Just a year ago, in May 2011, I started my trip to Iceland with the purpose of making a documentary on the topic of water in that country. At that time I only had a small script, just an idea. However, I had plenty of enthusiasm to make an innovative film about conservationism.
My idea was to raise awareness of the problem that the Icelandic society is facing – having to choose between keeping their natural environment, with the largest fresh water reserve in Europe, or surrendering to the big corporations, hungry for resources of energy. But I didn`t want to make a traditional documentary of nature conservation. I wanted to show the beauty of Icelandic environment, so that the viewer would become aware of how much is at stake, and that it must be preserved at all costs.
A year later, the result of many months of hard work got rewarded. Vatn won the film festival of tourism and ecology of Caceres, Cinextur. This prize, given by a prestigious jury, confirms that Vatn has achieved its purpose – it has transmitted the idea that water is a precious source of life and it must be preserved in its natural environment.

If you are someone who does time-lapse with DSLR and has to do calculations to determine the appropriate interval or duration of your event, then this application will certainly interest you.

It’s called time-lapse Toolkit and it is now available for both iPhone and Android.

As the name suggests, it is a set of tools designed to help you develop your photographing technique: a calculator for all the values you need to know when doing a time-lapse, a flashlight for working at night, an application to keep track of the rising and setting times of the Sun and Moon, to plan the shooting, and a page with tips about shooting time-lapse.

The most important tool is the calculator, which unlike other applications, has 3 active modes, so you can calculate clip length, interval or event duration by using the extras.

Apart from its utility, the interface has a display style of an intervalometer and a wheel for inserting the data. For those working with DSLR cameras will be very familiar and I must say that besides being original and comfortable, it functions almost as if it was real.

The application has been created by two persons closely associated with the time-lapse technique – Enrique Pacheco, an important name in the world of time-lapse (enriquepacheco.com), and Jesus Villadóniga the founder of ReflexrentHD.com, a Spanish company specialized in SLR camera rental and accessories.

The aim of this article is no other than to reveal the keys of this process. But first I have to clarify that there are several ways for processing time-lapses. There are many different programs and workflows, I’ll explain the one that works best for me. I use RAW files, Adobe Lightroom and Apple Quicktime Pro, which certainly work both for Mac and Windows.

Copying files. The first step is the most simple one which I`m sure you all know. That is copying the material from the memory card to your hard drive. I prefer to do this using the computer’s operating system and not through the import option of Lightroom. I like to organize it into folders that are appropriately named including the dates etc. This helps to maintain order in the database,
so that you can later find the folders easily.

Importing to library. One of the biggest advantages of Lightroom (compared to other editing software) is the possibility of working with catalogs and libraries, thus it is possible to navigate through our pictures as collections, tags, favorites, etc..
I usually drag the folder with the time-lapse photos where the Lightroom logo is, which then opens the import menu. You can also open the program, then click on the File menu and from there choose Import. So you then have the folder and its files available in the Lightroom Library tab.

Developing the files. Now it´s time to develop the photos. When shooting in raw, you have greater control over the images, as the raw format is uncompressed and enables high quality and much more control over the colors. Select the first take and perform any necessary adjustments before the next step. Let’s see what are the basic settings.

Aspect ratio: I like to start by editing the aspect ratio. Usually our pictures have format of 2/3 or 4/3, depending on the sensor of the camera. But as our goal is to make a video, we need to convert it to 16/9, as this is the standard format of most of the distribution channels. Select the crop tool and insert the new aspect ratio manually. Insert 16:9 and from this moment it will be recorded as “preset” and can be used in the next steps. As you can see in the cropping box on our photograph it now has ratio of 16/9.

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Levels: The following adjustments we should pay attention to are levels, exposure, shadows, contrast, saturation, noise, etc.. Going through the process as we normally do with our pictures, thanks to the versatility of working with RAW. Finally, we adjust the sharpness of the image.

