During NAB this year, we had a number of presentations at our booth. We will be posting them here on KU for those of you that were unable to attend. Our first talk is “Increasing Production Value While Braving the Elements” with everyone’s favorite Boston baked bean eating, mountain biking, GoPro attached-to-helium-ballons launching, Director of Photography, Tom Guilmette from tomguilmette.com.

Enjoy!

Our SWAG Store is now live here . Whether you’re in the back of a grip truck on a shoot, elbow deep in a pre-production brainstorming session or just living your life on the wild side; be the envy of fellow crew members, wow your clients or introduce a little extra pep to your step with some fresh new Kessler gear.

Hollywood is the undisputed epicenter of all things filmmaking. No location on earth boasts such a rich cinematic history. On May 30th – June 2nd, 2013, join us in Hollywood at Booth 74A for the CineGear Expo held on the lot of The Studios at Paramount. Stop by and say hi to our team and make sure to check out the new Pocket Jib Traveler, CineDrive and an assortment of other Kessler Crane
gear and goodies. Hope to see you there.

Check out Preston Kanak’s recap video from last year.

Kessler Crane @ Cinegear 2012 from Preston Kanak on Vimeo.

From Jay P Morgan,

Today on The Slanted Lens we will explore how camera movement can create emotion in the viewer. Moving the camera helps create different emotions in a scene. We see it all of the time in the films we watch. A camera slowly sweeping around a scene will give it an epic feeling, where as a shaky hand held camera shooting the same scene can create a feeling of uncertainty and danger. Camera movement can add or detract from the emotion the director wants to communicate. Camera movement should emphasize the emotion we want to see in the scene. When the camera moves it should move in relationship to someone or something and create an emotion that supports the story. Our talent William Rubio is dressed up as a 1920′s gangster. Let’s see how we can work with him to create different emotions with camera movement. Keep those cameras rolling and keep of clickn’.

“When someone comes to you and asks you if you’d like to create a photograph of your most vivid dream on their dime — let’s be clear on this one — you say YES.

Such was the case with Samsung and their creative agency Possible several weeks back. I got one of “those cool phone calls” where all your hard work comes into focus just for a second. (Dialogue in my brain = Wait a minute. Any photograph I want? Of my dreams?! And you’ll be my benefactor to make this happen? Yes Chase, creative freedom. We want to enable your imagination. Are there any images you’ve been excited to try to create but haven’t had the means or the opportunity?) Um. Hell yes. They had approached me with a completely blank canvas. Their only requirement? That the image would be a colorful expression of a dream to prove out the color quality on the Samsung Premium Monitor Series 9 for professional photographers. My only requirement? That I could make a video of the process to show you how we pulled it off.” (Source: ChaseJarvis.com)

Chase Jarvis on set with the KC Complete- HD Bundle and the REVOLUTION Pan and Tilt head in action.

For more information on this project check out Chase Jarvis’s blog on it here.

1. What are you shooting?
2. When are you shooting?
3. What role is the shot playing in your final piece?
4. Why do you want to shoot the shot as a time-lapse?
5. What style of shot do you want to accomplish?
6. How do you want to capture the shot?
7. How long are you able to be at the location?

Getting Started

Before delving into the section below, we highly recommend checking out the quick start guide that breaks down how to control your camera and setup your shot.

To best understand what APERTURE should be, what your SHUTTER should be set at and what INTERVAL (DELAY) you should be using, you will want to have a clear answer to the questions stated below. In these questions, we have outlined what you will need to consider.

1. What are you shooting?

The first thing you need to determine is what you want to shoot. This question is the foundation for all answers to follow so make sure you have scouted the location you want to shoot or have a clear idea of all the elements that exist in that environment. If you are unsure how to approach this, make sure to check out the tutorial Preston Kanak did on Story, Scheduling & Scouting where you can find out what aspects you will need to consider about your subject matter and location.

2. When are you shooting?

You will then want to figure out when the best time is to capture the shot. For your story, does it make more sense for the shot to be captured at night, during the day or a blend between the two? This will help you determine what type of gear you will need to take with you. Another good habit to get into is fine-tuning your kit to your specific needs. Take notes of things that would make the process easier for you in the future.

3. What role is the shot playing in your final piece?

Before choosing to shoot a time-lapse you should determine the role the time-lapse will play in your final film. The mood / tone / pacing of a piece is determined by a number of factors. When setting up your shot, you will need to think of how the shot will help you tell your story. When you know the role that the shot will play, you will be able to determine how you will need to capture the shot.

