Kids Cameras

You step out of your car, camera is in one hand and equipment bag in the other. You look back at your two assistants and exchange glances, similar thoughts going through your minds. This is going to be interesting.

You’ve never attempted what you are about to in this shoot. It’s not like you haven’t completed similar shoots, it’s just that, well, this next shoot will push you to the max of your abilities.

Excitement, fear, and trepidation all swirl in your head. As you walk up the drive to your client’s home for the on-location shoot, you survey the beautiful surroundings. Two acres of green grass surrounded by hedges. Strong, sturdy trees. A swing set. You make a mental note to watch the sun spots fall through the trees so your lighting is even.

You quickly run through your checklist one more time:

• Beautiful early morning weather: check
• Bench seat: check
• 4 gig of memory: check
• Lots of energy: check (good thing you had that triple shot on the way over)
• 3 ideas for shots: check
• Camera set to Shutter Speed Priority: check (for this shoot, “capture” is what matters most)
• Camera set to multiple shots: check (you definitely plan on going “trigger happy”)
• Two assistants: check
• Fast thinking for the unexpected: check

You are ready… you hope.

The next thing you know the front door bursts open and a swarm of children run outside: nine kids under the age of nine. “Hey, everyone!” You muster excitement in your voice. “How are you today?” High pitched voices return your greeting. “Ready to take some pictures?”

The kids run to the play set as their grandmother and mothers come out the door. They smile as you chit chat about the Grandchildren shoot. You learn who woke up from their mid-morning nap, and who goes down next. One mother points out to you that her son has been rather crabby this morning, so he may be some work to cooporate. You hope you can remember which one he is.

Most of the kids are swinging (or running around the swings), so you start there. Very quickly you realize that you probably have less than five minutes to set up, take, and capture each shot. Thankfully, you have assistants to help.

You place the two most active boys in the kiddie swing, just hoping they can sit still for 1.5 minutes. You balance the others by pairing older children with younger ones, around and in between the sets of swings.

3 minutes down.

You can tell your time is running out. Your assistants finish adjusting the children’s positions as you snap a rapid series of test shots. The moms and grandmother behind you are all calling out for their kids attention. You would think that 5 people yelling out names would be enough to have everyone looking at the camera in at least one picture.

That is your hope. Of course, that is before the four year old makes a wild break for the house.

Your assistant - a 6′5″ basketball player - chases him down and sets him back in the shot. This time, you take pictures in between him running out of the picture and your assistant inserting him back in. 20 seconds of rapid fire later, it’s time to give the kids a break.

This is where things will get interesting.

“Are we ready for some exercise?” you ask, and the kids respond with shouts. “Okay then! Let’s have a race! We are all going to run to the far tree and back. Whoever comes in first will win okay? On your marks, get set, go!”

Who would have thought that I would be a children’s entertainer as a photographer? You didn’t ever expect to run across the lawn in the middle of nine high-energy kids this morning when you woke up. But hey, if it works to get energy out, you aren’t going to complain. It’s actually pretty fun, you decide.

Seven minutes of running around and “follow the leader” has the kids a bit more subdued. You try your next shot. This time, you are going to get them in action.

“Okay, everyone in a line and holding hands!” Your assistants rush to place the kids as you observe. “That is perfect everyone! Now hold hands, that’s right, good. Now on the count of three, everyone walk slowly toward me! That’s great!”

The rate of walking is uneven, but a series of shots later, you are done.

The mothers rave. “You are so talented! We can’t wait to see the shots.” They gush. You smile and nod, thinking to yourself. I can’t wait to see the shots either.

There was no need to worry, you find out later as you sort through your images. In over 200 shots there are about 8 to choose from that are beautiful. And apparently, as you note from their print orders, the Mom’s and Grandmother felt the same way.

Mission accomplished.

Learn to see abstractly by looking for geometrical forms and compelling compositions despite the “subject matter”. A good way to sidestep preconceived images is to consider a subject that’s commonly photographed, a well-known icon.To learn to “see creatively” we should approach the subject in a more personal yet more detached manner as if you were a child experiencing it for the first time. This manner of “seeing” isn’t natural for many. We “know” what the Statue of Liberty, Washington Monument, and Gateway Arch “look like.” We need to reconsider these subjects “abstractly” as two-dimensional forms without reference to its well-known image.

Look for suggestive forms, shapes, and lines for creatively framing you image. The actual “subject” is secondary. Your task is creating a compelling photograph. Use ambiguity to achieve a meaningful level of abstraction. By abstraction, I don’t mean, “Something no one can possibly identify.” Rather I mean forms suggestive of other things eliciting emotional reactions.

Frame the subject from an unusual viewpoint or limit the image to a fragment of the subject. Work to perceive the two-dimensional forms displayed on your screen as an interesting composition on its own grounds.

The above view of the Gateway Arch was taken looking up one leg and then adjusting my view until the arch’s top touched the corner of the frame.

It takes a focused effort and intentional experimentation to find new ways of perceiving things you “already know.”

A DSLR’s LCD display is helpful. Use the framed forms in the display to test possible compositions. Look for shapes suggestive of other objects with multiple references like an ear, tongue, road, or other identifiable form.

A higher density of references enhances a photograph’s potential richness and power. Try shooting in series.. Become fully engaged visually and physically. Move around adjusting view, position, zoom, etc. Continue exploring alternative viewpoints until you feel perhaps you’ve accomplished a step in the right direction. Evaluate your images later on a monitor rather than trying to prejudge what is good or bad on site.

We have talked about time-lapse photography a couple times here on DPS. First here, and then last year we featured a photographer named Ross Ching who showcased some of his amazing time-lapse photography work. This unique use of DSLR cameras was something I’ve wanted to try, but until now, I hadn’t got around to playing with this feature. When I stumbled upon a completely new and updated version of his original project Eclectic 2.0, I decided it was time to end the procrastination and give this a shot (or many many shots).