Batch processing: This is perhaps the most interesting part of developing the time-lapse. Apply the same settings You used with the first picture to all your photos. To do this return to the Library tab, select the first shot, and go to the photo menu, developing settings and click on “Copy Settings”. You can also use the command “ctrl + shift + c” for Windows and “shift + cmd + c ” for Mac.
This will open a popup window where you can select the settings you want to copy. I usually select all.
The next step is to select all photos, for that you can use “ctrl + a”. When they are all selected, it is time to apply the settings of the first picture. For that You just have to press “shift + ctrl + v” or “shift + cmd + v”. Immediately all the shots begin to take the appearance of the first one, but do not panic, because we are working on raw, so it´ just a metadata change. You can always return to the original image without any loss.

Exporting to jpg or tiff: After that it’s time to export to jpg or tiff for making it possible to open it in a video editing program. If we want the highest quality possible and disk space is not a problem, it is better to do a tiffs sequence. But in most cases a jpg at 100% quality will be more than enough.
After selecting the images, click on the export tab in the lower left corner of the library. This will open a popup window where you can choose the format, size, quality and other parameters such as focus and name.
I highly recommend you to create a “preset” with the most commonly used settings, so that you won’t have to insert the settings to each file you are editing.
On the following picture you can see which one I use most frequently.
The exporting process can take a long time and to converting 300 RAW images to jpg or tiff is not a joke. But the advantage of Lightroom is that we can continue working on other files while exporting. That’s real multitasking!

Turning photos into videos. Some might think that we are continuing from where we were, with lots of still images to be converted into a motion video. And it’s partly true, but the difference is that now we have these images correctly retouched and resized to the size ant ratio of the final video.
The next step is to merge them into a video clip. For doing that use Quicktime Pro, as it is very quick and easy. Please note that it must be version 7, version X or Player will not work.
Open the application, select “Open Image Sequence” and look for the folder where you have the pictures in jpg. Choose the first one, then select the frame rate of the clip. It is important to choose 25fps if you are in Europe, 30fps if you are in USA or Japan, and 24fps if the video is being made for the big screen.
Then hit ok, and a few seconds later, you have your image sequence done.

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Exporting the video. Guess you noticed that I ended up saying that you have a sequence of images, not a video file. That is because until you have not exported the video with a certain codec you just have a sequence of jpg images.
In most cases, the purpose of the clips is to be part of a project in a non-linear editing software, like Final Cut or Adobe Premiere. In these cases, you need the highest quality and also a native codec. The most popular one is the Apple ProRes, which has a great balance between quality and file size. For my productions I use Apple ProRes HQ, 4:2:2 10bits without gamma correction. The more convenient resolution is FullHD or 1920×1080.
Perhaps your clip will go straight to internet, in this case it is best to export it to a reading codec. The most popular is the H264, but if you are hosted on Vimeo, I recommend using the following image settings.

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I hope that with this tutorial I have helped you with your first steps in the world of time-lapse. If there are any questions, here’s my email: info@enriquepacheco.com

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On this trip to the North of Iceland organized with my colleague Juan Carlos Muñoz, I had the chance to experience the full harshness and beauty of the Icelandic winter landscape, very different from the most popular summer season. Although the main purpose of the trip was to photograph the Northern Lights, the whole group realized that every corner of this island is worth photographing. The first stop on our way was Hvítserkur, a wonderful rock formation anchored near the shore, a petrified dragon according to some, a double stone arch according to others, for everyone, a fantastic location for landscape photography.

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Before arriving at our main destination, Lake Myvatn, there were plenty of opportunities to enjoy the spectacular Arctic landscape, shaped by the snow and wind, with its whimsical and original shapes, reliefs and shadows. A great spot to practice composition.
At our final destination, the famous and colossal Lake Myvatn, it was time to explore its many natural wonders. One of those and perhaps the least known, is the thermal water cave called Grjótagjá. A great geological formation containing water that’s over 50 º c which offers numerous photographic opportunities.

