New Ideas for Time-Lapse Video

Ideas for Time-Lapse Video

Are you thinking of stepping out of the familiar world of still photography to make a time-lapse video?

As you all know I am a fan of travel videos and time-lapse video because why not? There is no denying that time-lapse techniques are a perfect medium for travel videos.

In this article will give you some ideas to get started in time-lapse video or photography and let’s define what a time-lapse video and what makes them great.

What is Time Lapse

Time-lapse is a creative filming and video editing technique that manipulates how the frame rate is captured. Frame rate is the number of images or frames appearing in a second of video. In most videos, the frame rate and playback speed are the same. In a time-lapse video, the frame rate is stretched out far more: when played back at average speed, time appears to be sped up.

Time-lapse can also refer to a camera’s shutter speed (How long the camera’s shutter remains open to let light in). A similar effect to time-lapse is found in stop-motion videos. The subject doesn’t move but seems to be in motion because it’s manually or repeatedly moved and then photographed. The images are then strung together to create video-like motion.

How Time-lapse Works

Time-lapse photography is a technique that records a scene or objects that change at a slow speed and turns it into a video that plays back at high speed.

Most time-lapse videos are projected at a speed of 30 frames per second. The frame rate of your time-lapse video can be determined in the editing process, but you will need to account for how quickly the action is taking place in the camera or your video will be a collection if stills. Consider what FPS you want to use in your video. You need to capture that many frames per second to create a time-lapse effect. If you’re shooting a 10 second video at 30fps, you should end up with 300 images.

What equipment needed for time-lapse video?

Time-lapse photography requires only a few special pieces of equipment.

1. Camera / Smartphones

Technically any point and shoot camera or smartphone can be used for time-lapse video, the easiest ones to work are DSLR or mirrorless cameras, some even have an in camera intervalometer (often called a time-lapse feature or time-lapse mode), which means you’ll need less equipment to take great time-lapse video.

2. High-capacity Memory Card

For the best results, shoot in RAW format which takes image in the highest resolution with actual image dimensions. You’ll need to prepare for very large RAW file sizes, so bring multiple high capacity memory cards.

3.Tripod

A tripod is essential to time-lapse video or photography, because the camera needs to stay perfectly still in order to emphasize the steady movement of your subject and to avoid overlay blurry videos or photos.

How to Capture Times-lapse Video

A technique that was once found only in video editing software is now on nearly every mobile device. So what’s the best way to make an amazing time-lapse video that stands apart from the rest? That depends on how you plan to capture the footage.

Smartphones:

Most phones have a time-lapse feature in their camera app. Be advised: you will need to record for an extended period, as 30 minutes equates to about 10 seconds of footage. Like a video camera, you will need a tripod to steady your shots. On an iPhone, you can either film a time-lapse or stitch one together from your photo collection, all without a video editor.

DSLR Camera

For DSLR camera you’ll need a tripod and a device called intervalometer. The first is essential to make sure your camera is stationary and is taking photos if the exact same location without moving anywhere.

An intervalometer, or a remote control, is a device that allows you to set your camera to hit the shutter button at an interval of your choice. In other words, an intervalometer is there to let you rest aside without having a manually click the shutter button yourself.

Here are some video ideas for your time-lapse

Ice melting
Flower and plants
Clouds moving
Sunrise/sunset
Star movement
Traffic movement

Ice melting

Time-lapse is an ideal way to capture the mesmerizing transition between water and ice. Even something as simple as watching ice melt can be appealing.

Flower and plants

Flowers and plants can be beautiful to behold, but their transformation from seed to adult plant is often absolutely breathtaking. If you have an indoor plant that you are about to start growing you can set up a camera on a mount of a tripod at the angle with which you want to capture. As you water, groom or fertilize on a regular schedule, you can incorporate taking a photograph at the same time.

Clouds moving

The clouds can provide a whole host of phenomena that will both enlighten the observer to the complexities of the atmosphere or cosmos but will also provide a beautiful spectacle in the daytime, the movement of clouds can be quite spell binding and the rolling in of rain or a thunderstorm can be particularly interesting.

Sunrise/Sunset

Shooting a sunset is more difficult. The light changes during the selected time period.

To overcome this, use remote control camera software. This can be compensated by increasing the ISO or decreasing the shutter speed as the light dims.

Star movement

At night, if the sky is clear and you are in an area dark enough, the stars in the sky can provide a beautiful time-lapse as the stars move in relation to the observer due to earths rotations.

