 seconds - take a shot every 5 seconds.

aidanic

Smokiejam wrote: »

... 'huge clint' in to YouTube ...

(avoiding any puns :eek:) that time lapse was taken over 2 or 3 days. Obvious from T-Shirt changes on the artist, and the way the picture jumps up and down a few times. Camera tripod is unmoved over the whole period, but it's likely the camera was popped off at the end of each day.

It's 2:45 long - I'm a bit lazy to dig out the frame rate - but at most is around 4000 frames taken over the 2/3 days. Sticking my finger in the air, the frame interval is going to be around 10-15 seconds. About four hours each day.

Smokiejam

So a shot every 10-15 seconds!?

aidanic wrote: »

(avoiding any puns :eek:) that time lapse was taken over 2 or 3 days. Obvious from T-Shirt changes on the artist, and the way the picture jumps up and down a few times. Camera tripod is unmoved over the whole period, but it's likely the camera was popped off at the end of each day.

It's 2:45 long - I'm a bit lazy to dig out the frame rate - but at most is around 4000 frames taken over the 2/3 days. Sticking my finger in the air, the frame interval is going to be around 10-15 seconds. About four hours each day.

Smokiejam

So I didn't a little test today..took pictures of a herd of cows at 10 sec intervals..how do I view this now!? Is photoshop any good?

Kenny Logins

Had to have a go with this, just to see how it works. A quick and dirty test with 300 shots (at 5 second intervals) pulled into Windows Movie Maker (simple and free), and duration set to 0.04s (25 frames per second), giving a ~13 second clip. Could be fun.. If I had something interesting to shoot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76jounbVVEo

The shutter going every 10 seconds could be a bit distracting when drawing..

Smokiejam

I have a mac! Anyone any ideas!?

Kenny Logins

I'm sure iMovie can do the same?

tylercollins

Smokiejam, I see Preston Kanak has just updated his complete timelapse tutorial from pro-production right through to production.

I cannot recommend enough to read though his complete guide.

http://www.prestonkanak.com/extensive-raw-time-lapse-tutorial

Smokiejam

Thanks so much everyone!!! I love the photography community!!!!

tylercollins wrote: »

Smokiejam, I see Preston Kanak has just updated his complete timelapse tutorial from pro-production right through to production.

I cannot recommend enough to read though his complete guide.

http://www.prestonkanak.com/extensive-raw-time-lapse-tutorial