Flight Canceled = DEN Timelapse!

Settings
These are multiple timelapses taken while stuck in the DEN airport for the entire day.  They were taken with various ND Filters combined with the Nikkor 18-55, Nikkor 55-300, and Sigma 10-20mm lenses.

Technique
In these videos I was really working on focal points and frames of reference.  I wanted deep depth of field that captured much of the action at DEN.  Of all timelapses I've done so far this was hands down the most enjoyable.  Never was I rushed by lighting, pressed by time, or was cold as I was setting it up.  I actually had some time to work through various settings, try new ones and retake the shots.  This was an incredible learning opportunity of which I hope to spend time timelapsing like this again.

Putting the video together I really wanted to showcase how retiming videos can be a engaging tool that is very easy.  Throughout the video you will notice timelapses speed up, slow down, play in reverse, and even stop at times.  Nothing was done during the shoot other than "overshooting".  If my goal is to get 10-12 second timelapses I will try to capture 15-20 seconds worth of timelapse so that I can speed up, slow down or even pick my favorite section.

Retiming is something that most editing programs will have, some are robust and some are preset speeds.  Either way it is very clear how interesting retiming is.  From reading various blogs and articles they say that retiming is captivating because as you watch a timelapse for a few seconds your brain and eyes start to predict things.  For example: clouds moving across the screen at a constant speed, will trick the brain into predicting that the clouds will move to "X" spot before it actually happens.  All of the sudden the direction of the clouds reverse and your eyes are instantly drawn to the most apparent change.  This is a tactic that I believe can be the easiest yet most impactful effect for beginning editors.  Be creative, don't just stick to the norm.  Retiming can even be taking a few seconds out of a clip as someone walks.  Something this small will be surprisingly catchy!

Thoughts and What's Next?
Like I stated before, these timelapses were a blast to capture and easily the most educational as I was able to spend a long amount of uninterrupted time with the camera.  I need to make it a point to do this more often however the weather unfortunately can be a large determinant of how much time I can spend. Hopefully spring gets here soon!

Most times I hate canceled flights, in this case it worked out...that is until I was re-routed to Chicago and stuck driving home at 4:30am.

What's next, well I'm currently working through Photoshop and Lightroom on a really cool driving sequence.  It may leave you slightly dizzy but the streaks of light at night are pretty awesome, see you next week!

Still balding but not bald,
-Kyle

Twitter & Instagram: @kylelawso
Timelapse Vimeo Channel
The Kyle Life Vimeo Channel

Basic to Advanced Editing Tips and Workflow

Ragin Bajan Barbados
Welcome to a special edition of #TimelapseTuesday!  The video above utilizes a number of timelapses taken during a vacation in Barbados.  Besides the use of the timelapses pay attention to the speed, there are a few times where you will see me utilize "overshooting" to speed up and slowdown timelapses for effects (most notable around 1:40). Quickly- Overshooting is shooting a timelapse at either a shorter interval to produce more pictures or shoot over a longer period of time. The total pictures taken may take 30 seconds to playback in regular speed but by having the extra frames you can either speed up or slowdown the sequence without a loss in quality.

Special Edition
I have received numerous questions regarding what I use to edit, tips for editing and other general questions about the post-production process not aimed at timelapses.  For this #TimelapseTuesday I'm actually going to walk through my workflow for a non-timelapse project and give some tips and tricks along the way.  First I'll discuss the programs I use and suggest cheaper programs for starters.  Following will be the basic workflow that I recommend all starters to master before moving on.  Lastly some advanced steps that I do to take videos to the next level.  If you're already using a program skip to the Basic Editing Workflow.

Programs
I use multiple programs for my editing, below is listed what programs I use and what they are intended for.

• Final Cut Pro X (Mac Only):  The main powerhouse.  Final Cut will handle 90% of the work and is aimed at piecing together your composition, add music, sound FX, transitions, basic effects, and and color corrections.
• Motion5 (Mac Only):  Creates custom templates, animations, advanced effects, motion tracking, advanced titles ect. Creations in  Motion5 are exported to Final Cut to be applied to the video.
• Lightroom:  Used for timelapes to process, color correct, and add effects to the photographs before they are pieced together into a timelapse video sequence.

Below are other programs I would recommend for Mac/PC users both advanced and starter programs.

• Adobe Premier/After Effects:  Professional quality equivalent to Final Cut Pro and Motion5, you will find that this is similar to Microsoft vs Apple type of battle.  Both programs are incredibly powerful but users tend to be loyal to one brand vs other.
• GoPro Studio 2.0:  Free software for creating your edit.  You can build a video from scratch or use templates already created, for free software I'm very happy with the quality of the program.  This is a very good program to start with.
• iMovie: Fairly inexpensive but only available for Mac, of which I feel is on the same level as GoPro Studio 2.0, great for beginners. It will include the ability to add music, limited sound FX, basic transitions, title templates, and very basic effects. iMovie and GoPro Studio 2.0 does not have the ability to keyframe or do advance color corrections.
• iPad Apps:  It may be surprising but my first 5 videos I edited about a year and a half ago were 100% edited on my iPad.  I'm still to this day blown away by how much they can do!  Excellent for beginners, only downside is that any video you want to use for your edit must be on your iPad.
• iMovie:  Recently received an update that turned this once useless app into a good contender.  You can use templates or create your own edit from scratch.  The app can even retime video clips to create slowmotion or speed up clips.
• Pinnacle Studio:  This was the app I used when I edited on my iPad and since the iMovie update they have similar features for the same price.

