Showing posts with label Night. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Night. Show all posts

Sunday, August 14, 2016

1 Completely Free Stock Footage Clip of the Perseids Meteor Shower

I was very fortunate to have my family vacation time overlap with not only a new moon, but also the Perseids meteor shower event. We were camping in a remote area in the Adirondack mountains, so I decided to take my camera along to see what I could capture.

While I enjoyed what I got, I was using a new time lapse feature that automated the capture differently than how I normally have in the past.  I was able to calculate my exposure using the ever popular "500 rule", which came out to about a 15-second exposure for each frame.  In the past, that meant I needed to set an interval that was HIGHER than 15 seconds to correctly create the time lapse.  Little did I know, this new program factored in the camera's shutter into the interval, which means I could have gotten away with setting a 1-second interval instead of the 16 seconds I had it programmed for.  The camera was also set to go dark, so it did not waste any battery life in inconsequential features.  Since the interval and the shutter time were almost identical, I did not notice that the camera was firing off every other 15 seconds.  The result, while still striking, was about half the amount of frames that I was hoping for in the time I had allotted to be outside, awake and away from my sleeping family.

Let it be a lesson though to anyone looking to go out and do the same.  ALWAYS test new methods and equipment, especially if you are going to places you can't frequent.

You are welcome to use this video in your projects you are working on or keep it in your clip library for future work.The only thing you cannot do is turn around and offer it AS stock footage. Have fun with it!

You can preview and download the video file by clicking "read more" below.  Happy Downloading!




As always, please e-mail, like us or share this on Facebook, Tweet, Google Plus, Pinterest or do whatever you can to spread the word about this site. Thanks!


This video was shot using a Sony A7SII and a Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX DG Lens with a Sigma Mount Converter MC-11 Adapter


Wednesday, June 29, 2016

1 Completely Free Stock Footage Clip Moons You

I've been looking forward to finding a suitable teleconverter for my camera packages, and at the same time, debating on the usability of my GoPro Hero 4 for the purposes of shooting stock footage.  POV and action shots seem a little too personal for general stock purposes.  Being a hobby tech-head as well, I've always enjoyed pushing my electronics to their limit and seeing what interesting things I can accomplish with them. I heard about the Back-Bone Ribcage Mod for GoPros and I became very interested in working with it.  I already have a 180mm macro lens and the crop factor on the c-mount adapter/image sensor is roughly 5.7x meaning my 180mm lens became a 1026mm f/2.8 macro beast!
Since there was a full moon the night of the modding, I had to see what I could get.  There was a slight haze in the sky, which I found pretty neat when watching the footage later.  Looking on some of the big stock sites what I noticed was many of the "moon" shots looked almost faked with a still moon image moving across a black sky.  Not to toot my own horn, the atmosphere on the clip I shot give a sense of realism to the shot. So this full moon is a full resolution HD real time super-telephoto shot for you to use in your project.  Fun fact, the movement is real time, it just looks like it is faster or time lapse-esque because of how small the frame of reference is compared to the sky.  It took me forever to realize it wasn't my tripod drifting on me.

You are welcome to use this video in your projects you are working on or keep it in your clip library for future work.The only thing you cannot do is turn around and offer it AS stock footage. Have fun with it!

You can preview and download the video file by clicking "read more" below.  Happy Downloading!




As always, please e-mail, like us or share this on Facebook, Tweet, Google Plus, Pinterest or do whatever you can to spread the word about this site. Thanks!


This video was shot using a Back-Bone Ribcage Modified GoPro Hero 4 Black and a Sigma 180mm Macro Lens with a Fotodiox EF to C Mount Adapter with built-in de-clicked aperature iris control.


Monday, April 21, 2014

1 Stock Footage Clip is Seeing Stars

Usually twice a year, the family and I travel about 90 miles outside of the city to a very small town in a valley to visit my wife's grandmother.  It is a wonderful place free of things like cell signals, which force you to be more "connected" to the people and things around you.  I've brought my camera down ever since I have started this blog in order to get star time lapses (something I cannot do in the light polluted city limits).  Since we don't go that often, rarely do i have a clear sky to capture (this was the only other one I've been able to get).  This past weekend gave me the perfect opportunity though and I was excited to employ the A/C adapter for my camera that tested so well during the "rotting banana" time lapse.  I also came this time with a much more scientific/mathematical approach to shooting vs. my previous star time lapse.