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At night it was time to look for our main objective, the Northern Lights. This natural phenomenon that occurs only near the poles happens due to collision of the Earth’s atmosphere with particles entrained by the solar wind. And as it happened during the last year, we could have not chosen a better time to make our trip. During the days we were in Iceland there were numerous explosions and solar storms, which resulted in Northern Lights of great beauty and intensity.

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But this wasn’t just pure luck. Years 2012 and 2013 are predicted to have the greatest Northern Lights of the last 10 years. Iceland is one of the best places to photograph the Northern Lights, because the temperature there is not as low as in other Arctic countries because of the Gulf Stream. And, more importantly, its landscape is just remarkable.

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After several nights of watching the Northern Lights and several days of discovering the amazing landscape, we wanted to visit Lake Myvatn for the last time before heading back. The eerie rock formations of this place make you think about how were they formed. How did they get there? The water, wind and fire have sculpted the landscape making it into a giant outdoor museum, where the Earth is the artist, and we are mere visitors

VATN

[Icelandic] = water

In this film, water, or vatn, contemplates its nature within the ecosystem of Iceland. Water is the protagonist, a powerful voice to be reckoned with, while also aware of its role in the environment.

Today, a few powerful corporations have created industry which, for the first time, significantly threaten the manner in which water has always spoken, and flowed through Iceland. If this continues, the earth will lose the pure sound of wisdom from this ancient source.

Will we preserve this environment?
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Now you can buy the film for just 3€. You will get a link for direct download in HD 720p and a jpg file with the cover.

ENRIQUE PACHECO. NATURAL PHENOMENON.

Enrique Pacheco studied photography and documentary filmmaking in Madrid at EFTI, Instituto del Cine de Madrid, and FP Atocha. Enrique’s first documentary, Al Calor de las Chimeneas, (In the Heat of the Chimneys) examines industry and climate change in Spain.

Enrique’s career changed when his equipment was stolen. At that point, he decided to do the only thing which made sense at the time: that was, move to Iceland. There, he started over with some of nature’s most volatile subjects, such as live volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, fjörds, and the authentic Icelandic culture.
Since 2008, he has taught specialized workshops in DSLR timelapse and filmmaking. Enrique has contributed to Quesabesde.com and HDSLR.es and regularly expresses well-traveled reviews of photo technology on his blog.

Enrique work revolves around documenting the beauty of earth. His hope is to inspire viewers to fall in love again with their own nature and environment. You can read more about his story here.

Sign up for regular news from Enrique. It’s a good thing to do.

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After many months of speculations, rumors and leaks, Nikon has finally introduced its long-awaited D800. There have been discussions of how this camera will be the younger sister of D4, or otherwise will become a machine that’s more focused on another sector of photography, being less journalistic and more suitable for advertising, to be a competitor to the Canon 5D MarkII.
Many of us were hoping that Nikon would not make the mistake of excessive increase of the resolution with its new models. It seems that this mistake was made by Canon for years and they finally realized it, the 1DX might be a good example. A lot of professionals preferred a camera with more contained resolution to better response in high ISOs. Many of us have used the Canon 5D MarkII at intermediate resolution since we did not need its 21mpx all the time, but we loved the good response at 1600 ISO. Moreover, the great success of Canon is definitely related to video recording, a task for which the resolution of the sensors, play against, having to rescale down to 1920×1080 resolution to get FullHD, with consequent moire and aliasing problems.