Traffic movement

The interconnectedness of vehicles moving along busy roads, trailing light patterns, and the general hustle and bustle of city life can be brought to you in a dynamic way via time-lapse videos.

It is the smooth impression of motion which time-lapse is able to produce that can emphasize and help to invigorate something as ordinary and everyday as the coming and going of traffic.

Edit your video with Wondershare Filmora

Wondershare Filmora has the action camera tool that allows you to fasten up your video without re-encoding. This means the quality of the video remains intact without any change after exporting. Here is how to convert a standard video to a time-lapse:

Step1 Download Wondershare Filmora from the official website

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Step2 Open Filmora, then click action camera tool

Step3 Click import action cam video to import your file

Step4 click on the speed icon add marker button. Then drag the marker all the way over the target video.

Step5 Next drag the slider under the speed tool to speed up the video according to your desire.

Step6 Lastly when done, export and save the final video.

Conclusion

Hope this article can give you an idea on how to make a good time-lapse video. It’s so fun doing it you will see how the things change that fast. Time-lapse content is typically just that, shorter, more visually interesting content, unlike most conventional video, time-lapse video can tell a story within just a few second. Start creating nice and creative time-lapse video now and make it as one content on your you tube channel.

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Step2 Open Filmora, then click action camera tool

Step3 Click import action cam video to import your file

Step4 click on the speed icon add marker button. Then drag the marker all the way over the target video.

Step5 Next drag the slider under the speed tool to speed up the video according to your desire.

Step6 Lastly when done, export and save the final video.

Conclusion

How to Color Correct in OBS

Create High-Quality Video - Wondershare Filmora

An easy and powerful YouTube video editor

Numerous video and audio effects to choose from

Detailed tutorials are provided by the official channel

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Color Correction is an outstanding functionality that allows editing photos and videos by altering their consistency to match a particular standard. Besides, color correction is available in the premium tool and free applications. And one of the established free software tools with color correction is the OBS.

Even though the Open Broadcaster Software is mainly known for live streaming and offline video recording, it also offers color correction functionality from its open canvas. Read this article to completion and get to the bottom line of how to do color correction in OBS.

More about OBS

What is OBS?

Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) is free and open-source software that allows users to record videos and live stream events right at their comfort. The software functions effectively on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers.

Since its initial launch in 2012, OBS has made tremendous moves – This is not only from the constant release of its new versions but also the relentless increase in the functionality features. Besides, OBS is equipped with a robust API that enables plugins and scripts which provide extensive customization to precisely suit one’s needs.

However, OBS being a free application can function to date due to enough support from sponsors and backers.

How to Apply Color Correction in OBS

When you carry out basic edits to your videos or images with OBS and realize that your project has poor shade, color, or tone, you don’t have to export it to another software to correct it. Instead, you can use filters for color correction in OBS.

Apart from using OBS filters to color correct video clips and images, you can correct games, browser sources, and video capture devices.

There are various aspects of color correction in OBS. It includes:

1. Gamma

Gamma is a fundamental aspect in OBS that functions by balancing the brightness of an image through contrast. To be precise, Gamma works almost similarly to change in brightness while simultaneously increasing or decreasing the contrast.

In editing, Gamma is applicable mainly for removing shiny foreheads and webcam footage in gaming and browsing.

High Gamma is represented by “L,” whereas low Gamm is represented by “R.”

2. Contrast

Contrast is the difference in the degree of colors and tones in an image. Usually, the low contrast image has a narrow color range, whereas the high contrast images have dark shadows and bright highlights.

“L” represents high contrast in OBS contrast, whereas “R” represents low contrast.

3. Brightness

Brightness is the degree to how light or dark a picture is. To be able to understand an image clearly, it is best to correct its brightness. A change in brightness of a picture has a simultaneous change in pixels of that image.

High brightness in OBS is denounced by the letter “L,” whereas Low brightness is denounced by “R.”

4. Saturation

Saturation is the intensity of colors in a video or an image. High saturated images are bright, strong, and are rich, whereas the low saturated photos appear washed out. Black and white (grayscale) photos have no color saturation. In OBS, high saturation and low saturation are represented as “L” and “R.”

5. Hue Shift

Hue shift is the change in an image’s saturation, lightness, and hue colors. Hue shifting occurs when highlighting or shading images. In OBS, you can use the hue shift functionality to reimage your image with a completely different color palette.