Basic Workflow

If you still consider yourself a beginner you need to live in and master this workflow before moving on!  A well executed basic workflow will always produce a better, cleaner video than someone who vomits any and every effect and animation on the edit.  Remember this is my workflow and merely a suggestion, if you're unsure where to start follow this workflow and modify to fit your style.

1. With any project you need to review all footage that you have.  By no means should you watch every seconds but skim through a few seconds so you know what content it holds.  As you are reviewing the footage begin to separate your video into folders based on type of shot, activity or chronological order whichever makes the most sense to the project.  This will help you significantly in the next step.
2. I begin looking for a song that fits the mood of the video I'm looking to create.  In my opinion it is valuable to find a lesser known song, my reasoning is that main stream songs are either loved or hated.  Regardless everyone will have thoughts, experience, a mood, or memory attached to it.  You do not want your viewer to go into the video expecting something based on the song and their memories, rather you want the viewer to see and experience the video how you are composing it and intending it to be seen.  While searching for the song I will begin to jot down a very rough order of events.  For example if I'm working based on activity I may write down: Travel to location, snorkeling, beach activities, caves, rum tour, rock climbing, ending.  Keeping this order close to you will keep you on track and focused.
3. Once your song is chosen put it in your timeline and begin to piece video footage based on the order of events you have written down.  In my personal style I like to keep the clips somewhat short, never exceeding more than 7-8 seconds on the same clip.  Also listen and look for beats and changes in the music as these will be natural spots to transition to a different clip.  Here you can use clips in normal speed, speed them up, slow them down but keep them effects free.  Don't feel pressured to have enough clips to fill an entire song, when you run out of exciting or valuable clips fade the music out.
4. Continually watch segments of video and get a feel for it.  Generated transitions like fading in/out of clips, rotating around, flipping, zoom in/out should be used only in places where you feel that the current transition feels awkward.  I do not advise using many of them, for example, there are only 5 preset transitions in the video above and it is nearly 6 minutes long.  The rest of the time it just plainly switches from 1 video to the next one.
5. Export your video and enjoy reliving the moment!

Advanced Workflow

The advanced workflow starts after step 4 of the basic.

1. Color correct each and every clip one by one first for exposures second for color.  DO NOT apply a preset color from a program at this point!  The first step before adding a colored look is you need to balance every clip to look the same.  Let's say you are on vacation for a week and shoot video all week.  Some days will be sunny, cloudy, overcast, underwater, inside, at night, ect.  Each setting produces different colors by the camera and if you apply 1 preset color scheme all clips will react different to the preset, resulting in an inconsistent video.  So how do you do this?  I use a combination of the videoscope and my own 2 eyes.  First start by using the videoscope graph to get you to the ballpark then make minor changes to make it look consistent. By consistent we are talking, all clips have dark rich tones, or light and vibrant, whites are all warm or cool colors but not both.  When using the videoscope the graph will show Red, Green, and Blue on a scale from light to dark.  See picture below. 
   
    On the left is the videoscope, middle is our video, right is the exposure adjustments.  In the videoscope on the left I have circled 2 values, the top is our "absolute white" the bottom is "absolute black"  This means anything above the top circle or below the bottom circle will just be a solid color with no definition.  However if no colors are near the values that means that the picture is flat the colors are not reaching to the full ranges, which we want. Also colors above or below these lines are out of broadcast range so if shown on a TV they will be completely blown out and just merely a glaring white spot or deep black hole.  In this case I will increase the highlights (whites) so that the most faint colors on the graph go slightly above the line (far right white dot will move up).  I also drag the blacks so that the most faint bottom color just goes below that line so we have true black in the video (black dot on the right pane will go down).  Below is the result of the change
    As you can see, this takes the "haze" out of our image.  Next I would adjust the color so they are all a similar color.  For example underwater tends to look green in the ocean and we need to fix the green murkiness.  Below is a before/after of an underwater shot. I find that this is where I tend to use my eyes more often than a graph. I want to make sure that I'm only removing or changing the mis-used colors and not changing the others. 
   
2. Now that all of our colors are neutral we can add our desired overall color effect to give the video our style.  This can be created through changing the colors again in final cut pro or adding a preset. At this point I actually save my current edit as a separate project. I then combine all of my cuts and clips into 1 continuous segment. This way any changes or color effects I make will be to the entire clip as a whole.
3. Lastly I will export this to Motion5 to add any last effects such as lens flares, film burns, or some motion tracking effects. I will cover these processes in a later posting if it is desired.

