Here are a few tips on how I make plant time lapse videos (feel free to ask anything that I don’t cover here):
▪️Setup: dSLR, ac adapter (because a battery couldn’t last more than a day or two), tripod, remote timer (some cameras have one built in), lens with manual focus, small light source (LED light panel, auto-on night light), big memory card (128 GB has served me well)
▪️Exposure setting: use ‘A’ (aperture priority) setting to keep the overall lighting consistent throughout the time lapse; the small light source can be used to shine just the bare minimum amount of light onto the subject while, for the plant, it is still technically dark. This is how the night time photos appear bright and clear – the shutter is open for 30 seconds!
▪️Lens setting: I usually set it to f/8 or more so that more the field is in focus, especially for leaf unfurls, you can never be certain of the final position.
▪️Timer setting: for a one-day time lapse, I set the timer to take a photo every minute. For one week, I shoot every 2 or 3 minutes. For anything over a month, it’s usually 5 or 6 minutes between shots.
▪️Processing (you can get the details on YouTube – that’s how I learned it): using Adobe After Effects, import all the photos as a JPEG sequence then export it as an Adobe Premiere Pro project
▪️Video editing: in Premiere Pro, you’ll see your JPEG sequence come out as a video anywhere from 30 seconds to a few minutes long. ***KEY POINT*** As cool as it is to watch the video ‘as-is’, the average Instagram viewer won’t give you 37 seconds of their time to watch a plant rehydrate. “Viral videos” are viral because the interesting thing needs to happen within 10 seconds or less. Therefore, you should edit/speed up the video and watch it to evaluate whether it sparks interest!
–
If you’ve already got some camera gear and editing software, give it a try and tag/DM me!
~
~
#houseplantjournal #houseplants #plants #timelapse #planttimelapse #timelapsevideo #viralvideo #botany #succulents #succulentpropagation #succulentsofinstagram #echeveria #sansevieria #sansevieriamasoniana #whalefinsnakeplant #whalefinsansevieria #studiophotography #bts #photography
Comments are closed.