Returning to the Nikon D800, with a resolution of 36mpx, recording FullHD with 24 and 25p (good news) and as is common with the DSLR`s 720p at 50p. Again, a big brand that gives a bad impression, and is not able to offer full HD at 50p. Really, it is very hard to understand how a machine that is capable of processing up to 6fps – 36mpx – RAW, is not able to handle full HD video at 50fps in a H264 codec. Especially when the tiny Sony NEX5n has shown that it is possible.
But it’s not all bad news. Like its big brother, the Nikon D4, the D800 has HDMI out clean, not uncompressed, as it was said in some publications and heard from representatives of Nikon. Clean means that we can extract a resolution of 1920×1080 and also delete all information that appears on the screen, such as exposure, frame rate, histogram, etc. This means that we can send the video signal to an external recorder via an HDMI cable, so we skip the compression of the camera, which delivers lower quality. Why this output is not uncompressed? It would take many paragraphs to explain what is the sampling of the signal, for this I recommend you to read this link . But let’s say an uncompressed output would be 4:4:4 10bits. While both the Nikon D4 and D800 provide 8bits at 4:2:2. Is it compressed? Yes, but less than when we record it on the memory card, which is 8-bit 4:2:0 in H264 codec.

Another good thing related to the Nikon D800 is the audio output that has the shape of a minijack, perfect for monitoring audio recording. This is something that many users were in need of, because until now there was no way of knowing whether the signal that was coming into the camera was good or not. This together with manual control and the already existing microphone input, makes it a very versatile tool when it comes to recording any media events.

As for the construction and design of the camera, Nikon continues its traditional line of sturdy bodies, well built and designed for a professional. Those who spend long hours in harsh environments, value above many other things, that the body is sealed, preventing moisture problems and accidents, which might become fatal to the machine. This is something that many of us experienced with the Canon 5D MarkII, a camera costing over € 2,000 did not have a proper seal. During a year in Iceland I have seen the death of up to 4 cameras of this model – humidity, salt, splashes of unexpected waves, and poof! your camera is dead. I’m sure that this won’t happen with the Nikon D800, like it didn`t to the Olympus E-1, a first generation reflex that already back then was sealed with top quality. Sealing is something that the brands seem to have forgotten today. Perhaps that’s because more and more amateurs buy professional cameras, without ever using them for what they were designed for.

While talking about ergonomics, perhaps we should highlight that the Nikon D800, like the rest of the professional SLRs that have been and are launched in the near future, has no folding screen, a quality that advanced users are in need of since long time, but for now it seems restricted to the consumer range. Some of us don`t understand why amateurs have this feature in their cheap cameras, while professionals must continue to pay high rates for machines that do not have it.

I’m convinced that the Nikon D800 will deliver a fantastic image quality in both photo and video, and thanks to it’s “clean” HDMI output, we can get that extra quality that many are seeking. I hope that it’s 36mpx, won`t tarnish the high ISO response and it’s new, powerful processing, knows how to control moire and aliasing. This, together with good color images from Nikon and its tradition of robust bodies, will make this a great camera that we will enjoy for years.

But my biggest doubt about these cameras, also called EVIL, was the small size of the sensor, 4 / 3 like with Panasonic and Olympus, or even Nikon’s smallest, that’s equivalent to 16mm film.
They just didn’t suit professional applications, because the small sensors are producing much more noise and they also lack angles for increasing the depth of field.

Speaking of lenses, most of these systems have a limited catalog, lacking in fast and prime lenses.
When it comes to video recording, the mirrorless cameras were not considered to be proper tools compared with the already popular DSLR. The digital camera is offering resolutions below FullHD with low bitrate codecs.

All this may now have been changed due to the arrival of Sony’s new NEX cameras, which seem to be the solution to all of the above mentioned problems.
Thus, the Sony NEX5n, not be confused with the discontinued NEX5, has some features that at first glance make it a “DSLR Killer”.
I will list and analyze these characteristics.

APSC sensor. This is undoubtedly its greatest asset that makes it a great competitor on the market. The Sony Nex5n is a camera smaller than a pack of cigarettes and has a sensor that’s the size that Canon 7D or any other digital movie camera has e.g. read RED One, Arri Alexa, etc. This makes it possible to achieve shallow depths of field, which is essential in today’s film making.
Also, noise levels are much lower than their fellow members have and the bigger the sensor, the larger the photodiodes, and the greater the ability to capture light from them.
I must also emphasize that Sony has done an outstanding job with the process of the signal and therefore, resulting in extremely low noise levels, unseen with cameras in this category and price.

