Timelapse: Stuttgart in Motion

[Waldspecht]

Stuttgart in Motion is a personal timelapse piece consisting of over 18.000 still photographs shot on the Canon 60D over the last 11 months (January-November) in 2012.
In early 2012 I began playing around with my first timelapses, but the results were very dissatisfing. So I spent more time with Time Lapse photography and learned by trail and error. Some sunsets I shot four times to get a good exposure, and now, after nearly one year, I am glad to show my first result.

All the sequences were shot with the Magic Lantern Intervalometer. I experimented with the bulb ramping feature, but my camera then gets stuck while shooting some epic sunsets. so i went back to the intervalometer and used deflickering tools in post.

Hope you like the video

-Sebastian

[silentwisher]

WOW! Im very impressed!

I just cant believe how beautiful it is.


I have one question though, how did you achieve the day to night shots? With your bulb ramp? I can never seem to get that right at all.

[g3gg0]

amazing. thanks for sharing this perfect video.
it was so good, i watched it twice

(respekt, echt super gmacht)

edit:
i especially like the alternating of saturated/night scenes with somewhat more neutral daylight shots.

[sandisk]

Thunderstorm is great.

I would like to make a timelapse, but to put on a couple of thousand shots on the shutter is a sacrfice.

Can you leave the mirror up and shutter open to take one second of video every thirty seconds? Is that possible?

[Waldspecht]

Thanks for you feedback!

@silentwisher:

I shot the day to night transitions in Av mode. so the f stop (and the sharpness) stays the same, an the exposure time gets longer, the darker it gets. So you have to set your intervall time right. for example: you start with 1/500 at day, and end with 15s at night - than you have to set your intervall time around 17 seconds. Then your Intervall time is always the sam and you dont get some acceleration in your video.

@sandisk:

The shuttercount is a bad thing about timelapse. The 60D takes about 50.000 thousand shutters, the 5D something around 100.000. There are some tricks to "save" your shutter a little bit. shoot in live view and enable "silent picture", then the shutter moves more gently. The worst thing for a shutter are fast exposures, like a 1/8000. So you can try to avoid such exposures for timelapse. The other possibility for saving shutter count is to get a camera with an electronical shutter. I think the 1D markII has such.

[silentwisher]

Thanks for you feedback!

@silentwisher:

I shot the day to night transitions in Av mode. so the f stop (and the sharpness) stays the same, an the exposure time gets longer, the darker it gets. So you have to set your intervall time right. for example: you start with 1/500 at day, and end with 15s at night - than you have to set your intervall time around 17 seconds. Then your Intervall time is always the sam and you dont get some acceleration in your video.

@sandisk:

The shuttercount is a bad thing about timelapse. The 60D takes about 50.000 thousand shutters, the 5D something around 100.000. There are some tricks to "save" your shutter a little bit. shoot in live view and enable "silent picture", then the shutter moves more gently. The worst thing for a shutter are fast exposures, like a 1/8000. So you can try to avoid such exposures for timelapse. The other possibility for saving shutter count is to get a camera with an electronical shutter. I think the 1D markII has such.

Alright I will give this a try. I hope im understanding your instructions correctly. Also, im not sure if you have ever experimented with a GoPro but I know they have time lapse like feature. I have done some in my time on my t2i but im worried that im going to over use it.

[g3gg0]

shoot in live view and enable "silent picture", then the shutter moves more gently.

the shutter does not move at all. the camera is behaving like a webcam in this mode.
downsides:
- lower resolution (LV res)
- sensor powered all time (temperature issue)
- only YUV422 output files

[Christian]

Awesome! 

[Waldspecht]

the shutter does not move at all. the camera is behaving like a webcam in this mode.
downsides:
- lower resolution (LV res)
- sensor powered all time (temperature issue)
- only YUV422 output files

Yes, the YUV422 files are taken if you enable "silent picture" in the Magic Lantern Menu.

What i meant is the Setting inside the Canon Menu.
In the Live view Settings you also can choose "silent shots" in two different modes.
Im Menüpunkt "leise Aufnahme" kann ich bei der 60D zwischen Modus 1 und 2 wechseln. Die 5mkIII hat da sogar noch einen erweiterten, leiseren Aufnhamemodus

I think the silent picture mode of Magic Lantern is the right basic approach, but as long as it doesn't take Raw files, it's useless for timelapse Photography.