RESEARCH

Rob Whitworth 

Rob Whitworth was born 27 May 1982. He is a British photographer and film maker. Most of Whitworth's works are mainly based on time-lapse which had received millions of online views which have received numerous awards. 

Whitworth attended Norwich School of Art & Design where he completed his education with a degree in photography. After this, he decided to focus purely on mixed photography and videography. Whitworth has been praised for his stunning time-lapse photography and hyper-lapses. 

Whitworth's most recent films 'This is Shanghai' 'and Once Upon a Time in Cappadocia' have had a lot of media coverage. Whitworth captures fast-paced videos with telephoto lenses and many other incredible filming techniques to make his work unlike anything else. 

In 2016 Whitworth attained a important role in the filming of an the episode 'Cities' from Planet Earth II. This episode documents representations of the worlds most significant cities. This same episode was awarded Best Photography award.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Whitworth 

Below is the 'Cities' short film

Rob Whitworth mainly presents time-lapses of different cities in motion over a long period of time, in Whitworths case I reckon it would have taken around a month to shoot just one short film (time-lapse. There is just something about his short films that tells me that Whitworth immensely enjoys what he is doing regardless of how long it takes to produce. Whitworth shot this time-lapse over Barcelona's awe-inspiring landscapes, winding streets and intriguing architecture. I think that this time-lapse is very impressive, the amount of time that was put into this is unimaginable. I think that this time-lapse is so inspiring and astonishing, the way he has shot it is incredible and so creative. I especially like the way that the film zoom in and out and every single time-lapse that he shot all links together to create one large compilation in the form of a short film. For this particular short film, Whitworth spent:

• 363 Hours of work
• 75 Hours for Logistics and Travel
• 31 Hours of Location Finding
• 78 Hours Shooting
• 179 Hours on Post Production

26014 Camera Raw Files 817gb of data

The equipment that Whitworth used:

• Nikon D800 DSLR
• Nikon D7100 DSLR
• Nikon D7100 DSLR
• Nikon D3200 DSLR
• Nikon 10.5mm f/2.8G ED AF DX Fisheye
• NIkon 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED AF-S DX
• Nikon 16-35 f/4G AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor
• Nikon 28mm AF f/2.8D
• Nikon 50mm f/1.4G AF-S
• Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED AF-S VR II Promote Control

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHjJV2LwkzA

Alexandros Maragos

Alexandors Maragos was born in Athens, Greece in 1977. He is a Greek photographer and filmmaker. He is profoundly known for his night photography, landscape photography and impressive time-lapses. His night photography works (astrophotography has been rewarded by NASA as 'Astronomy Picture of the Day'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandros_Maragos

Below is just one of Maragos's time-lapses

Marago's time-lapses are very cleverly shot he commonly shoots from very long distance and in the time-lapse above, he shot from over 5 miles away. I really like the way that he slowly zooms in on a specific subject within the frame. This must have taken quite a long time to produce, experimenting and testing. I adore the way that the main subject is at the centre of the frame with roads leading of it in which you can see cars in motion with light trails. I think that this is such a great composition and to get at this hight above what you are shooting completely changes the way that we see the time-lapse, I almost feel like a bird soaring down towards the central point of the frame. This is something that I may try out.

How to Capture Breathtaking Time-Lapse Photography of the Night Sky

Tools:

• DSLR or mirrorless camera
• Wide-angle lens preferably with f/2.8 or faster aperture
• Sturdy tripod
• Intervalometer
• Large storage memory card (16GB or higher)
• Fully charged camera battery

Why Time-Lapse Photography?

Time-lapse photography allows us to view the world in an utterly different manner. We have all seen  a sky full of stars, but this in motion is something that our own naked eyes can't see. This was up until high-ISO capable DSLR's were introduced.

Camera Settings:

Shooting in RAW format is a must!! The real advantage of shooting in RAW is that it adds an extra one to two stops of exposure latitude, this means that if the sky is a little to bright then it is possible to turn the aperture down in post production without adding any unnecessary noise.

