Timelapse of a Building under Construction (help!)

[andyundo]

Hello everyone! I need advice on making timelapses.

I have been asked to make a timelapse of a building under construction. The works have barely started, and I want it well done. I've got no problem going to the site as many times as it's needed as it is one block away from my office, and they are sponsoring the project.

Construction begins now, and the building infrastructure finishes in December. The whole building will be done by July 2012.

I have a Nikon d-80, a tripod and a 18-135mm DX Lens.

How many pictures will I have to take per day? Is my equipment ok? What angles are appropriate for the timelapse? Any more advice to give me?

thanks for the input!!

[SwissJon]

Hi..

I would suggest you use the 18mm end of your lens and choose a spot that allows you to take in as much of the site as possible. Try to always use the same spot and point the camera in the same direction, to try to prevent the film from being too jittry.. If you want to change spot or direction, try to either do it very slowly, so the film looks like it's panning, a small move each day, or in one very large change once, like a cut between subjects on a tv film.. Don't be tempted to shift the camera a lot and often, it gets tiring on the eye.

The number of photos you take depends on how long you want the film and how many frames you are going to show per second... Take one photo a day from now until July 2012 is, let's say 500 days, for ease of calculation. If you show 5 frames per second, then 1 picture a day will give you 100 seconds.. 1 minute 40 seconds. If you go for 24 frames a second (Normal frame rate), then 1 frame an hour will give you 100 seconds. If you show 1 frame a second, then 500 frames will give you 8 mins 20 seconds.. It also depends on how interesting the subject is.. If lots of things are happening quickly, more photos..

Sooo.. The answer to your question is very much dependant on how you want your film to appear and how long you want it to last and what's going on.

Personally I would be tempted to take one frame a day at the same time of day.. Either mid day, or dusk, so that the light differences aren't to much, but you could vary it.. Building site lit at night make interesting subjects. There's nothing stopping you from varying your frame rate if things start to change quickly, or the opposite, if nothing much changes for a long while.

You can get shutter releases that you can set up the timer on, so you could take your camera on site at the beginning of the day, set it to take a certain number of photos per hour, and then come back and get your camera in the evening..

Sounds like an interesting and fun project.

[Krusty79]

An Introduction to Time-Lapse Photography

How I Made a Time Lapse Movie with My DSLR

The Ultimate Guide to Time-Lapse Photography | Photojojo

[S_Sanyal]

Hi andyundo. Must say thats an interesting project...

I should begin by saying that I'm not an expert at this

And what I'm posting here is my first attempt. It has many technical errors about what not to do (no tripod etc.)...the subject is jumping and is a bit strenuous on the eyes in a way, though some viewers have said that it adds to the feel.

However, why I'm giving you this example is to show that if you were to get a bit more adventurous, you may want to shoot in at different times of the days over your time span till July 2012 (to give the impression that the building was built in say one day..to add to drama of speed of construction etc...i am an architect by profession, so i know that rush!)

I think for a construction site it is paramount that the viewpoint remains constant for most part, especially if its a short film of say a minute or two...it will have a lot more impact. ANything longer than that will try stretching a viewer's attention span IMHO. The rest, you're the boss! Wish you all the best.



This is made from about 127 frames shot over one afternoon / early evening played at 10 fps. Shot on a D90 with 18-200mm VRII lens. SHots at 4 fps initially and upto 4 sec exposures for night scenes.