Tom Lowe Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Video: http://www.vimeo.com/6686768 A few shots from my trip to the White Mountains and Yosemite in August. As usual, I will mention that I am very keen on shooting 2nd Unit timelapse for features and commercials, so feel free to PM or email if you have a project that might benefit from timelapse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simpson Posted September 21, 2009 Share Posted September 21, 2009 Just amazing Tom, would love to work with you someday!! If im lucky! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Satsuki Murashige Posted September 21, 2009 Premium Member Share Posted September 21, 2009 Beautiful work, Tom! Just keep doing what you do, and the work will come... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Thomas Dobbie Posted September 22, 2009 Premium Member Share Posted September 22, 2009 Beautiful work,I think this is the best you've done so far.They just keep on getting better. Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thom Stitt Posted September 22, 2009 Share Posted September 22, 2009 (edited) This is absolutely stunning, jaw dropping. I haven't been very regular here, but I do read far more than I post - and forgive me if all of this has been answered to death in the past, but I can't help but want to ask a thousand questions. Can you give any technical details on your equipment? Tripod, head, lenses? the time lapse dolly looks like a custom job, and man does it look like a cool toy. Did you design and build yourself? Also, how much do you research these locations, and what are your primary resources for determining where exactly the milky way is going to appear in the sky, etc? How much post processing do you do, and how do you go about adjusting exposure during longer time lapses? The footage is just gorgeous, I can't say it enough. I'll ask one (or three) more questions. Have you done much urban time lapse cinematography? the Ron Fricke influence is evident, and I'd love to see what you do in a big city. Another thing I'd love to see is this quality of time lapse in stormy weather. Thunderstorms, lightning, big swirling dark clouds. I did notice one incredible shot with distant rain showers, but was wondering if you had storm-chasing anywhere in your agenda. Thanks for sharing, and great work. EDIT: I just realized there's a Tom, a Thomas, and a Thom in this thread. That is all. Edited September 22, 2009 by Thom Stitt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lowe Posted September 26, 2009 Author Share Posted September 26, 2009 This is absolutely stunning, jaw dropping. I haven't been very regular here, but I do read far more than I post - and forgive me if all of this has been answered to death in the past, but I can't help but want to ask a thousand questions. Can you give any technical details on your equipment? Tripod, head, lenses? the time lapse dolly looks like a custom job, and man does it look like a cool toy. Did you design and build yourself? Hey Thom. You can get a lot of these details at the timescapes.org forum: http://www.timescapes.org/phpBB3/index.php I use a Canon 5D Mark II with the EF 16-35 II and the 24mm f/1.4 I. Bogen legs. The dolly is custom. I had a local welder help me. It uses a Mumford rotary stepper motor for motion. Also, how much do you research these locations, and what are your primary resources for determining where exactly the milky way is going to appear in the sky, etc? I spend a lot of time camping and searching and scouting locations. Lately I have been using the "Pocket Universe" and "Focalware" apps on my iPhone 3Gs to anticipate where celestial objects will be in the night sky. It works great! How much post processing do you do, and how do you go about adjusting exposure during longer time lapses? Processing takes a lot of time, because I am shooting 21mp RAW frames and demosaicing them in After Effects using ACR. The final quality is stunning though. The footage is just gorgeous, I can't say it enough. I'll ask one (or three) more questions. Have you done much urban time lapse cinematography? the Ron Fricke influence is evident, and I'd love to see what you do in a big city. Another thing I'd love to see is this quality of time lapse in stormy weather. Thunderstorms, lightning, big swirling dark clouds. I did notice one incredible shot with distant rain showers, but was wondering if you had storm-chasing anywhere in your agenda. Yes, I have been trying to shoot more urban and stormy weather shots. I shot 2nd unit for an Audi commercial in LA in June and got some beautiful shots of the freeways and city skyline. Anyway, thanks for your kind words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 Very fine work indeed. My only suggestion if you want to do this commercially would be to shoot some major city scenes. NYC and LA in the USA, and Hong Kong and London for international. You are pretty heavy on landscapes and desert scenes. Also a TL shot always in demand is buildings being built. TL flowers always sell well also. I sent you a PM of a contact at a major stock footage house that can sell your work quite nicely for you, if you have an interest. R, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lowe Posted September 30, 2009 Author Share Posted September 30, 2009 Very fine work indeed. My only suggestion if you want to do this commercially would be to shoot some major city scenes. NYC and LA in the USA, and Hong Kong and London for international. You are pretty heavy on landscapes and desert scenes. Also a TL shot always in demand is buildings being built. TL flowers always sell well also. I sent you a PM of