How are high-end plant growth time-lapses made without wind and lighting changes?
Asked 4/9/2014
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2 answers
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I’ve seen nature videos where a plant appears to grow over days or weeks, but the leaves and surroundings look stable and polished, almost as if only the growth is sped up while motion and lighting stay controlled. I understand the basics of interval shooting and flicker reduction, but I’m confused about how filmmakers handle real-world problems like wind, weather, and changing sunlight. Are these usually made with a stills camera, video gear, or in a studio? How do they keep the plant aligned and avoid inconsistent lighting over such long shoots?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
12y ago
2 Answers
9
I can't watch your videos at the moment, but if I got it correct they are timelapses of a plant growing while the environment doesn't change or changes very little. It gives the impression that the plant grows fully over a short amount of time, or the the plant and the environment move at different speed.
If my assumption is correct, BBC did this for the opening of the Plants episode of David Attenboroughs Life series (ep 1). At the end of the episode they describe exactly how they did it.
Basically what they did was grow the plants in a studio with blue screens where the studio was set up to exactly mimic the scene in the forest. They then did 2 timelapses. 1 shot over a few hours of the actual woodland scene, and one shot over a very long time (maybe months) of the plants growing. They then put the first timelapse on the bluescreen of the second.
I would link to the episode, but cannot access youtube at the moment.
Originally by user2650. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user2650
12y ago
0
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These sequences are often not a single “set a camera outside and wait” time-lapse. High-end productions may combine multiple techniques.
A common approach is to grow and film the plant in a controlled studio, sometimes with a set or blue/greenscreen that matches the natural scene. The background/environment can be filmed separately over a much shorter period, then composited with the long-term plant-growth sequence.
To control movement between frames, filmmakers may shoot manually and use stop-motion style tools with “ghosting”/onion-skin overlays to compare the previous frame with the current one. That helps keep framing and plant position consistent and lets them avoid or correct shots affected by wind.
Lighting is also usually controlled. For close-up or macro growth shots, strong artificial lighting can overpower changes in natural light, so cloudy vs. sunny weather matters less. Controlled lighting also explains why you may not see day/night variation.
So yes, these can absolutely be made with still cameras, but often in a studio setup with compositing, manual control, and artificial light rather than as a simple outdoor interval shoot.
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