Sunday, December 12, 2010

Tilt-Shift Time Lapse

You may have seen some of these videos recently, where somebody takes a time lapse movie of a scene from a high vantage point, then processes the individual photos for a "tilt-shift" effect (essentially just applying a blur to the image such that it appears as if there is a very shallow depth of field, which gives the impression that one is looking at a a very small scene filmed with a macro lens or something). Usually the saturation is also cranked up in these movies so that everything looks painted or plastic, adding to a miniature/toy effect. Here's a couple photos I snapped of the model train set at Bahnhof Neustadt. This is basically the effect you want.



I decided to give it a go making the real life movies now that I have a digitial SLR as well as Photoshop at my disposal. Here's my first attempt, filmed from outside my bedroom window looking down Rothenburgerstrasse in Dresden:



Not bad for a first attempt, I think. I took images at one second intervals, the playback is at 6 frames/second. Going up to 10 frames per second is less jerky, but then everything is just too fast. Next time I'll probably take 1/2 second intervals. Also, I live on the second floor (first floor for Germans). So this isn't really high enough to get a good effect. But it's enough to give me confidence to go seek out interesting places around town, where I can get higher up, and look out a bit further (e.g. from Nudel Turm looking over Albertplatz). I hope to have some much cooler movies of familiar places soon.

6 comments:

qelena said...

Good job!
May I suggest you do one from the Flohmarkt at the Elbe?

Alex said...

that's a great idea. I'm hoping to try to get some Christmas markets during the season too....

Unknown said...

You totally confused things with those two example photosof actual doll houses. Just sayin.

Alex said...

Not sure what you mean, Colby. The point of what I'm doing is just to make real life look like a miniature toy scene. That's what the first photos actually are. That's the effect I'm after. I just called it "tilt-shift effect" cause that's what everybody's calling it in the internet if you wanna google what other people have done. I assume you're worked up about using that term, since it's really something different.

qelena said...

Did you see this one?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb5GpV_LUuU

Were you the one who sent it to me? I can't remember. In any case, one of the best I have seen.

Alex said...

I have seen that one. My camera will only do interval timing as fast as once per second, so it's not as smooth unless I speed it up pretty fast :(