Now if you are asking yourself, what will this help you determine? Most directly, it will effect your interval and shutter time. If you are wanting to capture an erratic motion and make the viewer feel uneasy, you will more than likely want to have a quick shutter (between 1/50 – 1/250 and an interval of 3 or more seconds). If you are wanting to capture a smoother shot and help the viewer feel relaxed, you will probably want to have a slow shutter (1/30 or slower) and capture frames more frequently.

4. Why do you want the shot to be a time-lapse?

Motivation is the key to any act one takes. Unmotivated actions not only lead to lack-luster shots. Many people say that ones work is only as good as the last thing they did. To even go a step further some would even say that a film is only as good as it’s worst shot. If you do not take the care and attention to every detail, you are not giving the project all it deserves. When deciding on how to capture the given shot, you must breakdown exactly why you are doing what you are doing and this should be done with confidence.

Similar to the previous question, this question will help you determine if shooting a time-lapse is actually the best way to tell your story. Think how this shot will help tell your story if it is in time-lapse format.

5. What style of shot do you want to accomplish?

The next thing you will want to determine is the style of shot you want to accomplish. Are you wanting to shoot a wide landscape, a focused scene, an astro time-lapse or a silky smooth waterfall? All of these scenarios will have a different setup and will help you decide on the camera settings. In all situations, take test shots to see if you like what you see.

6. How do you want to capture the shot?

Finally. To the nuts and bolts. If you have made it this far, you should have a clear idea of what settings to use. If not, here are a few case studies to get you started. we will provide extreme examples of styles AND a few specific scenarios as well.

Aperture and Shutter Speed

First and foremost, it is key to understand the interrelation between aperture and shutter speed. Aperture controls your depth of field (how much is in focus) and shutter speed controls how long your shutter is open for. If you are wanting to create distance / depth between your foreground and background, you will want to open up your lens (low number). You will want to ensure there is a subject in the foreground to create depth.

As for shutter speed, this controls how the motion is captured. If you want to freeze time, you will want to have a shutter speed faster than 1/30 of a second (1/30-1/100 second). However, if you want to create motion blur, you will want to have the shutter open longer than 1/30 of a second (1/30-30 seconds or longer).

Case Studies by Preston Kanak

Below I have included some baseline samples for different shooting scenarios. If you are needing to stop down your image, you may need to use filters and if you need to brighten it up, you may need to increase your ISO if you need the image brighter. You will want to ensure you use multiples of 160 for ISO’s if using Canon cameras (I do not recommend exceeding 3200 ISO on MarkII & 6400 ISO on MarkIII) and you will want to make sure all your images are correctly exposed. The settings below will need to be fine-tuned in order to get the correct exposure.

Long Exposure Waterfall Time-lapse Photography – Long Shutter

One specific situation where you may want to use long exposure is to shoot a waterfall. In these situations, if you don’t want to have the water look erratic, you will want to drag your exposure. If you are shooting this time-lapse during the day, you will more than likely need to have an ND and/or Polarizer filter in order to have a slow shutter. To smooth out the water, you will need to have an exposure longer than 1/30th of a second. Longer intervals will also make the image appear more erratic. Try set your interval to the quickest your camera will trigger.

(F22, ISO160, Shutter 1/15, Heliopan Vari-ND)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: Various

Shutter Speed: 1/30 – 30 seconds or longer

Interval (Delay): 2 – 5 seconds

NOTE: You will need an ND Filter to accomplish this shot.

Tilt-Shift Time-lapse Photography – Fast Shutter

One time you may want to have a fast shutter is when you are shooting tilt-shift time-lapse photography when you want to make the shot look like a miniature set. The success of these shots almost always depends on the subject matter. Make sure you find subject matter that would look good when shot with this effect. Wide shots are key and finding a way to get a high vantage point will make the shot look more realistic. To accomplish this shot, you will want to freeze time (quick shutter) and have a quick interval.

(F4, ISO160, Shutter 1/500, Heliopan Vari-ND)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: Various

Shutter Speed: 1/30 – 1/100 seconds

Interval (Delay): 1 – 3 seconds

NOTE: Fast shutter results in more flicker (unless using lens twist method).

Night time traffic

There are a few different effects you can achieve when shooting night time traffic. Normally when shooting in these conditions I like to drag my shutter to make the traffic look like liquid. However, I feel this effect can be pushed too far so I tend to keep my exposures under 2 seconds. Trial and error will be key with this setup as exposures will vary depending on how much light is in the given situation. Because it is very easy to blend the motion when shooting night time traffic, I tend to shoot the shots as quickly as possible instead of shooting with a long delay. With traffic moving at the speed that it does, the motion blur lines move rapidly even when the delay is set to a low number.