With the hue shift functionality in OBS, you can place the image on top of another and have an 80% opacity. It means that you will still see the first image when you place the second one on top of it.

The “L” sign in the OBS hue shift represents 50% opacity, while the “R” represents 100% Opacity.

Color Grade in OBS

Color grading is the process of enhancing the appearance of an image through attributes such as contrast, saturation, and color, making them enchanting for presentations. Color grading is not only done for still images but also for motion pictures and images.

Color grading functionality in OBS is encompassed with several tools – This includes:

1. Lift tool

As the name suggests, lift tools are used in lifting or removing specific colors from an image. It does so without necessarily affecting other colors in an image.

With this tool, you can selectively remove unwanted colors from your image or video, replace them with your desired ones, and create astonishing results.

2. Offset

Offset is another outstanding tool in OBS color grading that controls the blacks/Shadows of an image. It functions by altering the brightness levels and leaving the highlights and the mid-tones unaffected.

3. Gain

A gain is a tool in OBS color correction that functions by only adjusting the white levels in an image. With the gain tool, brighter colors become brighter or darker.

Many people, especially beginner editors, experience difficulty differentiating between the Gamma and Offset tools. Yes, there is a closer similarity between the two, and for you to be on the safe side, you need to know that Gamma goes with the mid-tones (middle gray levels) whereas the Gain goes with highlights/whites.

How to Apply LUTs in OBS

Look up tables (LUTs) is a functionality feature that allows editors, colorists, and filmmakers to save certain colors as their templates. Therefore, when working on a particular project, they don’t have to create new working color grades; instead, you pick it from your LUT.

Using LUTs OBS is not rocket science. With LUTs, you can create unique projects with a vibrant feel. Here are the simple steps of using LUTs in OBS.

Step 1. Prepare your LUT

First, check and establish whether you have your LUT ready. If you don’t have it, you can download one from the internet. Make sure you download it as a folder. Even though OBS has LUT, It has limited color grades; therefore, it is best to download one. You can extract it to an OBS folder if you downloaded it in a zip file.

Step 2. Add your project to the OBS timeline

Open your OBS software and add your project file. Drag and drop your file to the OBS timeline.

Step 3. Add LUTs to your project

Right-click on the area in your project that you wish to apply LUTs, then click on “Filters.” Select “Apply LUT” from the drop-down menu,” which is usually at the top of the list.

Step 4. Apply your LUT as a filter

On the LUTs section, click on the browser, then open your downloaded LUT folder. Usually, the LUT is in the form of a .cube file. You can adjust your LUT by simply clicking on the “Adjust” option.

Bonus! How to Apply Color Correction for Webcam and Camera

People who primarily use their computers for recording sessions often find it difficult to capture quality videos. It is because most computer cameras are not straightforward. To do away with purchasing a new camera due to poor quality video capture, they can freely use OBS LUTs. For their camera and webcam. LUTs for webcam play a vital role in correcting the quality of photos and videos by using filters.

Here are the simple steps on how to use LUTs for color correction in webcam and camera

Step 1. Check whether your camera has additional software

Most webcams and cameras are controlled by external software, so you first need to check whether yours is also controlled. A thing with these cameras are controlled by their software is that the software determines the color settings and the specific image.

Double click on camera source and select “Configure video.” Computers with external software cameras will have a pop-up window that displays various customizable settings. Here, you can adjust the different settings based on your preference.

Step 2. Download your LUTs

Download online the LUTs you want to use. Download them as folders and extract the files you downloaded as zip files. Save them in the OBS folder.

Step 3. Apply your LUTs

Still, in your OBS software, open your camera and then right-click on it. From the displayed menu, click on “Filters.”

On the bottom left corner of your interface, hit the “+” sign, then select “Apply LUTs” > “Browse.”

Open your already downloaded OBS files. Usually, there is an “Adjust” that allows you to regulate the intensity of the LUT by sliding it.

Step 4. Start recording with LUTs on

After turning on your LUT, you can start recording videos and taking photos. There is an eye icon on the left-hand side of your screen. You can use it to turn on or off LUT.

Conclusion

● And that is how to do color correction in OBS. Besides, you do not have to go to the extremes of getting a new camera because of your webcam faultiness. With OBS, you can correct your camera and webcam and get outstanding results.

● Download LUTs from the internet and use them as a template in OBS. Besides, you don’t have to pay for the LUTs, but you can use the free ones.

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