Lionfish eating in slow motion

It's a looong time that i didn't shoot video and i'm totally outdated with the new DSRL video capabilities and editing techniques.

I'm shooting a small documentary about the problem with the lionfish we have here at DR and I'm using my D7000 , so far i'm happy with the results at 1920 x 1080 , 24 fps @ 1/50 but i need to include a predation scene in slow motion and the ones i have at such settings doesn't work .

How can i improve my odds ? shooting same resolution/fps and putting the shutter speed about 1/125 or using 1280 x 720 , 30 fps @ 1/60 or little more ?

Those above are the only option for res/fps that i have with my camera .

Hope that someone here can help me since i'm running out of time for the deadline.

Thanks

JA

Those above are the only option for res/fps that i have with my camera .

Unfortunately you're going to have a very difficult time getting solid slomo if your camera can only shoot 30 FPS max. The only way to actually shoot video for slomo is to shoot at a higher framerate, like 60p, 120p, 240p, etc, and then do a framerate convert/conform to a lower framerate. A faster shutter speed will of course make each individual frame sharper, but you have to have more frames to slow the video down.

The slowest you're going to be able to get using the traditional method is if you shoot at 30p and do a conform to 24p, which will get you 80% speed. If they want anything slower than that, you'll have to either find a rig that can shoot at a higher framerate, or use a software frame interpolater like Motion's Optical Flow, After Effects' Time Warp, or the Twixtor plugin to generate new frames in between each frame. The software option is not one that I recommend, but it can sometimes help in a pinch. Make sure to shoot with a fast shutter speed and the fastest framerate possible if you plan to do this; you need very sharp frames to get good results.

Final Cut X also has optical flow and, if you're using that NLE, I suggest you make use of it.

Steve

Unfortunately you're going to have a very difficult time getting solid slomo if your camera can only shoot 30 FPS max. The only way to actually shoot video for slomo is to shoot at a higher framerate, like 60p, 120p, 240p, etc, and then do a framerate convert/conform to a lower framerate. A faster shutter speed will of course make each individual frame sharper, but you have to have more frames to slow the video down.

 

The slowest you're going to be able to get using the traditional method is if you shoot at 30p and do a conform to 24p, which will get you 80% speed. If they want anything slower than that, you'll have to either find a rig that can shoot at a higher framerate, or use a software frame interpolater like Motion's Optical Flow, After Effects' Time Warp, or the Twixtor plugin to generate new frames in between each frame. The software option is not one that I recommend, but it can sometimes help in a pinch. Make sure to shoot with a fast shutter speed and the fastest framerate possible if you plan to do this; you need very sharp frames to get good results.

Thanks

You said ... "Make sure to shoot with a fast shutter speed" . I read that best results are achived shooting using a shutter speed around the double of the fps , so for 30fps which can be the fastest shutter speed that i can use without having problems with the motion ?

Final Cut X also has optical flow and, if you're using that NLE, I suggest you make use of it.

Steve

Thanks i will check that .!

I saw twixtor and it looks really cool but is not cheap .

Thanks

 

You said ... "Make sure to shoot with a fast shutter speed" . I read that best results are achived shooting using a shutter speed around the double of the fps , so for 30fps which can be the fastest shutter speed that i can use without having problems with the motion ?

It all depends on how sharp you want each individual frame to be. Think of it like this; for regular footage, you want comparatively smooth motion, which means every frame will have a small amount of motion blur. That's when you double the framerate to get your regular shutter speed.

But, when you want to increase the sharpness of every frame, shoot at a higher shutter speed. Now your motion will be less smooth, but each picture will be sharper, since there is less motion blur present. This is ideal for creating slow motion, since it gives you a sharper picture to start with when playing back at a lower speed or interpolating frames.

If you watch the battle scenes in the movie Gladiator, you'll see the effects of using a fast shutter speed during fast action; everything looks sharp and crisp, but it has a lot more flicker. Test it for yourself--shoot a shot of your hand waving at the camera using a 1/60 shutter, then a 1/125 shutter, then a 1/250 shutter. Then review it frame by frame, and you'll see the difference.

Here's a great tutorial on retiming in Final Cut Pro X and covers optical flow for you as well. http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/retim...cp_x_stone.html

Steve

Thanks guys

All your recommendations were very helpful

JA

Twixtor is good but for something like a lionfish strike at 30p where you may only have one or two frames to reference then I doubt it would work any better than something like optical flow.

Twixtor is good but for something like a lionfish strike at 30p where you may only have one or two frames to reference then I doubt it would work any better than something like optical flow.

Uhmm ! you're right . I will try optical flow .

Thanks

JA

elbuzo, have you actually observed feeding, or are you baiting them? I'd like to shoot this, and might even rent an epic to do it.

Ryan

I've seen them hunting and feeding specially late afternoon. Here in DR ,we have lots of them .

Regards

JA