Tag: time-lapse photography sunshine coast

How to make the best use of your long-term time-lapse video when completed

May 11, 2020
in   Time-lapse Photography
0

The uniqueness about time-lapse photography is that it captures a whole event over time from start to finish and delivers it in a short video to engage your audience. Polish it with background music, branding and some dynamic text to tell a story and it becomes a resource to be utilised in many ways:

  • A marketing and promotional tool – for a media release, to pitch to a prospective client, place on your website portfolio and use on social media channels. This will:
    • add PR value to your business or organisation
    • encourage community engagement
    • assist business development by highlighting capabilities and efficiencies
  • Use internally within your organisation to promote unity and achievement and distribute to key stakeholders to celebrate the project’s success.
  • Use the footage to create other media:
    • use sections of it to incorporate into other media including interviews, ground and aerial footage to produce a comprehensive perspective of the project or event .
    • use for internal collaboration and for content in training videos to improve systems and educate staff.
  • The video is a record of key milestones achieved throughout the project or event – gives you an exact timeline for historical reference and as a legacy to the company & community
  • Share with Stakeholders & investment partners – an impressive way to provide key stakeholders with a visual depiction of the entire project so they are able to see firsthand the progress and status of the project
  • Showcase at launch or client events – wow factor at your launch or sales event
  • To market the development or finished project to potential buyers – sales & marketing teams can use as a tool to sell the product before it is finished being built
  • In email marketing to prospects – use in marketing emails to tease potential buyers or clients
  • Video marketing campaigns on YouTube or Facebook – share on video platforms to generate interest outside your existing network or community

Time-lapse is a wow factor that sales & marketing teams have as an asset. One that is worth the investment as the end product can be used in many different ways.

5 common misconceptions about long term time-lapse photography  

May 11, 2020
in   Time-lapse Photography, Uncategorised
0

When it comes to time-lapse photography there are a number of misconceptions that should be clarified before embarking on a time-lapse style project. Here are 5 things you might not have known about time-lapse.

  1. Don’t you take video, not just photos

    Video captures footage in real-time as it happens and records at 25frames/sec or higher. That’s an enormous amount of footage to manage and store over a long period.

    Let’s look at a 6-month construction project as an example:

    Capturing video for 9hrs/day for 5 days/wk over 26 weeks = 1170hrs of footage or 49 days of continuous viewing and to put into perspective the equivalent of 105.3 million images.

    With time-lapse, we’d set the photo interval at say 10mins for 9hrs/day for 5 days/wk over 26 weeks = 7020 images. When we cull rainy and non-productive days we’re left with say 5000 images. Processing them in a video at 25frames/sec gives us a video length of 3mins 20sec. A much more pleasant time-frame to what a video and a much easier process to manage.

    1. Can time-lapse cameras be used for security

      2. Generally not, although it can have a limited benefit for security. Time-lapse photography’s main purpose is to capture and document change over a period of time, taking still images at regular intervals, not continuous video. For long-term projects, this means photos could be taken anywhere between 10-30mins or longer. Therefore, site activity in between these intervals is not captured.

      The other consideration is time-lapse images are captured in high resolution, up to say 24MP, to produce various high-quality outcomes. These images are also uploaded and stored to an online gallery to assist with project management for the duration of the event, activity or construction project. Uploading or storage of hi-res video over long periods is impractical due to the large files sizes. Security footage that is streamed or uploaded is therefore generally low-res and B & W, footage that is stored locally on a hard drive maybe colour. Security footage is also generally only kept for short periods, maybe a week, again due to storage restrictions, then overwritten where time-lapse images are stored from start to finish over weeks, months or years.

      1. You don’t need to de-flicker time-lapse images

        2. This may be true if you are capturing footage over a short time frame and taking images at intervals of secs, like a sunset. But with long term time-lapse where you are capturing footage over days, weeks or months you are going to experience many various lighting conditions (the other exception to this is shooting indoors with controlled lighting with little or no light variations via external windows).

        These varying light conditions result in images with different exposures and when stitched into a video played at normal speed creates a flickering effect. De-flickering of footage using sophisticated software smooths out the light frequency curve by adjusting the exposure of thousands of individual images through batch editing. This makes the viewing experience of the final product much more pleasant.

        1. One camera is enough

        This really depends on the project, desired outcomes, how creative we need to be, and budget. Capturing a mural being painted on the side of a building will generally only require one camera unless the brief requires different angles to be captured.

        Capturing long term time-lapse requires a camera to be static in a fixed location. On a large-scale construction project all activity may not be able to be capture from the one position:

        • particularly where various activities are happening around the site at the same time
        • one thing that’s being construction may block the view of another
        • The project is of a size that it can’t be captured by the field of view of 1 camera
        • The length of the project may require cameras to be placed at intervals

        There are times when 1 camera can work and that’s when the activity is staged which provides an opportunity to move the camera to various locations to capture the relevant activity at the time.

        1. Why do I need a whole time-lapse system, won’t the camera do?

        This may be the case if you are capturing footage over a short period of time, and you are with the equipment, provided your camera has a built-in intervalometer (controls the camera to take photos at regular intervals that you set, amongst other features). An external intervalometer can also be plugged into most modern cameras.

        But for long term time-lapse photography the system needs to be self-sustaining of which there are 3 main considerations:

        1. Weather
        2. Power
        3. Monitoring the system

         

        It is important to understand how time-lapse works and not get caught up in misconceptions, so we can ensure we use the right equipment and you can get the most out of your investment.

        Got questions, go to our FAQ’s or contact me directly on tony@aerialviewphotography.com.au

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