What type of Photography?....

[zebulus]

One of the guys I work with approached me with a question the other day. He said a client of his (hes a city engineer) is building a water tower, and they want to do a time lapse photography deal on it. They want to be able to watch a video of the building process, from start to finish.

He told me the budget is huge on this, and could be upwards of $30,000 to make this happen.

But time lapse photography dosent seem like the right choice for that, as its slow and is only going to show a few frames. I think high speed photography is what they want. Where the entire thing is captured, from start to finish, but sped up.

What do you think?

[toverman]

I don't know for sure, but time lapse to me would be the way to go. The capturing of the images would be slow, but the slideshow could be fast (like you mention). Sounds like a lot of work!

[zebulus]

Yes, it would be. Which brings up my next question. Obviously, someone isnt going to sit out there and take every frame. What type of machine/setup would I need to look at for this to be automated?

[RobyMD]

How long would it take to complete the project?

I'd say a camera and a computer. If you want to get fancy put a wireless card in the computer so it can
1. Copy the pictures to a remote location, so you can ensure the images are actually being taken.
2. See instantly is anything needs to change.

But I'm just guessing.

[zebulus]

This is a project that could take a year or more.

[epoh]

This site looks like it has some good info - http://photojojo.com/content/tutoria...e-photography/

Is there a relatively nearby building with windows facing the build site? It would be nice if you could get an indoor space to shoot from, eliminating the need to secure and weather-proof a camera rig.

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by zebulus

But time lapse photography dosent seem like the right choice for that, as its slow and is only going to show a few frames. I think high speed photography is what they want. Where the entire thing is captured, from start to finish, but sped up.

What do you think?

That IS time lapse photography. High Speed is when the camera can take shots extremely fast and when it's replayed in real time it looks like the action is happening really slow. That's how you would capture a bullet passing through an apple.

[Imagebuffet]

Originally Posted by zebulus

One of the guys I work with approached me with a question the other day. He said a client of his (hes a city engineer) is building a water tower, and they want to do a time lapse photography deal on it. They want to be able to watch a video of the building process, from start to finish.

He told me the budget is huge on this, and could be upwards of $30,000 to make this happen.

But time lapse photography dosent seem like the right choice for that, as its slow and is only going to show a few frames. I think high speed photography is what they want. Where the entire thing is captured, from start to finish, but sped up.

What do you think?

Time-lapsed is what he wants.

I love time-lapsed photography. I've been fascinated by it ever since I watched George Pal's "The Time Machine" back in the early '70s. You want a rig that is set up where it won't be disturbed for the duration of the project, then take a photo every 5 to 15 minutes while workers are present.

It would be good to have more than one location set up, for alternate views and in case something unfortunate happens to one of the locations.

[C!LLY]

that sounds like it is so much fun. I love time-lapsed too.

[janikphoto]

If the project is going to take a year, you'll need to figure out a good place where the camera can stay or be set up exactly the same way every day.

How long is the end video going to be? 30 seconds? Figure this:

you'll need about 24 to 30 frames for every second of video. Take the total number of build days, the number of seconds for the video, and the 30 frames per seconds. Now you know how many frames you need to shoot and at what interval. Set up the camera and shoot. Then, expect to sit in front of a computer for a week with photoshop and final cut pro. Done!