a contact at a major stock footage house that can sell your work quite nicely for you, if you have an interest. R, I do sell stock at Getty and elsewhere. I only do it to get money to buy more equipment, and I never really set out to shoot stock specifically. It's just a byproduct of doing what I am interested in. I do have some urban stuff, and am trying to do a lot more of that. Thanks for the kind words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simpson Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Hey Tom quick question, Im doing a stop motion project and i want to do a night sky. How often would you take a photo? Much Appreciated. George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lowe Posted November 16, 2009 Author Share Posted November 16, 2009 Hey Tom quick question, Im doing a stop motion project and i want to do a night sky. How often would you take a photo? Much Appreciated. George Just expose the sky properly, and do short intervals between 1 second to 5 seconds. 4s is a good number. I wouldn't go longer than 5s intervals, in order to keep the shot flowing smoothly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted November 16, 2009 Premium Member Share Posted November 16, 2009 I just got back from a vacation in Yosemite, first time I've been there -- boy, that's a photographer's wet dream... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simpson Posted November 16, 2009 Share Posted November 16, 2009 Wow wet dream indeed! Thanks Tom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lowe Posted November 17, 2009 Author Share Posted November 17, 2009 David, like you, I've spent almost all of my life in California, but I had never been to Yosemite until 2007. It was almost like a religious experience for me. Did you get up to Glacier Point? I lost my mind the first time I saw the view from up there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member George Ebersole Posted November 30, 2009 Premium Member Share Posted November 30, 2009 David, like you, I've spent almost all of my life in California, but I had never been to Yosemite until 2007. It was almost like a religious experience for me. Did you get up to Glacier Point? I lost my mind the first time I saw the view from up there! Tom; have you ever used a HD camera shooting at normal speed, then manipulating the stuff in post to simulate time lapse? What's been your experience with that kind of route? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lowe Posted December 2, 2009 Author Share Posted December 2, 2009 Tom; have you ever used a HD camera shooting at normal speed, then manipulating the stuff in post to simulate time lapse? What's been your experience with that kind of route? I have, and it should work fine. It's actually smoother for certain types of timelapse, like driving. Of course, you are limited to the resolution of the HD camera and the record time of the media -- CF, P2, tape, etc. One great thing about timelapse is the huge, huge jump in image quality from a standard HD camera to RAW still frames. The 5D Mark II RAW frames, for example are 5.6K wide, 21MP per frame. Downsampled to 1080p, the quality is stunning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Auner aac Posted December 2, 2009 Premium Member Share Posted December 2, 2009 Hi Tom, truly awesome work! Are these preset manual exposure or do you also do bracketing? My next TL test will be with a -2/0/+2 bracket so whether I can squeeze more info out of that. I'll be doing a 24 hrs thing, so exposure will vary more than most of your shots though. Are the pans stepper motor driven? Regards, Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member George Ebersole Posted December 4, 2009 Premium Member Share Posted December 4, 2009 I have, and it should work fine. It's actually smoother for certain types of timelapse, like driving. Of course, you are limited to the resolution of the HD camera and the record time of the media -- CF, P2, tape, etc. One great thing about timelapse is the huge, huge jump in image quality from a standard HD camera to RAW still frames. The 5D Mark II RAW frames, for example are 5.6K wide, 21MP per frame. Downsampled to 1080p, the quality is stunning. Fantastic, that's kind of the reply I was hoping for. I've been trying to get a couple projects off the ground, but both keep running into roadblocks, so I thought I'd do a study in motion using HD time lapse. Before digital an SFX artist I worked for told me about some of the ILM guys engineering Nikon and Pentax cameras for go-motion and time lapse kind of stuff. Kind of like what you're doing, though the resolution they got was no where near what you're getting here. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Lowe Posted December 21, 2009 Author Share Posted December 21, 2009 Hi Tom, truly awesome work! Are these preset manual exposure or do you also do bracketing? My next TL test will be with a -2/0/+2 bracket so whether I can squeeze more info out of that. I'll be doing a 24 hrs thing, so exposure will vary more than most of your shots though. Are the pans stepper motor driven? Regards, Dave All manual, no brackets. Pans are stepper driven, but I am planning to move to continuous motion. Stepper is too jerky, I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shanelee Posted December 22, 2009 Share Posted December 22, 2009 (edited) Those time lapse's where phenomenal!! What aperture and shutter speed did you use for the star shots? What size card did you have in the camera? Edited December 22, 2009 by Shanelee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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