Brett Gilmour Backdrop: How-to Create Time Lapse Interior Photography, DIY

Learn how to DIY with this Backdrop article. Backdrop is our new series of DIY photography articles where we give you a behind the scenes look at how we create photographs.

Our client, Waterfront, wants to show off the pocket doors leading to a bedroom show suite. The 420 sq. ft. condo doesn't have many options for camera placement or lighting so I suggested we create a video to demonstrate the clever dual pocket doors. You can see some of the photographs on their web site.



Step 1 . Establish the camera position
Choose a camera angle the best shows your subject and allows you to come and go without moving the camera.


Step 2. Set up the lighting.
We put Profoto Acute 2 head with a zoom reflector directly above the bed and bounced it off the ceiling using a Manfrotto convertible boom . Another Acute 2 in a 3'x4' softbox lit the kitchen , a 2nd Acute 2 with 3'x4' softbox lit the living room and patio, 1 Lowel DP 1000W tungsten light with colour correcting gel was aimed at the print in the hallway, 1 Lowel 500W tungsten light mounted at floor level lit the edge of the bed and the night stand.

Step 3. Shoot
The camera must be on a solid tripod for this to work. We used a remote control to make sure no vibrations or camera movement was introduced into the images during the shooting. We made exposures with the pocket doors in every combination of closed, open, and partially open. All images were made at the same exposure.

Step 4. Post-Production
Choose your favourite combination of images. Convert them from RAW to your favourtie archive file such as .tiff, .psd, .dng and create your Finals. Next create 72ppi jpeg images sized down to about 400ppi (pixels per inch).

Step 5.Turning Stills Into Motion
Combe a series of still images into a movie. I use Apple's QuickTime Pro. Quicktime creates the movie from a folder of images you select. Set the frame rate to a speed of your choice based on some trial and error. That's it, a series of still images can now be played as a video for presentations or on a website Sphere: Related Content