Sony E Mount. This may seem inconvenient a priori – a camera with a Sony mount as special as E, with a small catalog and few or no other brands developing lenses for it. But the APSC sensor size and the missing mirror make it possible to use NEX cameras with almost any kind of lenses ever made, when using an adapter ring. Just to name a few compatible lenses: Canon, Sony, Pentax, Nikon, Leica M, and even cinema lenses with PL mount.
This makes this camera one of the most compatible on the market, and gives it almost an endless range of lenses to choose from.

OLED Electronic Viewfinder: A few years ago the lack of an optical viewfinder was considered a big inconvenience. It is not so today, especially for those of us that use DSLR cameras to shoot video or time lapse because in that case it is not possible to use the mirror and the viewfinder. This has forced the industry to manufacture other devices such as electronic viewfinders “EVF”. The best known are the Zacuto and SmallHD, both quite big and expensive.
This is where Sony beats them with their NEX5n, offering a cheaper compact viewfinder with a fantastic resolution thanks to the OLED technology.

FullHD video. This is the third and perhaps the greatest strength of the Sony NEX5n – the possibility of video recording in full HD (1920x1080p). Something that only some compact cameras in this range were able to do so far. Some high-end DSLR, like Nikon D3s for example, stay in a modest resolution of 720p.

What is most amazing about this little camera, and might have made me buy, try and write about it, is the ability to record 1080p, 50p in AVCHD. This, for those of you who are not very well informed, means that it records 50 frames per second, which allows you to do real slow motions (in FullHD).
Until now, most of the DSLR cameras have been able to record at 50p, but then the resolution drops to 720p. But Sony has managed to keep the resolution when increasing the number of frames per second. For me this is what makes it a “DSLR Killer”.

But not only does it perform better than the DSLR, it also does better than cameras like the Canon C300, which has the same size sensor as the NEX5n and only allows recording of 50p at 720p, which is unforgivable with a camera that costs 15,000 € .
I’m not saying the NEX5n is better than Canon C300. Far from that. They are two different cameras for two different applications. But if Sony was able to achieve this recording format with a 500 € pocket camera, why Canon has not been able to do that with its more professional tool?

Dynamic Range. One thing that has pleasantly surprised me is the considerably greater dynamic range that NEX5n has compared to its rivals. I compared it with a Canon 600D, which is the most similar in price and sensor size.
The Sony NEX5n showed even greater latitude than 5D MarkII, with more shadow detail and much less contrast, which gives more possibilities in color correction.

Sharpness. Here is another point where I have to highlight the great performance of NEX5n. Even with the kit lens, a modest 18-50 f3.5-5.6, Sony has proven to be much sharper than its rival, in this case the Canon 600D accompanied by a professional Canon lens 17-40 f4.
I have to say that I didn’t expect this result, but it gives a good example of how great can be the improvement in sensor and signal process development.

Moiré. Reducing the moiré effect is another strength of the Sony NEX5n. Featuring a 16mpxl APSC sensor, we could expect a higher level of this digital artefact, but Sony has done a good job in managing to keep it very low, almost unnoticeable. With that beating its competitors – the DSLR cameras with triple its price, like for example the Canon 5D MarkII.

Conclusions: We are facing a camera that just hit the market, with extensive features and endless amount of possibilities.
Full HD at 50p, APSC size sensor or Super 35 when it comes to movies, Sony E mount with ability to use almost any lens on the market, when using the adapter rings, AVCHD Codec, OLED viewfinder, folding screen, picture styles for greater image control, etc. are some of the features that make this camera a “DSLR Killer”.

For a long time no camera has aroused my interest as much as the Sony NEX5n, pushing me to make a comparison and write this review. Perhaps it’s because this is a special camera, with revolutionary features. A camera worth its price, and most importantly, that is available to everyone.