(F8, ISO12500, Shutter 1/15)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: 2.8 – 8

Shutter Speed: 1/30 – 2 seconds

Interval (Delay): 1 – 5 seconds

Day time traffic

The key to shooting day time traffic shots is using filters. With the speed that traffic flows, you will want to have a fast interval so the motion does not look too chaotic unless that is the look you are going for. To create any motion blur, you will need to drag your shutter to 1/30 second or longer. I don’t usually push the shutter speed longer than 1 second unless I am wanting to create a surreal effect.

(F16, ISO160, Shutter 1/30, Heliopan Vari-ND)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: Various

Shutter Speed: 1/50 – 1 second

Interval (Delay): 1 – 6 seconds

Astro time-lapse

Of all the different time-lapses that you can shoot, astro time-lapses are the most time consuming and also draw the most questions about how they are accomplished. The key to shooting any astro time-lapse is to head out of any major city center at least 60 miles / 100 km and to have a camera and fast lens that will allow you to accomplish these shots. Light pollution is one factor that will hinder you from filming dark skies. Because there are so many factors to consider when shooting astro time-lapses, such as moon phases, this section will only introduce you to this style of shooting.

I will be going more in depth about these shots in a future post. In regards to specific settings, you will want to shoot with a wide aperture and an interval (delay) as quick as you can set it taking into account how long it takes for your camera to buffer the image. Your exposure time (shutter speed) and ISO will depend on what camera you are using.

If you would like to find out more about the process of setting up to shoot an astro time-lapse, make sure to check out the extensive raw time-lapse tutorial homepage.

(F2.8, ISO1600, Shutter 30″)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: 2.8

Shutter Speed: 10 – 30 seconds

Interval (Delay): Immediate

Daytime blur

Similar to daytime traffic, you will want to drag your exposure. However, the difference between daytime traffic and daytime blur shots are the speed in which subjects move across the frame. If subjects slowly move across the frame, you will want to drag your exposure a little bit longer than you would if you were shooting subjects that moved quickly across the screen. Although very similar to daytime traffic, you will want to take test frames to see what look you are wanting to go for. Each given situation will be a little bit different so you will want to take some test frames to find the best settings.

Interior MGM Grand, Las Vegas (F4, ISO1250, Shutter 1/15)

Interior Aircraft Cabin (F4, ISO160, Shutter 1/15, Heliopan Vari-ND)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: Various

Shutter Speed: 1/15 – 1 seconds

Interval (Delay): 1 – 3 seconds

Daytime erratic

The key to shooting daytime erratic is your shutter speed. Similar to the tilt-shift time-lapse settings, you will want to freeze time using a fast shutter speed. By freezing time, you are freezing the action, which in turn creates the erratic movement. These shots may require some trial and error in order to determine your interval. Typically, if you are shooting a wide shot, you can get away with a frame every two seconds, however, if you are shooting anything other than a wide shot, you will want an interval set to the fastest your camera can fire.

The main reason why you will want to do this is because if you are shooting a medium shot, in one frame, your subject could be on the right side of frame crossing to the left and in the next frame the subject could be gone. This effect will be very unsettling and unless you are wanting to confuse your viewer, you will more than likely want to have a faster interval so your viewer can track the progress of the subject matter. The limiting factor with these types of shots will be your camera and cards. If you are unable to fire a frame every one or two seconds, you will want to stay to wider shots.

Downtown Chicago, Illinois (F4, ISO160, Shutter 1/500, Heliopan Vari-ND)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: Various

Shutter Speed: 1/60 – 1/100 seconds

Interval (Delay): 1 – 4 seconds

NOTE: Fast shutter results in more flicker (unless using lens twist method).

Day to Night

Similar to astro time-lapses, day to night shots are very complex and as a result, I will be covering these shots extensively in a future post. However, in this post, I want to give you a few pointers as a starting point. When it comes to shooting a day to night / night to day time-lapse, there are a few different ways you can approach this. Day to night / night to day time-lapses tend to draw the attention of viewers because of their assumed complexity. At the same time, what people don’t understand is that they aren’t as tough to achieve as they look.

A great way to find out exactly how long you need to shoot for and to help determine interval is to use an external app. My go-to app is the Kessler app which has a time-lapse calculator built in. I highly recommend using a time-lapse calculator to ensure your settings are correct for your given scenario.

