How to time lapse the growth of a flower till bloom.

So i know i have three months till the flower blooms.

How do i go about this? i have ML installed in my camera so its very useful for this kinda thing i would suppose.

I probably couldnt just take a photo a day this that woudl be just 90 photos & barely a time lapse. would that work maybe?

Do you know the blooming process for your flower? Some flowers change very slowly for weeks and then suddenly the bloom opens in just a few hours. I captured the blooming cycle of a cereus with time lapse, using a cable remote with a time delay, set to take one shot every 5 minutes. I didn't start until the bud showed some signs of being ready to open (it had been growing for about four weeks). It went from that state to fully open in 24 hours - and then collapsed over the next 48 hours, giving me three days of video to play in about two minutes. I used the AC adapter on the camera (changing batteries would have shifted the lens) and a flash with external battery pack that could have the battery pack changed without disturbing the lens.

Sounds like you have plenty of time to experiment. Take a series of images over a few days and see how they look when you create the time lapse. Some things to think about:

• You generally set up the camera on a stationary mount, and the subject in a fixed location. Then you leave them there for the entire duration - you don't want to move either one. So you basically lose the use of your camera for anything else during the time lapse period.
• Battery power can be an issue. Once the blooming starts, you'll be taking a lot of frames over the course of a couple of days, I think. Maybe one every 30 seconds or every minute. You will probably need an AC adapter.
• Exposure will be tricky as the lighting changes with time. You'll need to use Av, or else you'll get pretty annoying flicker during the time lapse (you might anyway).
• I used Quicktime Pro to assemble a couple thousand images into a video. I'm sure there are other software packages that can do the same.

Some more tips:




Mark

Mark Salvetti said:

Sounds like you have plenty of time to experiment. Take a series of images over a few days and see how they look when you create the time lapse. Some things to think about:

• You generally set up the camera on a stationary mount, and the subject in a fixed location. Then you leave them there for the entire duration - you don't want to move either one. So you basically lose the use of your camera for anything else during the time lapse period.
• Battery power can be an issue. Once the blooming starts, you'll be taking a lot of frames over the course of a couple of days, I think. Maybe one every 30 seconds or every minute. You will probably need an AC adapter.
• Exposure will be tricky as the lighting changes with time. You'll need to use Av, or else you'll get pretty annoying flicker during the time lapse (you might anyway).
• I used Quicktime Pro to assemble a couple thousand images into a video. I'm sure there are other software packages that can do the same.

Some more tips:

http://www.time-science.com/timescience/timelapse.asp#

http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/ultimate-guide-to-time-lapse-photography/

http://digitalartwork.net/2007/01/30/time-lapse-tutorial/

Mark

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Thanks!!!! That was all helpful!

Anyways, i felt weird saying what flower it was on the title because its a public forum.

But i've had my 215 for a few years now, so i can legally grow (up to 90 or something) cannabis plants, but i have only grown a couple clones a summer for personal use, & this year i really wanted to see what i could do.

its in a grow state right now, & in the next 2 months there is going to be buds forming. so im not sure exactly when i should jump in to shoot this? I understand the time lapse idea, so i thnk im going to take a run through test today, but just having it take a shot every 5 mins? for as long as 3 batteries can get me. Can i get some more pointers now that you know the exact plant. I can give you the strain too if you want.

Again, im not trying to be cocky with this idea, but i can understand if some people are somehow offended of me asking this on a forum. ive looked all over the web for a "weed photography" site, but there just isnt. at least one that explains the best way to go about this plant.

Satchmolouie said:

take a shot every 5 mins? for as long as 3 batteries can get me

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There's a problem right there - it is pretty much impossible to change a battery without changing the position of the camera, which will appear as a jump in the time lapse image. That's why it's better to use an AC adapter.

I've done it before, my tripod is very heavy & sturdy, & the quick release is not covering the battery door flap, so i've attempted timelapsing before with battery changes & i couldnt tell any signs of movement in angle. I literally just poen the bat. door & slide in a new one.

But im just doing a test. is a photo every 5 mins right?

Every 5 minutes should be fine, but you'll need at least a half day of shots to get an image where you can see significant movement. But a lot depends on the blooming speed. Some flowers take days to bloom, other can bloom in an hour or less. We have a Night Blooming Cereus that goes from first signs of bloom to fully open in about three hours - with an 8 inch diameter bloom. At one shot per 5 minutes that is 12 shots per hour so only 36 frames for the complete blooming process (not enough).

Check out the links I sent you earlier. To get a nice smooth movie, you'll want to play the images back at around 24 frames per second.

If you want to run your test for 4 hours, and the test movie will be 30 seconds long, you'll need 720 images. That's one image every 20 seconds.

If you figure your final product is going to be 3 minutes long, you need 4,320 images. If you decide your flower will take 12 hours from start to finish, that's one image every 10 seconds. A one minute video means just one image every 30 seconds over 12 hours, which seems more realistic. Make sure you have enough memory.

That may seem like a lot of images, but I'm sure you are looking for very smooth motion of the flower opening. If you don't have enough frames, the movie will be jumpy.

Mark

Mark Salvetti said:

Make sure you have enough memory.

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Easily solved if you know you're shooting for video - set the camera resolution to 2600x1700. Normally, I never shoot anything other than full resolution RAW images, but for video this is a complete waste of hard drive space and adds an unnecessary step to the conversion. At 2600x1700, you can get a huge number of shots on a memory card.