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Tips on capturing hi-quality night time-lapse movies with your DSLR camera
(continued from Tips - page 4):
Backup your files:
It's the same line the computer tech in the office has been preaching for years; backup your work. As soon as you're done with your
shooting sequence you should copy your DSLR camera image files onto a portable storage device, a laptop, or a desktop PC. Doing so gives
you two working copies of your image files, at least until you shoot the next time-lapse sequence with the same camera memory card. I
hate to see it when people lose their files, not to mention the time and effort it took to get the shots. Avoid this pitfall and remember to
backup your photo files as soon as possible. This is an important step!
As part of your imaging work flow it's wise to have a separate folder to store your original files (like film negatives). Files in this
folder should remain unchanged. Use a secondary folder as a work area for post-production. Keeping originals safe will always allow you to
re-process or re-edit your work without unintentionally overwriting your original files. When you lose a file of a still image you lose one
image, when you lose a file from a time-lapse sequence you may ruin the continuity of the entire sequence.
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Image file naming sequence:
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In order for your new image file sequence to be processed correctly in software like QuickTime Pro your image file names need to be
sequentially numbered, like IMG1000...IMG1001...IMG1002, etc. Some cameras recycle the image file numbering sequence so that after 9999
they revert back to 0000. If you have a sequence that starts with say IMG1997...IMG1998...IMG1999, but then goes to IMG0000...IMG0001...
IMG0002, etc., then you're going to have problems with the numbering sequence that QuickTime Pro is expecting. Have a plan to deal with
this before you begin post-production. Whatever software you use to put your video together it's just a real good idea to have all
of your image file names sequentially numbered.
Seeing your video for the first time:
As it is with film, you don't really get to see your results until some processing is done. One rather quick and straight-forward way to
process your image sequence is to run it through
QuickTime Pro. This software
is inexpensive and very useful, and it's available on the web. Follow these steps using QuickTime Pro v7.6 (for Windows):
* Select "File" from the top-level menu, then click "Open Image Sequence" and select the folder where your image
sequence is stored
* Select the first file in the sequence (the lowest sequentially numbered file)
* Click the "Open as read only" box and select the desired "Frame rate" for the video playback
* Click "Open" to begin processing
QuickTime Pro will then compile the image sequence into a video for you to work with. This process can take a while so be patient. Once
completed you'll see only part of your video on screen (unless you have a super-resolution monitor). Most likely, you'll have to tell
QuickTime Pro to reduce the video playback size (select "View" from the top-level menu, then click "Fit to Screen").
(continued...)
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Tested