Tips

• EDITING IS SUBJECTIVE!  Despite writing a workflow of what I do, in no way is this a Bible or what is considered "right".  This is your video so do what feels right.
• Keep your clips short and only show what is important, trim the fat.  If you are showing a snorkeling scene don't show 10 seconds swimming to a good fish, just show a few seconds of a cool fish.  This way you don't lose your audience.
• Find lesser known music that fits the mood.  Doing this allows the audience to focus on the content of your video and their memory attached to the song will be what you create in the video and not the memory of a bad breakup because it was the first song your view listened to after the dramatic breakup!
• Less is more.  Adding an earthquake effect just because you can doesn't add any value to the movie.  Only use effects where it will enhance your story telling.
• Test new effects before publishing them.  If you are trying a new effects open a new project and perfect it before you try to use it.  A failed effect is 10x worse than no effect.
• Use the beats in the music to create natural transitions, but don't be too predictable by using every single beat to transition.
• Go on YouTube for inspiration!  Before creating an edit I always cruise around YouTube or Vimeo for similar content.  It is very easy to pick up good ideas.
• Have fun.  If you are stuck then walk away, drink a beer, sip some bourbon, and come back a different time or day, you will be surprised how much that can  help!

What's Next

Multiple timelapses from non-Wisconsin landscapes!!! YAY!  Hope this helps and if you have any question, your stuck, or need more help/advice on something feel free to comment, email, or send me a message via social media, I'm happy to help! Stay tuned and see you next week, thanks for reading.

Still balding but not bald,
-Kyle

Icemoney

Settings
This timelapse was taken with a f9 aperture / 250 iso / 1/8 exposure / 15" interval / Processed in Lightroom / RAW format / Nikkor 18-55mm lens set to 28mm / Polarizer and ND Filter

Technique
For my birthday I was given a multi colored block of ice with frozen money inside (thanks Jean!) with the intention to use it for a timelapse.  Since the gift was such an awesome idea I had to make sure I did something awesome with it!  How predictable and boring would it be to just simply watch a block of ice melt in a bowl?  Plus if my 6th grade art class taught me anything the mixture of yellow, green, blue, and red would make for nasty brown colored water.  This got me to thinking...it is bitter cold out and well below freezing so how interesting would it be to watch an ice block filled with money melt in the middle of winter!  Clearly the first obstacle wasn't related to the timelapse at all, how would I get this ice to melt, fairly quickly, when it is 11 degrees out?

Fortunately I was stuffing my face with food while I was contemplating this issue when I noticed our wax diffuser.  For the best lighting and effect I needed a way to light up the ice block to bring out the colors and this would do just the thing.  Immediately upon setting it up I realized that the heat wasnt going to be enough (melting wax at room temp is much easier than ice in air below freezing).  The wax diffuser was melting the ice block however very slowly and my battery would only last a few hours.  This is where pouring large amounts of salt on top would come into play and why you saw the blue melting so quickly.  Time was all that was left and watching an iceblock melt in real time is pretty boring so this made for a perfect time for errands to be run.

Coming home to the iceblock in the snow and the camera dead was a huge disappointment and I was already saying it was a big failure of a timelapse, but clearly I lucked out because the clouds in the background and the blue streaks of water in the snow turned out pretty cool!

As far as the techniques go I really wanted to focus on the focal points and depth of the shot.  Just watching a block of ice melt makes it tough to gauge how much time is elapsed.  This is why clouds moving in the background would be so important.  Seeing the clouds whiz by allows the viewer to understand how much time is elapsing.  Looking at those objectives I definitely feel that I did a very great job but failed to melt the block fast enough before the battery died. Whomp whomp

Thoughts and What's Next?
I have taken a little break from struggling with LRTimelapse and deflickering the timelapses.  I'm doing this so that I can take a few weeks to focus on the photography aspect of timelapses.  The more I research and the more cinematic timelapses I watch it is apparent how amazing the pure photography skills are.  Understanding your scene, what the scene will do, how to best capture it and telling the story through pictures is what they excel at the most.  I recently read an article on timelapses and a statement really stuck out.  "Post-production can drastically change any image but there will always be a limit to what it can do.  Capturing the highest quality and best framed picture directly in the camera allows the limits of post-production to be that much more impactful." (timescapes.org)

The lightbulb went off, I realized I need to stop worrying so much about how to fix the flaws in my photography and instead focus that extra energy into eliminating the errors.  By doing so I will be able to use post-production as just an extension of my creativity.

As always I greatly appreciate all of the support, excitement, and curiosity you guys bring to this.  It always makes my day when people tell me how they are excited for a new timelapse on Tuesday!  All of the encouragement really helps me drive harder for better results.

Still balding but not bald,
-Kyle