Aperture:

In order to shoot the night sky it is highly recommended that you use a lens which has a maximum aperture value of at least f/2.8.

Shutter Speed:  

A slower shutter speed allows for more light to reach the sensor. This is perfect for night photography). When capturing the night sky you should use a very slow shutter speed of a duration between 20 and 30 seconds. This is because the sensor will be exposed for a longer time, this also means that it is important to make sure that there are no bright lights within the frame when framing the image that you will be shooting. A full moon, car lights and even lighting coming from a house may be to bright for a slow shutter speed which will ruin your attempt at shooting the night sky.

ISO:

When capturing the night sky, you are asking your camera to record and image that even the naked eye is not able to see. In order to do this, it requires using a large aperture (around f/2/8), a very slow shutter speed (between 20-30 seconds) and a high ISO (between 1600-6400). 

Focus:

When capturing still frames for a time-lapse, you don't want the camera to change focus every time it shoots and image, so its necessary to change from autofocus to manual focus. When shooting the night sky, focusing becomes difficult as the camera is pointing into darkness so this makes it a challenge ti know if the image you want to capture is going to be in focus. To focus on the night sky all you need to do is point the camera at the brightest star in the sky, using live view, zoom into the bright star to make it larger and then slowly turn the focus ring until the star is in focus and looks as sharp as possible. Now its time to compose the first shot for the time-lapse, making sure not to touch the focus ring.

White Balance:

When shooting in RAW, the white balance is not really important as it can be changed later on. However, you don't want the white balance to change from frame to frame so don't set it to auto. Instead set it to Incandescent

Sky Conditions:

There are better and worse times to capture the night sky throughout the year. The best time to view the night sky is during the spring and summer months where there is less clouds and the starts can be viewed earlier, rather than later on during the night. This information can be found on apps such as 'Photo Pills' and 'Star Walk' these apps show the sky as it appears above at any given day and time.

Composition:

Shooting the night sky without anything in the foreground or anything else in the frame makes for poor composition which results in a boring time-lapse. 

Capturing the Night Sky:

• Insert a fully charged battery
• Insert an empty 16GB memory card or larger
• Put the camera into 'Manual'
• Set the aperture to its maximum setting (Preferably f/2.8)
• Use a wide-angle lens (24mm)
• Very slow shutter speed (20-30 seconds)
• ISO (1600-6400)
• White balance to 'Incandescent'

Intervalometer:

Once the camera is all set up and ready to capture images, its time to connect the external intervalometer  or the cameras built in intervalometer although commonly the maximum is 999 images which is not ideal.

How Many Photos Do I Need To Shoot:

The image that can be seen above is a single frame from an example time-lapse. Because video plays back in 24 frames per second, this means that a single frame would stay on the screen for a very shot length of 1/24 second. In the example time-lapse which can be seen in the link below uses 408 captured still frames/images which were shot over a period of 2.5 hours.

https://vimeo.com/71708908

Don't make the mistake of thinking that more is better because in reality, the majority of people don't enjoy watching a single time-lapse of the same scene for anything more than 7 seconds. Instead of staying out all night shooting one scene that would last around 30 seconds, you could capture enough for around 6 seconds of video, then completely change the composition to capture a second time-lapse.  

https://makezine.com/projects/how-to-capture-breathtaking-time-lapses-of-the-night-sky/

How to Time-lapse clouds

In order to shoot a time-lapse of the clouds you need to have a camera that is capable of shooting with an interval timer or use a intervalometer. You will also need a tripod to keep the camera still, this is especially important if you are using a longer shutter speed. Using a polarising filter is not necessary but it helps to darken the sky and make the clouds look so much better. When wanting to shoot the clouds it is always best to find something to go in the foreground

Make sure to use:

• Manual mode
• Manual focus
• Manually set white balance
• Interval between 3 - 10 seconds (depending on how fast the clouds are moving)
• Sturdy tripod
• lens hood (if shooting in bright conditions)