Autoliner Time Lapse
Another timelapse series from Trafalgar Park in Oak Bay. Today’s view is through a telephoto lens looking across the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the Olympic Mountains in Washington State, and then two more views across Trial Island following the progress of an autoliner as it makes its way towards Vancouver. The Olympics on a clear day make a fabulous view that we in Victoria see regularly, though I have never become used to it – it always stops me in my tracks for a look. And that is without being able to discern the roiling clouds. Timelapse adds something important to an already terrific scene. This is the video mentioned in yesterday’s ‘teaser’ with more stills from the video. My other timelapse videos can be found here.
To view the video click on the image below.
I find that viewing it at high-resolution in WordPress runs a bit rough and recommend you move over to YouTube and watch if full screen at high-resolution.
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I continue to learn from mistakes. This time my focus was on transforming the images with Lightroom edits to bring out the best from the slightly hazy conditions. What caused me the most problem was sensor spot removal. In the middle series I had not yet realised that LRTimelapse does not copy spot removal data and that this has to be done in Lightroom with the sync feature. So, there are spots in the sky. However this turned out to be preferable to using the spot removal tool, synced across the images because sometimes it produces a poor match and they flicker. This can be observed in the last scene if you look closely (the last scene was rendered 3 times attempting different results.
What I settled on was to only deal with the worst spots in ‘heal’ mode, and I used the smallest tool size that would do the job working at a 1:1 view to place them accurately. I also made sure all the copying locations were close to the spot that was being healed. Next time I think I will make the heal a bit transparent – this will take the edge off the spots and they should not be all that visible, but also off the occasional errant heal as well reducing the flicker. Better yet would be to get the sensor cleaned – my own efforts in that department are necessarily cautious and thus not effective enough.
The first scene is shot every 5 seconds – I set the camera up for the clouds, not the ship which is too fast moving for that interval. So, when I swung the camera around to follow the ship past Trial Island I reduced the interval to 2 seconds. Since the ship was closer by then, it was even more important.
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Technical Details: Canon EOS 5Dmkii, SMC Takumar 200mm/f4 lens, ISO100, 3-stop graduated ND filter, all images shot the same within scenes, first scene: f-4, 1/200th, 158 stills taken 5 seconds apart; second scene: f-10, 1/50th, 107 stills shot 2 seconds apart; third scene: f-10, 1/50th, 91 stills taken 2 seconds apart. Covers the time from 17:54 to 18:17hrs, April 15th, 2013. All taken with the aid of a Pixel TW-282 timer. Manual settings, custom white balance, smaller RAW files shot at 3861 x 2574. Edited in Lightroom 4 and LRTimelapse 2.3.1, then rendered as a movie through LR4 Slideshow module, with LRTimelapse templates. I chose the 24fps option.
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burnt embers 
Wow…my new Fav TL of yours! Man, the boiling clouds in the first part simply rocks (and it was hard to spot (hahaha) the sensor dust). Your TL are really inspiring me to get out and try this. 🙂
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I would love to see some of your TL – all that great composition and processing applied to a video. For instance, you have a great shot of the metal skin of a building, reflecting a lot of beautiful colours from the sky. At sunrise/set that could be an awesome TL, in my view of the world anyway.
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So great, this puts a big smile on my face.
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The jerky boat movement is somehow, in some dim corner of my mind, reminiscent of Monty Python animations. I am sure there is no good reason for that association, but it makes me smile as well.
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The cloud sequence in the first part is superb – they really are boiling. Clouds and mountains have a very active relationship – I see that so often in the Alps. Never tried time-lapse out there, but one could capture some impressive sequences.
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Thank you Andy. I expect that the Alps would make for some fantastic time-lapse sequences. The Olympic Mountains are often like this as they are on a peninsula and the wet Pacific winds frequently blow right over them. There are only so many days though when we can see it clearly as there is often fog on the other side, or cloud in between.
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Fantastic images, Ehpem! I love the cloud effects. You’ve inspired me! Another week of end of semester craziness and I will have time to try this technique, can’t wait.
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That’s fantastic Lynn – are you thinking garden timelapse, or landscape, or ?? I look forward to seeing whatever you come up with.
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I’m thinking clouds while we have the strong winds of spring, but also plants growing and opening. As soon as I recover from the 10 hour days at the end of the semester!
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Well, good luck with it! If you are using an automatic lens, there are tricks to locking the aperture so it acts like a manual and does not open and close with each shot. I have not had to do it, but I take it that you set the aperture to the desired opening, press the depth of field button and then very slightly undo the lens so that the contacts are broken between camera and lens. Sounds a bit risky, but if on a tripod and not moving the camera probably safe enough, if you remember to relock the lens afterwards. Or, it may not be necessary. LRTimelapse has a de-flicker option which appears to deal with that problem nicely and other software must as well.
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Love this – played it a few times, the cloud sequence is superb.
David.
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Thanks David! The clouds around here do many wonderful things. Perhaps that is true everywhere, but I have not looked at them with accelerated time.
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I had to look very closely to find any dust spots on the sensor on this TL, so keep doing whatever you’re doing. The clouds and the passing ships are perfect subjects in the TL and the mountains in the background are beautiful. Do you ever go up to the mountains?
I’ve also found the heal mode in LR4 is better at hiding sensor spots that the clone mode. I struggle with the same problem. I have no excuse because the shop where I bought the camera has free sensor cleaning for life. i just hate to be without it for a few days.
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Hi Ken – the motion tends to hide them, but I did keep one example of how sparkly they can look. Might post that one day in a series on how not to do things…
I have not been up into the Olympics for a while now – the border hassles are an obstacle, and the ferry costs too. However, once we get off the ferry, its only a 20 minute drive to reach the alpine zone at 5500 feet near the area in the first part of this series. That is in the national park. From there it is a short walk to get away from the tour bus passengers and have some scenery to oneself, and a few others perhaps. It feels like cheating. Especially wonderful when the spring flowers are out in the summer, but I have cross country skied up there in the winter too, a few decades ago when I was working on the Olympic Peninsula an hour to the west of here. Fabulous place, and so close.
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