There are three different ways to approach day to night time-lapses. You can shoot in APERTURE PRIORITY and de-flicker in post, shoot a shot during the day and one at night and then BLEND IN POST or you can RAMP YOUR EXPOSURE / ISO.

To view more about these methods, make sure to check out the extensive raw time-lapse tutorial.

Day to Night Blend (Daytime F4, ISO160, Shutter 1/100, Heliopan Vari-ND Night F2.8, ISO 3200, Shutter 10″)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: Night 2.8 Day Various

Shutter Speed: Night 10 seconds to 30 seconds – Day Various

Interval (Delay): 1 – 3 seconds

Landscape with sun

The biggest challenge with shooting a time-lapse on a clear day is finding subject matter that will lend itself to the given situation. Typically, when there are no clouds in the sky, I try and shoot shadows. If you are not shooting any subjects that move quickly across the screen, you can get away with faster shutter speeds. If you are shooting shadows, you will more than likely want to have a longer interval (delay) time.

(F22, ISO160, Shutter 1/100, Heliopan Vari-ND)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: Various

Shutter Speed: 1/30 – 1/100 seconds

Interval (Delay): 5 – 10 seconds

NOTE: Fast shutter results in more flicker (unless using lens twist method).

Landscape with clouds

The biggest challenge with shooting on cloudy days is controlling the change in exposure. The best way to blend this change in light is by using a longer exposure. As seen in the photo below, the exposure / shutter speed was longer in order to smooth out the changes in light. The interval (delay) is not critical with these types of shots.

(F8, ISO160, Shutter 1/15, Heliopan Vari-ND)

Below I have attached a few specs as a starting point. You may need to adjust based on your given situation. Always take test shots before committing to your final composition.

Aperture: Various

Shutter Speed: 1/30 – 2 seconds

Interval (Delay): Various

Sunset / Sunrise

Shooting a sunset poses a list of challenges, especially with exposure. My biggest recommendation is to shoot on manual and shooting multiple, short time-lapses (fast interval / delay) so you have a variety of exposures to choose between. I will be going more in depth in a future post.

7. How long are you able to be at the location?

The last thing you need to know is how long you want to be at the location. If you are limited on how long you can be there, you will want to shoot with a short interval (delay). Typically, you can get away with 15 minute time-lapse (unless shooting an astro or day to night shot). However, we recommend staying at a location for at least 30 minutes in order to better understand the best way to capture the given situation. A good tool we highly recommend when shooting a time-lapse is the Kessler time-lapse calculator. This application will help you determine the ideal settings for your scenario when you know how long you will be at the location and how long you want the final time-lapse to be.

Another advantage to knowing how long you will be at a location is determining what types of shots you are actually able to accomplish as well as allowing yourself the opportunity to film a few time-lapses using a variety of settings. We will be going more in depth about this in a future post.

Conclusion

Like anything, the best way to learn is through trial and error. However, what we hope is that some of the information provided in this article will help guide you towards the settings you will need for your given situation. For more of the case studies provided above, we will be doing breakout posts and videos that will explain each of these scenarios a little clearer so when you go out to shoot you will go out with confidence.

If you would like to find out more or find other time-lapse tips or are looking for specific case studies for settings in different environments, make sure to check out prestonkanak.com.

Strobes & Daylight: Making Them Work Together

By Jay P. Morgan

In today’s Slanted Lens lesson we are out at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Our lesson will look at how to blend strobes with daylight so that the image does not look artificially lit. We will look at a method that I use to see what the strobes are doing in daylight and help you better control them when the modeling lights are not bright enough to guide you. For our shots today we have an old wooden boat as a prop to work with. Out talent, Mary, will be wearing a dark vintage dress and be bare foot in the ice cold water. I want her to wear dark so it will contrast against the light sky. In our last shot we will switch her to a light dress as it gets dark so it’s easier to get her to stand out against the darker sky. Let’s take a look at shooting strobes in daylight. Keep those cameras rolling and keep on clickn’.

With winter over for most people, we wanted to share a fun little piece that was shot out in the dead of winter in Norway to remind you to go out and enjoy the nice summer weather! Below is an interview with Toby Lockerbie, the creator of Why I Shoot Lights at Night.

Kessler University (KU): Would love to know more about the project. How did you approach the project?

