How-to film Time Lapse of plant growing

[vmcmedia]

I'm in need of urgent help..

Need to film a bean sprout growing..
A time lapse shot..

How do i go about it?
Film every how many minutes or hours??
Do i need to water it?
How to do in a studio (no windows = no light)??
Can i use a fake light?

Any help is appreciated..

Thanks..

[icychilled]

i don't think it'll be feasible to film 24hrs...maybe split it up into 6 hrs per day?

[DXNMedia]

Seems like VMCmedia is a business entity and they're seeking advise here about basic timelapse acquisition....
Hmm perhaps the guys contributing to help VMCmedia should be charging consulting fees.

Kidding...


Your camera should have a timelapse capture function where it will roll camera for 5sec every few minutes. check the specs of your cam.

Make sure you lock your shots & object of interest.

[roygoh]

There are a variety of ways to do time lapse...

Equipment talk first:

On one hand you can use a webcam with a software like YAWCAM (free) to capture a still picture at fixed intervals. YAWCAM can even make the captured pictures into a video for you.

On the other hand you hand use a DSLR with USB interface and use a software like ToneUp S3 (http://www.toneupstudio.com/).

A Nikon CP995 (or equivalent) and a DigiSnap controller that can do the same thing also.

Make sure you have adequate supply of power to your equipment. That may mean using external power supplies to the camera and flash.

If the lighting can be make constant then it might look better. In this case a simple table lamp might do the job, as far as the photography goes. But I am not sure if the beans would need actual sunlight to start to grow. You can also consider using a flash.

Other things to consider:

Bean sprouts might take a few days or even more than a week. If you have the memory then take at shorter intervals (every 5 minutes?). You can always discard frames later to speed up the video.

Background can be a piece of black cardboard.

Make sure the equipment and plant are not moved during the process.

You probably can put together some automatic watering system where water is slowiny fed into the soil.

Hope that helps. Now let's talk about consulting fees...

[sundazz]

-can either use still or video (roll every interval as mentioned above)
-fix n lock your camera and subject position
-if your cam has a programmable recording mood as mentioned by Dixon. if not u have to do it manual, and use remote control to record if have. avoid any cam shift .
-have consistant lighting condition.
-n other point mentioned by roygoh n Dixon

hmm.. alternatively I think can explore the use of editing technique to work backward from a full grown plant.. but need lots of work.. and the efx may not be as good n as natural as shooting timelapse..

so is for a biz project? hmm.. consultation charges hor.. can be jus a cup of kopi la.. jus kidding la.

[DXNMedia]

hehehe, might as well just animate in 3D lar.

[vmcmedia]

Thanks guys for the replies..

I may not have made myself very clear..

I know how to do a time lapse shot..
Question is how often should I take it for a beansprout sort of thing??
And can artificial light be used as sunlight?

Hope someone who has done it before can share experiences..

Thanks..

[vmcmedia]

Thanks guys for the replies..

I may not have made myself very clear..

I know how to do a time lapse shot..
Question is how often should I take it for a beansprout sort of thing??
And can artificial light be used as sunlight?

Hope someone who has done it before can share experiences..

Thanks..

[vmcmedia]

Thanks guys for the replies..

I may not have made myself very clear..

I know how to do a time lapse shot..
Question is how often should I take it for a beansprout sort of thing??
And can artificial light be used as sunlight?

Hope someone who has done it before can share experiences..

Thanks..

[vmcmedia]

Thanks guys for the replies..

I may not have made myself very clear..

I know how to do a time lapse shot..
Question is how often should I take it for a beansprout sort of thing??
And can artificial light be used as sunlight?

Hope someone who has done it before can share experiences..

Thanks..

[sundazz]

Originally Posted by DXNMedia hehehe, might as well just animate in 3D lar.

yes.. actually wanted to mention tat too.. some good animator can do it very real.

[sundazz]

Originally Posted by vmcmedia Thanks guys for the replies.. I may not have made myself very clear.. I know how to do a time lapse shot.. Question is how often should I take it for a beansprout sort of thing?? And can artificial light be used as sunlight? Hope someone who has done it before can share experiences.. Thanks..

honestly i have not done with beansprout b4, but ever did a flower grow.. think is a morning glory if never remember wrongly.. it took few hours to full bloom. was done in a studio with a 1K lite (think shd be 1K la, forgot ) simulating as sunlite.
If i can still remember my science in school, we can use table lamb to simulated the sun lites rite? (correct me if i am wrong). Watering is require as plant need water to grow.
It may take few days to grow.

experiment it and update us on your shoot.
cheers

[vmcmedia]

Thanks sundazz..

I may end up doing an illustration of it instead..
Too many uncertainties plus urgent deadline..

But if i do go ahead with the production I'll keep you guys updated on how I do it..

[DXNMedia]

According to my quick research, the beansprout will grow in 4 days, and will keep growing longer and longer until u decide to cook it for eating.

Might be a bit impossible to achieve a timelapse shot if it's urgent.

[Elgaris]

Haven't tried it personally, but you most probably need to use lights since plant growth occurs mostly at night (like humans), and bean sprout growth is very quick.

[aeskywan]

Hmmmm question, in docus they track the growth of trees or plants that takes months to grow. How did that do that? Lock the camera there for months?