Skip to content

Random Connections

A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Photos
  • Resources
  • Other Voices
  • Post Archives
  • Home
  • Photography
  • Hyper-Lapse

Hyper-Lapse

Posted on October 16, 2012 By Tom 1 Comment on Hyper-Lapse
Photography

Screen Shot 2012-10-16 at 10.42.22 PM

I love time-lapse photography. I’ve experimented with it a bit, with both iOS devices and various cameras. However, time-lapse really takes commitment. I’ve done this math on this blog before, but I’ll do it again. Let’s say that you’re shooting one shot every 30 seconds. If your video is a standard 30 frames per second (fps), then it would take 15 minutes for one second’s worth of video. One hour would give you four seconds. 24 hours would be 1.6 minutes worth. That’s not a lot.

However, for good time-lapse you need some persistence of vision. 30 fps is probably too fast. You could either reduce the frame rate, or you could decrease the time interval to something like once every 5 seconds. Either way it’s still a commitment in time.

Plus there are other factors to consider. If you’re shooting outdoors or on location you have to protect your gear from the weather and you need to keep it secure. There’s also the issue of power. Will your camera run that long on batteries, or does it need external power? It can be daunting.

I have learned a couple of things, though. A static shot can be very boring. Sure, it’s neat to watch a full day in several minutes, but even those several minutes can get tedious if not much is happening. Secondly, you have to keep your shot very stable. Any variation can cause an unpleasant jerk.

For keeping interest, 1.6 seconds is probably too long for a scene. Some of the best time-lapse videos change scenes regularly. If nothing is happening in the scene, it can be edited out, or it may go by so fast as to not be an issue.

A new technique has become popular with time-lapse photographers, and it runs a bit counter to my second point above. The idea is to introduce a bit of controlled motion to the time-lapse shot. This has an effect similar to the “Ken Burns” effect used in his Civil War series, where a static image moved slightly to prevent eye fatigue. My brother Houston taught me the term for this – hyper lapse.

In a hyper lapse video, the camera moves along a defined path very, very slowly. Most often the speed is controlled by some mechanism. However, here’s one example where someone did a hand-held version, then cleaned up the shakes and weird angles in post production…

Sydney hyperlapse test from James Gilbert on Vimeo.

Most videographers, though, use some sort of dolly system. Several simple systems are available anywhere from $400 to $1500.

Here’s an example of a video shot with a Dynamic Perception dolly…

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Note that the scenes change frequently, and the slight smooth movement of the camera adds interest to the shot. The movement can be just about any direction – horizontal, vertical, or at an angle.

Perhaps one of the most dramatic hyper-lapse videos I’ve seen was a lip-synced music video. The singer had to precisely position his mouth in time with the music. The results are nothing short of astounding.

Dream Music: Part 2 from Marc Donahue on Vimeo.

I don’t think I’m going to come anywhere close to these types of videos, but they are cool to watch. My new D7000 has time-lapse capabilities, so maybe I’ll give it a shot sometime. Until then, though, I’ll just enjoy these.

Tags: hyper-lapse Photography time-lapse video Vimeo

Post navigation

❮ Previous Post: Fall Passings
Next Post: Oktoberfest at Haus Heidelberg ❯

One thought on “Hyper-Lapse”

  1. Ed says:
    October 22, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    Interesting post. You found some pretty impressive examples and I think the Sydney video shows that I can probably give this a shot without much equipment. Just time and practice.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Categories

  • EdTech (200)
  • Entertainment (202)
  • Family (121)
  • Gear (115)
  • General Technology (99)
  • Geocaching and Maps (208)
  • History and Genealogy (266)
  • Internet (144)
  • Local (451)
  • Miscellaneous (550)
  • Music (196)
  • Paddling (248)
  • Photography (779)
  • Podcast (6)
  • Rambling (227)
  • Rants (161)
  • Recipes (34)
  • Religion (48)
  • Restaurants (165)
  • Science (48)
  • Things Overheard (29)
  • Travel (411)
  • Uncategorized (129)
  • Washington Sabbatical (113)
  • Weirdness (60)

Recent Posts

  • In Search of the Road Builder
  • The Phoenix Riots and Dr. Benjamin Mays – An MLK Day Ramble
  • An Obsession with Steak Knives
  • An Epiphany on Patriotism
  • Kayaking Bates Old River and Running Creek

Recent Comments

  • Kris Chappell on The Sad Fate of Chappells
  • Joel Nagy on Old Pickens Court House
  • Derek May on The Haunting of Farr’s Bridge
  • Roger Combs on Mystery Cemetery
  • Roger Combs on Mystery Cemetery

Tags

blogging cemetery Christmas Columbia Edisto River edtech Entertainment family Flickr Florida Furman Furman University gear Georgia geotagging Ghost Town Ghost Towns Google Earth Google Maps GPS Greenville Greenville Chorale history Instructional Technology kayaking Lake Jocassee LCU Lowcountry Unfiltered maps Music North Carolina Paddling Photography rambling restaurant Restaurants review singing social networking South Carolina time-lapse Travel video Washington Washington State
January 2023
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Dec    

Copyright © 2023 Random Connections.

Theme: Oceanly by ScriptsTown