I’ll talk more on the latest project that Ross has been working on below (video of it is below) as well as some other amazing works that can be found around the web, but first, let’s give those new to the concept a brief background on time-lapse photography.

Eclectic 3.0: The Roads Less Traveled from Ross Ching on Vimeo.

The beginnings

When did the technique originate? Many of you may have heard of Eadweard Muybridge or seen his work of a horse captured frame by frame in motion. His work preceded the celluloid film-strip we use today. Rumor has it that in order to settle a wager of whether a running horse is briefly mid-air with all four hooves losing contact with the ground, Muybridge setup a complicated rigging of 24 cameras. He used trip wires to trigger the shutters of the cameras as it strode by. Once strung together, of course, a “moving picture” was created which revealed that all the hooves do, in fact, actually leave the ground.

Today, film is typically captured at 24 or, in some HD applications, even 60 frames per second. By stringing the images together rapidly of course, you get the feeling of seamless motion. When we talk about time lapse, in contrast to what Muybridge was attempting, slowing down a real event, we are more interested in speeding up an event. Although you still string multiple images together, as in the Muybridge experiment, the difference is that you program the camera to pause slightly between each photo. You then run these frames together at a common speed, i.e. 24 frames per second. By doing this, you create the illusion of watching an event occur many times faster than it did. The first recorded use of this technique was done by the cinemagician Georges Méliès in a feature film called Carrefour De L’Opera in 1897. Of course many others soon followed.

Set your settings

To save you from hours of sitting and pushing the shutter release, many of today’s DSLRs come with interval features built right in. If your camera is missing this feature, external shutter release cables with built-in timers are also available. Better yet, you can build your own “intervalometer” for about $20.

On to the shooting… First thing you should consider is what camera settings are best for time-lapsing. It is extremely important that every image setting be exactly identical to the previous in order to avoid a seizure inducing flicker or strobe effect. No matter how smart your camera is, each frame my come out with a slightly different setting than the last. Solution? Ditch every manual setting your camera has, from auto ISO, to auto white balance, to auto exposure.

If you’re not used to the daunting M mode, don’t fret. Simply use your camera as a basic light meter. Switch to aperture priority, choose your desired aperture (for landscapes use a smaller aperture, such as f16 to provide a greater depth of field), then make a mental note of what the camera assigned as the corresponding shutter speed. Flip back to manual M mode and duplicate the settings. If you are hoping to capture the blurred movement of cars, streams or any type of motion, you might start with shutter priority and then go back to M mode. Interestingly, having images with a slight motion blur can actually increase the smoothness of your final film. If you were to view a single frame of an action film, you may be surprised to see it isn’t as crisp as a still frame from a high speed DSLR would be.

If you are shooting a sunset or sunrise, remember to weight your exposure on the bright or dark side so that as the environment changes, your final images are still acceptable. Lastly, if you are shooting a camera with a high megapixel count, you might be better off using a lower quality jpeg setting. The highest quality setting probably exceeds any HD format and the smaller images will help ease the load on your computer when arranging your images as a sequence.

Time is on your side

Next up is deciding how many frames to take each second. A little bit of math is involved here. The guys over at Time Science explain it this way: “Consider a movie in the cinema which is normally recorded at 24 frames per second. You could create a time-lapse by recording one frame every second. When you play the movie, the frames recorded over a period of 24 seconds are played back in one second. So the recorded scene moves 24 times as fast as the real scene. One hour of recording would play back in (60/24 = ) 2.5 minutes.” The math can get tricky depending on what you’re trying to capture, so they’ve built a simple time-lapse calculator on their site here to help us out. Simply put, you may have to shoot a few hours for just a few minutes of footage, so bring a book and pack a lunch.

First time for time-lapse

Heading down to D.C., I decided to try my hand with this technique. For my first attempt, I decided to go 1 image for every 4 seconds. I found some slow moving paddle boaters that would be good test subjects. Unfortunately I didn’t lug my tripod along so I found a nearby wall to set the camera on. I tried a few different angles before turning the camera around to capture some of the passerby’s.

As mentioned above, a slower shutter speed will smooth out the final results, but I wanted to keep my shutter speed fast so as to create a chaotic feel that I find appealing. After seeing the final result, and thinking it needed a little spice, I decided to try running each image through a filter before arranging them into a sequence. I recently reviewed PhotoTools 2 and I knew that it had a built in batch tool. I chose a vintage “Holga” filter, pointed it to the entire folder of images and let it go to work. About thirty minutes later each image had a black frame and blurry smear added. If you decide to apply a filter on your images, you don’t need Phototools, of course, since there are batch features built into Photoshop as well.

Now the good stuff

Ok, I know you wanted to see how things should really be done and there are some amazing example around the web. First up is Ross Ching’s new creation “Eclectic 3.0: The Road Less Traveled“. Not only did he create a stunning film, he used some unique twists in the process. Some of his secrets are in his how-to video here. I found his technique of extremely slow panning especially interesting, as well as his use of a tilt-shift lens to give the illusion that you are viewing miniatures. If you aren’t familiar with tilt-shifting, a future DPS article is in the works.

Next up is another very cool tilt-shift time-lapse featuring the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service, done by Sydney-based photographer Keith Loutit. Make sure to view this in full screen HD and it will blow your mind.

Next are some very cool videos by 599 Productions. They have some interesting shots of late night city scenes and highways.

Lastly we have a humorous video done with a slightly different stop motion technique, but it’s funny enough to include here.

Hope you enjoyed this short journey into the possibilities of time-lapse photography. Share your own finds or better yet, your own attempts at time-lapse photography.