Time Lapse video of Mariner of the Seas

[ASeaPrincess1]

That was amazing! Thank you.

I got on Mariner the day you got off............

Funny, though, our tour guide Mario said that was HIS yacht!:p:D

Great video.

[rainyPNW]

I Did you leave your camera alone on your balcony or did you just sit with it for a long time? Did you use a tripod and did you fasten it to the ship (ie the railings or something)? Does your Canon Powershot G2 have time lapse capability built in or do you have some other device that triggers the shutter?

 

Ok ... you asked :)

 

Here's how this particular video works. There are numerous ways, and I

use 2 of them. Here's a "how to" on how this PARTICULAR video was made:

 

1. I had an old (2002 or so) Canon Powershot G2 camera laying around. I

chose this camera because it is easy to use with the software I'll describe.

You can buy the Powershot G2 on eBay for under $100 - but you must

make sure it comes with the software CD, the AC power adapter, and the

USB cable to connect it to a laptop.

 

2. Go to http://www.granitebaysoftware.com and purchase their Time Lapse

software ($79). This software (runs on Windows XP or Vista) will then

control the camera and store all the frames.

 

3. The camera MUST be on a tripod. I used a really cheapo (since gone

to the trash it was so bad) that I set up on the balcony table several

hours before each sequence would be set to start.

 

4. Experiment with exposure setting using 'preview' in the GBT software.

This part is tricky - you want as fast a shutter speed as you can muster,

consistent with lowest ISO setting ('speed') - the iris aperture (F-stop)

is the least concern as most shore stuff is far away. I shot MOST of the

frames at F2, with a shutter speed of 1/30th to 1/1000th of a second,

using the 'preview' to get the best average exposure value. The sunset

sequences were all F8 at 1/1000th second to start, down to 1/15th at

F2 for the "venus setting" sequence. Once a setting is selected for

a period of time, click on "lock exposure" so the camera won't try to

auto-change anything.

 

5. I use an external hard drive to store the images. The files are large,

and you'll have a LOT of them. My computer for this video was a MacBook

running Windows XP under bootcamp - but any windows laptop would do

the same. I use a 500gb external drive for the time lapse sequences.

 

6. 1 to 2 hours before departure/arrival, I started the sequence with a

frame rate most often of 5.5 seconds per frame. Slower scenes or where

the exposures were longer I had to bump it up to 12 to allow the data to

transfer to the external hard drive.

 

7. Just hit "start" after a final verification of exposure and composition, and

go to dinner or the show! Feel free to be gone for 2 hours or more - you

can always delete unneeded dark frames in post processing.

 

8. Repeat for each sequence. All that varies is the exposure value, zoom,

and composition. It's important to sort each sequence of frames into its

own folder - this will help a LOT during Post Processing.

 

AFTER THE CRUSE STEPS - Initial sequencing:

 

1. Purchase ($30) and download Apple QuickTime PRO (not the free version - that won't work)

 

2. In QTP under file, select "new sequence". Point the program to the first

image in the first sequence folder. It will take a few minutes before anything

happens. You'll eventually see a HUGE window open - click the minimize

button to make it manageable. DON'T HIT PLAY at this point! Most likely

will crash the computer. Instead, click "file>export" and select DV-NTSC

as the output format. That's the most friendly for post production. In a

few minutes you'll have a rendered motion sequence from that group of

frames - ready for processing.

 

3. Repeat for each sequence folder you created in the time lapse.

 

4. Download and install "VirtualDub" (http://virtualdub.sourceforge.net/).

This is the post production software that will make the sequence more

smooth and professional. Also download and install the DeFlicker plugin

for VirtualDub (http://www.soft32.com/download_199060.html). Both

applications are free to download and use. You'll also want the Chroma

(color) smoother and Temporal (time anomaly) smoother. They are

included with VirtualDub. I'd suggest reading the help file and web site

for all of this to learn how to use it - it's not hard, but out of the scope

of this post to go into the details. You can also use Adobe After

Effects for all of this, but it's MUCH harder and not free! Or any other

video post production software - VirtualDub is easy to use and free.

 

5. Apply VirtualDub with DeFlicker, Chroma Smoother, and Temporal

Smoother to each and every sequence of the video - in other words,

each scene sequence. This will make them all match in tone and 'feel'.

Once you've done this to every sequence (12 I think in my video) you're

done with the "post processing" part.

 

FINAL ASSEMBLY - make the movie!

 

1. I use Windows Movie Maker (Vista) because it's included with Vista

and easy to use. But any movie software will work (like iMovie for Mac,

which I don't like as much).

 

2. I won't go into how to make a movie - read the tutorials on how to

bring your post-production clips into the software, add fade-in and

fade-out transitions, titles, and soundtrack. WAY too much to cover

in this post - but it's not hard if you are willing to read help files and

tutorials. Really quite easy.

 

That's the process. It's a LOT of work but worth the effort. It took

about 20 hours of total time to make this 9 minute movie.

 

You can also skip the Canon G2 / Granite Bay step and purchase a

PClix intervalometer (Pclix.com) - I have one that I use on my Nikon camera

that doesn't require a computer. It's a little tricky to get used to but works

very well and doesn't tie you to a computer for the sequence capture.

 

Sorry for the long post.... just thought some might want the technical

details of how this is done.

 

My fingers are tired!!

 

Dave

RainyPNW