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Friday, 17 June 2011

Canopy Camera Tools – Create Time-Lapse Movies & Take Better Pictures On The Go [iOS]

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/intro2.jpg" alt="time lapse movies" />Quality, free and above all useful camera apps are often hard to come by on the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ios">iOS platform. Both class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/share-life-photos-free-instagram-app-iphone/">Instagram and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/snapbucket-fun-mobile-photo-styling-sharing-app-photobucket-ios-android-smartphones/">Snapbucket are great for quickly sharing stylised snaps, but they don’t add any genuinely useful features for everyday shots or video.

class="vt-p" href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/canopy-camera-tools/id417407454?mt=8">Canopy Camera Tools is an app designed to help you get the most out of your mobile photography, and much like class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/frame-frame-free-photography-app-ios-stopmotion-antishake/">Joby’s Frame X Frame it has been created with a specific attachment in mind – the Kapok Canopy Case, with tripod mount. You don’t need a tripod to benefit from this one, as there are plenty of features you can use in your hand. You could always fashion something to hold your device steady (I find Blu-Tack works well without leaving a mess) if you fancy creating a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/chronolapse-desktop-client-create-timelapse-screencasts-ease/">time-lapse sequence.

Getting The Basics Right

The iPhone (or any iOS device) camera isn’t the be-all and end-all of mobile photography. Whilst the iPhone is the most popular and oft-used “camera phone” solution; Apple’s in-built app leaves you wanting a bit more control and a few extra features.

Without being overly complicated, Canopy places 6 main buttons on your viewfinder, which can be toggled on and off with a tap. These are persistent in both Camera and Video modes, which are selected at the bottom of the screen, along with quick access to existing photos and app settings.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1.jpg" alt="time lapse movies" width="580" height="387" />

The left hand side of the screen allows you to choose between front and rear facing cameras, toggle time-lapse mode and the camera timer which is perfect for group shots and also works with video. On the right hand side of the screen there are buttons for controlling flash behaviour, toggling exposure lock and white balance lock.

The lock buttons are especially useful, and add some genuinely useful functionality to your phone. For example, whilst taking a video by default the camera will adjust exposure as light changes. Should you want to maintain exposure throughout the video, exposure lock allows you to do this and your camera won’t re-balance every time you move.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/settingslocked.jpg" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="387" />

This also goes for white balance, and if you’re really serious you could use a piece of white or grey card to take a perfect white balance reading and lock this for the duration of your video or photo session.

Advanced Features, Better Results

Of course Canopy also includes the aforementioned time-lapse mode, which automatically stitches your photos into a video. It works, though as the handy notification I received pointed out – phone calls will interrupt any sequences you’re working on. The best way around this is to activate Airplane Mode from your device’s Settings.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/timelapse.jpg" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="387" />

Time-lapse photography takes up a decent wedge of battery (I’ve yet to use an app which is “light” on power for this task) so make sure you’ve got enough battery to complete the sequence and find your way home afterwards. It works well, and doesn’t fill your camera roll with hundreds of images – great news.

The Settings menu afoot the viewfinder is also full of goodies. Much like Frame X Frame there is a spirit level (for that perfectly straight horizon) which – unlike Frame X Frame – does work in landscape mode. There’s also a grid that can be activated for aiding composition.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/settings.jpg" alt="iphone camera apps" width="580" height="387" />

Saving the best till last, it is also possible to use touch gestures to control the camera and this can be customized in the Settings area. As you can see from the screenshot below, the default configuration is pretty intuitive.

style="text-align: center;">class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/tap_gestures.jpg" alt="time lapse movies" width="580" height="387" />

Conclusion

Canopy Camera Tools is probably the best free camera app I have used on the iOS platform. Features like time-lapse, exposure and white balance lock along with well-implemented touch gestures make it a joy to use, and provide some excellent results. You really don’t need a tripod, Kapok case or Gorillamobile to enjoy Canopy. Grab it now and start taking better pictures!

Have you found any similar great tools we’ve yet to feature? Do you like Canopy Camera Tools? Do you own a tripod/mount for your device? Let us know how you shoot on the go in the comments below./>/> Follow href="http://twitter.com/MakeUseOf" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.

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Thursday, 16 June 2011

How To Create Cool Time-Lapse Videos With ChronoLapse

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/clock.jpg" alt="time lapse video" />Have you ever watched a speed-drawing video on YouTube? You know the ones – they often feature some great Photoshop artist showing off their skill by creating a beautiful piece of art right in front of your eyes. A large part of what makes them so impressive is how fast everything happens. The video is shown in fast-forward, so that every second of video is actually several seconds (or even a minute) of real time.