Toby Lockerbie: Every November I try to get away somewhere exotic to take some photos and make a video. Some of those photos might make a book one day and I can use the videos for my portfolio but in general I do it to just get out there and rekindle my love of cameras and the images I can get with them. When I started in photography in particular I was obsessed with it, I’d disappear into the city or landscape and look for something special to try and capture every day. Since becoming a full-time professional about 5 years ago, passion for getting out there and filming or photographing in my spare time has declined. Picking your passion as your profession is a double edged sword and my annual trips help to remind me of that passion and obsession I had and still have.

When you’ve planned and researched your own trip, to somewhere exciting and it’s just you, perhaps in the middle of nowhere and you use your experience, research and lots of patience and effort to get an image, when it works out it’s rather wonderful.

KU: Was this something that came out in the editing or were you planning on taking this approach from the start?

Toby Lockerbie: I actually just looked for the best shots I could, I just tried to be as creative as I could. About half way through the trip I toyed with the idea of making a short documentary about me being out there but I didn’t shoot too much for that. When I got back I put together a video of all the timelapses to a piece of music but that idea of making a documentary about it still lingered. When I saw a  competition coming up I thought it would be good impetus to actually edit a mini doc for it. I knew I had some good shots but I didn’t want it to be a bit samey and drag on as time lapses sometimes do. I also didn’t want to make a typical documentary, so I decided on making it very short and heavily based on the music. I wanted the music to dictate the pace and looked for that first, once I had that I knew where certain shots would fit and I thought hard about how to tell my story inside it. In the end I decided I was happiest with very short titles rather than me as a talking head. It’s perhaps unusual but there’s no set way about telling any kind of story.

KU: There were some stunning shots in that video. Can you talk a little about the process of capturing the shots, especially the northern lights / aurora shots?

Toby Lockerbie: I was there for almost three weeks and only had two nights with Northern Lights and a clearish sky. So rule number one about capturing the aurora is time and patience! I usually only had a few hours warning if it would be good and had to base plans on that, I had an aurora twitter feed on my phone set so that I’d get a message sent when there was a storm approaching and I could work out the best place for me to get in time if I wasn’t already out waiting. I went on a really successful group trip on one occasion because the local guides know where the best spots and weather is. Once it’s out and clear, photographing it is relatively straightforward if you’ve done any night photography. If you’re lucky it can be seriously bright and fast moving which means your shutter speeds shouldn’t be too slow. I think 5 seconds a photo was probably my average speed but at times it was faster.

KU: We noticed that you used Kessler gear on this project. What was it like using the gear?

Toby Lockerbie: I used the Pocket Dolly and Oracle elekraDrive system to get some dolly shots while timelapsing. I’d carry a backpack with camera and lenses, a small peli-case with the Oracle controller and a tripod case with the Pocket Dolly and a couple of GorillaPod legs to sit in the snow or on rocks along with a lightweight tripod for a second static timelapse. That was relatively portable and meant I could hike for a while but still get dynamic timelapses. Everything worked smoothly and flawlessly in quite extreme environments apart from at one point when the track froze over when it was very, very cold! I had another timelapse going so didn’t want to use a strong torch so I was trying to work out what was wrong with the track with my mobile phone light! This was of course unavoidable but now I know some hot water and a sponge will be additions to my kit in very cold environments in the future! Moving timelapse shots, even very subtle ones work much better than static in my opinion as they instantly give the scene depth and are more cinematic. They require a little extra gear to carry but are unquestionably worth it.

KU: What can we expect next from you?

Toby Lockerbie: I’m working on increasing my commercial work so hope to do a bit more travel and location filming, I’m putting together a short sci-fi film to finish later this year, still taking photos and of course I’ve started to plan my November trip, perhaps somewhere warmer this year!

If you would like to find out more about Toby, make sure to check out his website.

The Kessler Parallax™ system provides automatic panning and fixed-point shooting capabilities to the Kessler line of sliders. Previously only capable with motorized panning devices, Kessler Parallax™ accomplishes inward and outward panning shots, providing users a second axis to their linear movements. The Kessler Parallax’s™ non-intrusive design allows users to choose between automatic panning or standard linear sliding without removing the Parallax bar.

Kessler Parallax™ does not require specific measurement calibration and does not have a fixed subject distance requirement to accomplish 2 axis panning and fixed-point linear sliding shots. Capable of manual or motorized control.

Compatible with traveler and standard length Pocket Dolly v2.0 BASIC, Pocket Dolly v2.0, Stealth & Philip Bloom Pocket Dolly as well as the traveler, 3′ & 5′ CineSlider.

Expected price: $399.95
Projected Availability: Mid to late summer