Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Moonlapse



Settings
The moonlapse was taken with a f4.5 aperture / 1200 iso / 25" exposure / 60" interval / fluorescent WB / variable ND Filter @ 1.25 stops / JPEG format / Nikon 18-55mm lens set to 18mm

Technique
This was my first go at a moon and star timelapse.  When I saw the full moon, bright stars and clear skies I got excited to shoot my first one, and quickly learned many valuable lessons.  First the moon and stars are tough to capture.  For example if you walked outside and took a picture using automatic settings you will get the moon and a black sky.  This happens because the stars' light is very faint and the camera needs more time for that light to "burn" into the picture.  One way to combat this problem is to keep the open shutter for an extended length of time.  Since the moon was so bright I needed to soften its bright light so I applied a neutral density filter.  A neutral density filter is basically a dark piece of glass that tricks the camera into thinking it is darker that it really is.  As the moon's intense light enters into the camera it passes through the ND filter making the moon appear darker.  This is where some of my troubles and inexperience begin to show.  A problem in this shoot is that the moon is significantly over exposed or blown out.  Like stated before it is because the shutter is open for so long, but unfortunately I cannot capture the stars without the longer shutter.  If done properly and in a dark enough environment you can capture very faint light such as the milky way that may not be able to be seen by the naked eye.

Now for the rookie mistakes...interval between shots was WAY too short.  When a camera takes a photo it sends that information to the memory card to save the picture.  If taking normal pictures this happens very quickly.  However, when you take a long exposure (normally over 8 seconds) the camera applies a noise reduction process to the picture.  This adds anywhere from 5-10 seconds to the amount of time it takes the camera to send the picture to the memory card.  Unfortunately the camera is as bad at multitasking as I am and it cannot process a picture and take a new one at the same time.  Essentially the picture was not processed in the 5 seconds between pictures that I had set, which means the camera skips that picture and waits until the next one...30 seconds later.  When I went to get my camera a few hours later only 80ish pictures had been taken instead of the 200ish I was expecting.  Fewer pictures means shorter clips and choppier timelapses.

Thoughts and What's Next?
For my first moonlapse I was pleasantly surprised.  The moon's speed really caught me off guard, in just under 2 hours it moved nearly out of frame and the glow of Madison is more intense than I anticipated.  I have taken some notes and will need to find a darker place to try my next one hopefully when it isn't as cold!  I'm really focusing on longer shutter speeds right now.  I like how it blurs motion and really makes the timelapses feel less choppy.  The week coming up will be busy so planning what to shoot will be tough, Thanksgiving with the family and LA for USC vs UCLA.  Fortunately my sister is a photographer so we may be able to come up with something creative while I'm home, or even a timelapse of the game?!?

Hope you enjoyed the first post, don't forget to check out the vimeo channel in the links section.  I have a pretty cool timelapse of a candle melting I took this weekend there!  As always if you have any suggestions, ideas, thoughts or just want to say hi post in the comments below.  See you next week!

Still balding but not bald,
-Kyle

Monday, November 25, 2013

Welcome to #TimelapseTuesday!

Why #TimelapseTuesday?
I have always considered videography and video editing fun hobbies and want to continually progress.  Unfortunately I tend to spend more time researching rather than actually doing.  After getting my first DSLR I decided to set a goal for myself, to create at least one timelapse a week for a year and every Tuesday I'll post the video and blog about how I created it.  I'll discuss the settings, techniques, successes, and problems I faced during the shoot.  The goal is not to show the same sunset, sunrise, clouds moving over my front porch over and over but to push my creativity to find new and fresh things to shoot.  Again I'm an amateur so hang with me, they will hopefully get better as we go and if you have any suggestions or even ideas for timelapses I'm very happy to hear them!

What is a timelapse?
A timelapse is created by taking multiple pictures and playing all of the pictures one after another very quickly together.  The first timelapse I remember was drawing a stickman in a notebook over and over for 20+ pages.  If the pages were flipped quickly he would seem like he was running.

Format
Each week I'll embed the #TimelapseTuesday first, I won't torture those that just want to see a timelapse.  Just below the video I'll inform you of all the settings and techniques used to create it.  Lastly will be my overall thoughts, things I liked, disliked, and a little inside into what I'll be working on in the following weeks.

Vimeo
Follow my channel on Vimeo, here I'll post many timelapses as I complete them, and just choose one to highlight each week here.

About me
As I was growing up I remember looking to my mom (an accountant) and saying "I will do anything to make sure that I will not have to sit at a desk staring at excel all day!". After graduating from UWW with a Finance degree here I sit. In a cubicle. Staring at excel. All. Day. Surprisingly I don't have a problem with it. Sure the beautiful late summer early fall days are tough to stay inside but knowing that my skill set allows me to add value to a company gives me a sense of accomplishment, at least for now.

Enough about the boring stuff. Outside of my cube I am humbled everyday by how incredibly lucky I am. I have a beautiful wife, a ball obsessed dog, and have been fortunate enough to try numerous new hobbies, foods, and explore new cultures. As each experience and life event gets further away from the present I quickly realized that one of my biggest flaws is my memory or lack there of. Not only do I easily forget details about experiences quickly I find myself in trouble with my wife when I seem to forget any task she tells me. I swear it isn't selective hearing!

My memory issues steered me to a passion that compliments my life perfectly, video editing. It all started on our honeymoon where I would get to fulfill a lifelong dream of going to Whistler for a skiing honeymoon. The last thing I wanted to do was forget about our Whistlermoon so I purchased a GoPro to help document. Being able to create a video of our experience has been one of the best things for me. I can relive everything in 2-5 minutes, and I feel that same high I felt when I was in the moment.

Needless to say I'm a GoPro junkie now, and recently got a DSLR to add to my memory saver collection.  I hope you are inspired by this blog to get out and be the best at the things you love most!

Still balding but not bald,
-Kyle