Resolution For Time Lapse Video

neiman

I am putting together a star time lapse video which I want to upload to my Smugmug page. Before I put it all together in the Startrails program, what resolution should my jpegs be? I see where there are specs for regular video (which I kind of cannot follow), but I don't think it's the same thing. I've searched the forum and cannot find the answer.

perroneford

What leads you to believe this would be different than any other kind of video? And can't you "follow that"?

ian408

If you're using 'StarTrails', it takes a number of images to combine into a single image. For you to do this, you will need to makes sure all of the input files are the same. As far as resolution or image size, you will want to look at the application notes.

Alternatively, you could open the application and load all your files into the application and see what happens. The resulting image can't be bigger than any SmugMug limit.

Does that help?

neiman

ian408 wrote: »

If you're using 'StarTrails', it takes a number of images to combine into a single image. For you to do this, you will need to makes sure all of the input files are the same. As far as resolution or image size, you will want to look at the application notes.

Alternatively, you could open the application and load all your files into the application and see what happens. The resulting image can't be bigger than any SmugMug limit.

Does that help?

perroneford, Nope, 'can't follow the directions like the rate since I've never done video before. Sorry to offend you. I just asked a question.

ian408, thank you for your answer. I made a practice video of these same files before. The total file, when I didn't make the individual frames any smaller is 201 MB. I was hoping I could downsize them this time before I add them into the Startrails program, while still maintaining a good quality video, since 201 MB is going to take forever for me to upload due to the limitations of my DSL speed. Right now each file is 4928 X 3264. I know that's way larger than I need, but is there an ideal size? Should I be going for 1080 on the short side?

ian408

But StarTrails doesn't make video. It makes a single frame by stacking however many short exposures. You can save the image it creates by saving it as a lower quality jpg.

neiman

Ian408, I made an .AVI video using the Startrails program. I have done both a "single" star trails photo which was stacked as well as a 15 second time-lapse video using the Startrails program.

ian408

The StarTrails (www.startrails.de) that I know of doesn't do videos but that's less important than making sure you use similar resolution photos throughout. As long as the resulting video is 3 gigs or smaller, you'll be fine.

neiman

In March 2012 he added a video module to the Startrails program.

ian408

I guess I should look into what's been happening since I last looked at it.

Anyway, you can certainly down size the jpgs you use to create the final product. My suggestion would be to create your movie using the highest resolution source material and then downsize the movie itself to something that's easier for you to upload. I'm not familiar with the Windows tools but I'm certain you can make those edit decisions, yeah?

neiman

I know how to batch process files in either PS or LR before I slide them over into the Startrails program, but I don't know how to modify the video using any other program. 'Bottom line is, I still need to make it the smallest possible while maintaining the best quality. I know what I have now is overkill. I just don't know by how much.

ian408

How big is he final product?

neiman

For my trial run, just to see what size it came out, each individual file is 4928 X 3264, about 200 files. That is, that is the size file I used when I added it to the Startrails program. I don't know what Startrails does to it. At 200 MB for the whole video, it will take forever to upload using my connection.

perroneford

neiman wrote: »

I know how to batch process files in either PS or LR before I slide them over into the Startrails program, but I don't know how to modify the video using any other program. 'Bottom line is, I still need to make it the smallest possible while maintaining the best quality. I know what I have now is overkill. I just don't know by how much.

There was no offense taken, and this speaks exactly to my point. Produce your video using the highest quality source material you can, and then downsize the video using any one of the MANY tools available to do so.

From your post here, it sounds like you have very little familiarity with video which is perhaps why you didn't understand my question.

Unlike stills, video is standardized for the most part in regards to size. Full HD is 1920x1080, an I would suggest that you crop and resize it to that size prior to upload. Additionally, when you output the video in a format suitable for uploading and playing, you'll find it is a LOT smaller than 201MB and that should solve your upload size issue.

In terms of programs that can do the work, I use Sorenson Squeeze but that's rather expensive. You might try mpeg streamclip, or Prism, or something similar.

ziggy53

I strongly suggest using noise reduction against the original stills prior to movie rendering. This allows the video codec to work more efficiently, and almost always produces better looking video with higher rates of compression and smaller file sizes. (Be careful as too much noise reduction can cause the stars/trails to close up and disappear.)

I agree that for most purposes, full HD (1920h x 1080v resolution) is probably best. Do crop to the 16:9 aspect ratio prior to any scaling operation.

On a Windows machine, Xilisoft products offer excellent output quality after resizing, and they are very reasonable in cost. (I use Xilisoft HD Video Converter myself. I am not affiliated with them in any way, other than being very satisfied with the results. I tested more than a dozen converters myself, before purchasing their software.)

You are correct in that most upload speeds are a fraction of download speeds. You may be able to find someone with a much faster connection to borrow, or you may have to upgrade to a faster service if you intend to do large uploads regularly. I typically upload during off hours, when possible.

perroneford

Ziggy, while we don't know (or at least I don't know) what codec is being used inside that AVI file Star-trails is producing, I'd say it's probably a safe bet that combined with the reduction in frame size from native to 1920x1080, the change to an MP4 or similar is going to give somewhere in the range of 10:1 - 20:1 compression and that 200MB file is going to be between 10 and 20 MB. And that should be doable on just about any modern internet connection.