Most notably, I was able to put into practice something called the "500 rule" which is a calculation that you can perform to figure out how long you can keep your shutter open before you start to capture "star trails" instead of stars.  The formula goes as follows: 500/ (lens focal length) = max. shutter duration in seconds.  I was using my Sigma 24mm f/1.8 lens on my Canon T2i.  The Rebel line of Canon cameras has a 1.6x crop factor that needed to be included as well.  So my calculation was a followed: 500/(24 times 1.6) = 13.  So I had the max time my shutter could be open (13 seconds), I ended up dialing it back 1 second for safety.  Since I was focusing to "infinity" the depth of field did not matter on the camera, so I was able to keep it wide open at f/1.8.  These two known values allowed me to then dial in my ISO to something that would allow me a good exposure.  I settled on 800.  So for those of you interested, this sequence was shot RAW at f/1.8, ISO 800 and a shutter speed of 12 seconds.  I set the intervalometer in my Magic Lantern hacked firmware to 16 seconds, allowing my camera 4 extra seconds to write the RAW file out of the buffer to the 32GB card.  1,464 images later (or 6.5 hours) and what you see below is what I can offer you.

I plan on going back to the RAW files and trying my hand at creating a star trail time lapse by gradually stacking the images.  This is obviously something that will take a while, so I wanted to initially post this video for people who might be able to find a good use for it.  The lights on the trees are actually from trains that pass through town.  I was amazed that the images picked the light from them up.


You can preview and download the clips by clicking "read more" below.  Happy Downloading!




As always, please e-mail, like us or share this on facebook, tweet, google plus, pinterest or do whatever you can to spread the word about this site. Thanks!

This video was shot using a Canon EOS Rebel T2i and a Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX DG Lens


Saturday, May 5, 2012

1 Clip is Just a Phase

I had my first chance to get another time lapse of the moon.  My first one I did was with a 200mm Canon EOS lens I had borrowed from a friend.  This one I did with my old Tokina Minolta mount 200mm lens, and the MD to EOS adapter.

If you compare the two, you can see how much I have learned over the past few months.  Here's to better quality videos for everyone!!!  You will also notice I am testing my ability to upload different file formats to Archive.org.  You have a selection below between H.264, Quicktime PhotoJPEG or Avid DNXHD (almost 1GB in size!)

You can preview and download the clip by clicking "read more" below.  Happy Downloading!

Full Moon still image from a time lapse video


As always, please e-mail, like us or share this on facebook, tweet, google plus, pin  or do whatever you can to spread the word about this site. Thanks!

These videos were shot using a Canon EOS Rebel T2i and a Tokina AT-X 35-200mm Minolta Lens using the Fotodiox MD-EOS Lens Mount Adapter for Canon DSLR

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

1 Clip is Working for a Living

Did an Industrial Night HDR (High Dynamic Range) Time Lapse shot the other day. What I love is I mistakenly balanced a night shot with daylight settings and got the orange tungsten glow you see here.  It made the smoke look like the building was on fire.  Neat litte look ... unintentionally. 

You can preview and download the clip by clicking "read more" below.  Happy Downloading!

an HDR (High Dynamic Range) image of a factory at night

As always, please e-mail, facebook, tweet, google plus or do whatever you can to spread the word about this site. Thanks!


Friday, December 2, 2011

1 Clip has a Milky Way

This was my first time doing a time lapse of the nighttime sky.  I was out of town in a remote area, and had a great chance to catch this.  Even though it turned out great, I also learned quite a bit that I will apply to more clips if I ever have the chance to again.  Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the 2 satellites that pass by in the clip.

You can preview and download the clips by clicking "read more" below.  Happy Downloading!


Time lapse of stars in the sky royalty free

As always, please e-mail, facebook, tweet, google plus or do whatever you can to spread the word about this site. Thanks!

This video was shot using a Canon EOS Rebel T2i and a Sigma 24mm f/1.8 EX DG Lens