If you’re still not quite sure what time lapse videos look like, here’s a great example :

width="580" height="434">name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/a_h3hyifCsU?version=3&hl=en_US" />name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="434" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/a_h3hyifCsU?version=3&hl=en_US" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

It’s a video of someone drawing by hand, not a screencast. But that’s not a problem for class="vt-p" href="http://code.google.com/p/chronolapse/">ChronoLapse. This free, open-source app can create time-lapse videos either using your monitor or a webcam (or even combine both).

Let’s take a quick tour of the app and figure out how to use it to create a simple time-lapse screencast.

Here’s the main window:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-195.jpg" alt="time lapse video" width="416" height="382" />

As you can see, you can configure the interval between each capture (screenshot or webcam capture), and the source. You might want to change the interval, according to the pace of whatever you’re capturing: If you’re working in a frenzy and there’s a lot happening on the screen, setting a shorter interval would capture the action better.

Next, let’s take a closer look at configuring the screenshot source:

src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-196.jpg" alt="time lapse" width="416" height="382" />

If you have a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-to-set-u-dual-monitors-to-be-more-productive">dual-monitor system, you can use ChronoLapse to capture both monitors, as shown in this video.

width="580" height="430">name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K6LQBMw-wZE?version=3&hl=en_US&hd=1" />name="allowFullScreen" value="true" />name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" />type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="430" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K6LQBMw-wZE?version=3&hl=en_US&hd=1" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true">

You can also limit it to just a section of your screen, in case you don’t want it to capture any sensitive information displayed outside of the window you’re working on. Sadly, you cannot drag a marquee to indicate the area you’d like to capture. You can only manually specify its pixel borders. Also, you can’t “lock” the capture to a specific window – you can only capture a section of the screen (or the whole screen). For now, let’s just leave it as it was. Make sure you configure the Save Folder. This is where the captured images go. You’d want to use a new, empty folder.

Next, launch the application you wish to capture, load your file, and get ready. Once you’re all set, switch back to the ChronoLapse window and click Start Capture. The button will change to Stop Capture.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-197.jpg" alt="time lapse" width="416" height="382" />

Now go back to your app and go about your business, creating the masterpiece you’d like to record for posterity. If you need to pause for a while, you can just switch back to the ChronoLapse folder and click Stop Capture. Once you’re ready to start, just click Start Capture again.

Once you’re done working, go to your capture folder and check out the images:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-198.jpg" alt="time lapse" width="570" height="540" />

You will probably see a few images you don’t want to end up in the final video, such as screenshots showing the ChronoLapse interface itself. Simply delete those.

Now it’s time to make your movie! Switch back to ChronoLapse, and click the Video tab:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-199.jpg" alt="time lapse recorder" width="416" height="382" />

The Source Images folder should, of course, be the folder you originally captured all of the images to. Don’t worry about MEncoder. That’s the video encoder, and it comes bundled with ChronoLapse. Don’t change this setting unless you have a good reason.

You can also leave the codecs as they are. The chances are you’re going to upload the video to YouTube, which can process these easily. One thing you might want to tweak is the frame rate. Depending on the desired duration of the video, you can set how many frames per second your video should contain. Change this value and click ReCalculate Estimate (their capitalization, not mine). Once you’re happy with the projected duration, click Create Video.

A console window will now pop up, while MEncoder does its magic:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-200.jpg" alt="time lapse recorder" width="580" height="292" />

Once done, you’ll have a video file of your creation. Play it back and see if you’re happy with it. If you are, now’s the time to add audio. You can do this using ChronoLapse itself:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image-202.jpg" alt="time lapse video" width="416" height="382" />

Just select your video file, any audio file (I obviously wouldn’t use Alanis for a real screencast…) and an output folder. Hit Add Audio and let MEncoder do its magic. Of course, this isn’t going to work if you’re going to narrate anything and need to sync the audio up to specific spots in the video, but then again, time lapse videos are rarely narrated. If you do need to narrate or add any other effects, you’re better off using a standard video editor.

You can do lots of other things with ChronoLapse. As soon as you bring a webcam into the picture, a host of other possibilities opens up. But I hope this short tutorial was enough to whet your appetite, and if you create anything cool, I’d love to see it in the comments!

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