Time lapse settings for a canvas painter?
 

I have a job filming a painting artist next week and would like to use some time lapse footage of her painting a canvas.
Not having my camera until the day of the shoot so I am unable to practice.
I know it probably depends on how long it takes her to paint the canvas but I will probably stop and change angles a few times.

Any tips re time lapse settings would be appreciated.


Thanks:)

I'd probably use Interval Recording at 1 frame per second which will give you lots of frames to work with. Then, if you need to speed things along a little bit faster, you can do it in post and you still have lots of material to work with. Manual focus and exposure, too.

Definitely don't cut yourself short, plan to have more frames than you need. I would think you'd be better spending time in Excel than with your camera. You can always remap time with Twixtor or your edit soft.

Thank you for the replies Andrew and Dave.
I have only ever shot using 1frame/second and thought I may need to use a different setting for a slow painter but your recomendations make sense.

Unfortunately I had a meeting with the client today and she didn't like the idea....as they say "the client is always right"

That's too bad, Todd. I did a timelapse once of the glass artist Dale Chihuly as he and his team assembled a large sculpture out of glass. It was in the lobby of a museum and I did it with a small digital point-and-shoot camera. They loved it. Maybe you could do something similar while shooting the artist in the more "conventional" manner. Just put it on a tripod, set it and forget it. They might like it after they see it. Here's a link to a similar timelapse that I shot with a Nikon Coolpix 990 at 1 frame every 2 seconds:

Twilight timelapse on Vimeo

Example or artist painting with timelapse (interval) with EX1
 

I'm an artist myself documenting my largest painting to date (9ft. x 5ft.) with my EX1 for a an online video series that you can watch here: Cory Trepanier's Into The ARCTIC Project: An Artist's Journey to the North.

Here's my settings:
- 1 frame/1 second while moving more quickly (stretching easel, laying in paint fast at beginning of piece.
- I'm slowing down on the progress of the painting and adding more detail, so now am using 1 frame every 4 to 6 seconds.
- USING FRAME ACCUMULATION set at 64 frames (have to switch ND filter to 2 to get proper exposure). Gives a nice smooth look to motion.

Hope that helps someone!