View Full Version : Year and a half timelapse project of Louisville, KY


Eric Stemen
October 20th, 2013, 11:58 AM
Hello, just wanted to share a timelapse I created showing off Louisville, Kentucky.

Louisville In Motion. A timelapse tour of Louisville Kentucky. on Vimeo

This is a timelapse created over the course of a year and a half showing not just the tourist spots in Louisville, but also some of the unique architecture and locations outsiders don't normally see.
The camera is physically moving in each frame. Sometimes it may be just a few millimeters for a simple motion controlled pan or slide; or the camera may move 15 feet between shots like in the very first scene.
I've accounted for 357.9 hours in the project and 29,433 unique photos. Realistically it took more time than listed but I don't have anything to back it up.

Hope you all enjoy!

James Manford
October 20th, 2013, 12:12 PM
That was breath taking to watch, well done!

Was this is a paid project, or just for fun!?

Eric Stemen
October 20th, 2013, 12:33 PM
Thanks! Just for fun, haven't seen any return in it yet other than very positive feedback. Many hours spent after work.

Robert Benda
October 20th, 2013, 01:36 PM
Wow.

Coincidentally, very encouraging. My wife and I are considering moving and this is one area we're checking out (along with Bloomington and Columbus, Indiana).

Noa Put
October 20th, 2013, 02:27 PM
That looked great, can I ask how you achieve these larger movements where you cover several meters in one shot while following a building?

Evan Bourcier
October 20th, 2013, 02:34 PM
Noa: It's called hyperlapsing, you basically run around with a camera on a tripod and stabilize it in post :)

Hyperlapse Tutorial: Creating Your Own Moving Timelapse, from Start to Finish (http://petapixel.com/2013/09/23/hyperlapse-tutorial-creating-moving-timelapse-start-finish/)

James Manford
October 20th, 2013, 03:22 PM
Just watched the tutorial and the videos that guys done of a few different cities around the world ... WOW is all I got to say! amazing technique of creating video like imagery. Very entertaining to watch.

Noa Put
October 20th, 2013, 03:51 PM
I don't see myself creating something like this, not enough patience :)

Oren Arieli
October 20th, 2013, 05:18 PM
Fantastic work, especially with the variety of moves and techniques you used. I don't think I've ever seen a timelapse zolly (zoom/dolly). I'd love to know how you pulled that off so well. What equipment did you use for the shorter moves? Was everything done in HDR? That easily doubles the workload...but looks fantastic.

Duane Adam
October 21st, 2013, 07:41 PM
Thanks for posting. After seeing this I'll have to use this technique in my next project.

Wendell Adkins
November 4th, 2013, 09:32 PM
Eric,

Super job. Loved it. Louisville is a great town and you did it proud.

Serge Petchenyi
November 5th, 2013, 08:15 AM
Eric, that's insane! Great job!!!
If I were you I'd submit it to Louisville Bureau of Tourism.

Alan Melville
November 13th, 2013, 05:34 AM
Excellent piece of work, something to be proud of! Well done.

Al

Mladen Ilic
November 14th, 2013, 04:41 AM
Amazing!

@Evan
Thanks man for the link, really appreciate it!

James Strange
December 2nd, 2013, 01:45 PM
Brilliant.

Rudy Wilms
December 2nd, 2013, 07:25 PM
Love it very nice

Chuck Spaulding
December 3rd, 2013, 02:11 AM
Not sure if Eric is still around but I was checking out your other videos on Vimeo and noticed your into autocross, me too...

I've only shot one event, I try not to take my camera when I go to these things...

Anyway I hope you don't mind that I share this with you here.

COBRA 080412 on Vimeo

Eric Stemen
December 3rd, 2013, 12:44 PM
Thanks for the replies everyone! I sort of forgot about this thread. Cool video Chuck! Autocross is neat to watch, although I enjoy editing it more than shooting it since there is no risk of sunburn =).

It looks like the hyperlapse question has been answered but I'll type a quick version out here as well.
Find a point of interest off in the distance that doesn't move and will never be obstructed by another building or even a light post. Aim at the object(in my case the camera I was using has adjustable cross hairs) Level the half ball head take a photo. Move somewhere between 1 couple inches and 15 feet depending on how long you want the move to be(most of the time I moved the distance of one of my shoes or a half shoe length). Take a photo and repeat the process for however long you want the shot to last. Import into After Effects and warp stabalize. A very repetitive process.

Oren Arieli:
For the shorter moves I mostly used a Kessler Pocket Dolly version 1 with an oracle controller and camera control module....sometimes for a two axis move I would use the discontinued turntable with it. I would occasionally use a shuttle pod mini as well.
With the Zoom out and walk in I would do a hyperlapse but before each shot I would barely zoom out and had the camera re-focus(used autofocus for these since most lenses aren't parafocal) Warp Stabaizer does wonders.
Surprisingly every frame was from a single photo and not HDR. I did however shoot in raw to really be able to manipulate the images later on. For the day to night shots I used LRTimelapse with the Adobe Production CS6 suite. To capture these shots the camera was set to manual and the only setting I would change was the shutter speed....the bump in exposure was corrected with the software mentioned above.
Every shot did have pretty extensive color correction(at least an hour per clip was spent in Adobe Camera Raw) and when shooting I usually would only let a very small percentage of the clouds blow out so when looking at the raw images most people would say they were significantly underexposed.....it's absolutely amazing how much shadow information you can pull out of a raw image file.

I think that got all the questions, very sorry about the delay.

Chuck Spaulding
December 3rd, 2013, 08:27 PM
Thanks Eric.

Great work.