Jump to content

Tidal Thames - Limehouse To Brentford - Time Lapse Video


alan_fincher

Featured Posts

This is actually now over 6 years old, and was our son David's second attempt at a time-lapse video travelling the Thames from Limehouse to Brentford, (in our former 50 foot narrow boat Chalice).

Initially it was un-watchable, because on this, the second time we did the trip, it proved to be very much rougher than our first time, and the horizon was constantly dipping and jumping all over the place.

However David has now done work to stabilise the image, so the horizon stays roughly in place, and it is the boat that is all over the place.

Music is by the New Moon Morris band, with which my family are associated, and features Christian Taylor & Martin Lindridge, (and is used with their permission).

I'm told forum member Jeannette Smith Harrison can be spotted at Brentford, as she had made a trip out to photograph our arrival there!

  • Greenie 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is actually now over 6 years old, and was our son David's second attempt at a time-lapse video travelling the Thames from Limehouse to Brentford, (in our former 50 foot narrow boat Chalice).

 

Initially it was un-watchable, because on this, the second time we did the trip, it proved to be very much rougher than our first time, and the horizon was constantly dipping and jumping all over the place.

 

However David has now done work to stabilise the image, so the horizon stays roughly in place, and it is the boat that is all over the place.

 

Music is by the New Moon Morris band, with which my family are associated, and features Christian Taylor & Martin Lindridge, (and is used with their permission).

 

I'm told forum member Jeannette Smith Harrison can be spotted at Brentford, as she had made a trip out to photograph our arrival there!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mky53V9mEgw

I like the swerve to avoid the fairway buoy at 2'17".

 

The reason why is that I had a bit of an intimate encounter with it during my second ever rowing race on the Tideway (was it really twelve years ago?), when we were caught in a four-boat-wide overtaking maneuver- during races, slower boats must cede the stream to faster, and we were the slowest of a group of four.

Edited by FadeToScarlet
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would be interested in the details of how he did the stabilisation.

The video was compiled from the original photos in VirtualDub, using the Deshaker plug-in.

 

Deshaker is a little technical to use, but it does offer the user a lot more control than things like Youtube's stabilisation or many other video editors.

For example, it can be told to ignore certain parts of the image when doing the analysis - so here it was told to focus on the centre of the frame (thus ignoring the bow of the boat and any bridges going overhead in the foreground).

 

It did take reprocessing some parts with varying settings and a bit of manual overriding (there was one frame at about 17 seconds in that failed to align with any settings), but given it's free software rather than some thousand-pound-per-year-licence editing suite, I can't complain too much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The video was compiled from the original photos in VirtualDub, using the Deshaker plug-in.

 

Deshaker is a little technical to use, but it does offer the user a lot more control than things like Youtube's stabilisation or many other video editors.

For example, it can be told to ignore certain parts of the image when doing the analysis - so here it was told to focus on the centre of the frame (thus ignoring the bow of the boat and any bridges going overhead in the foreground).

It did take reprocessing some parts with varying settings and a bit of manual overriding (there was one frame at about 17 seconds in that failed to align with any settings), but given it's free software rather than some thousand-pound-per-year-licence editing suite, I can't complain too much.

Thanks David that is very interesting. With the time lapse videos I have on our YouTube channel I had tried the YouTube's stabilisation and it made matters worse. So assuming I do one for this year BCN Challenge I may give deshaker a try.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nice - was there traffic control at Albert Bridge (1.19), as the normal inbound arch was shut?

This was during the bridge's heavy refurbishment in 2010-2011, so traffic seemed to be restricted to using the southern arch (presumably to reduce the risk of people having spanners dropped on their heads while they worked on the northern side).

 

With the time lapse videos I have on our YouTube channel I had tried the YouTube's stabilisation and it made matters worse.

I have used the Youtube stabilisation for other things once or twice, but I'd only do that if I were uploading from a mobile device that didn't have the guts to run proper video software. The results are passable at best and, as you say, often actually worse; sometimes it seems to think that distorting the entire image is a good idea. (I've never been around a Salvador Dali exhibition while drinking anti-freeze, but I'm fairly sure the visual effect is similar).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know that feeling when you are a passenger in a car and you keep stamping on the brake pedal that isn't there ......

Despite this being a much choppier ride than the one we did six weeks before, we didn't come close to colliding with anything. The previous one did have one tense moment as we were heading for a raft of anchored Thames barges...

 

Incidentally, the Thames lifeboat can be seen in a very few frames at one point (doubtless David could say where), those things don't half move!

Edited by Catrin
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know the 'rule of the road' is to keep tothe right but, how does one avoid the urge to go under the centre span of Tower Bridge?

 

(Even if they wouldn't open it up for a narrowboat)

 

It depends on what traffic is coming up behind you (in particular if there is a tug and barges, in which case the isophase white light on the centre arch will be flashing), and how much is coming downstream. The advantage of taking the centre arch is that you are then further away from Tower Pier, which can get very busy.

 

post-13477-0-88254800-1485103559_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually its not a good idea to keep too far over to the edges as it can be surprisingly shallow quite a long way out, just think of all those pictures of people looking for clay pipes etc. on the foreshore, not much depth there even when the tide is in

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually its not a good idea to keep too far over to the edges as it can be surprisingly shallow quite a long way out, just think of all those pictures of people looking for clay pipes etc. on the foreshore, not much depth there even when the tide is in

 

Agree. I have seen boats touch the bottom between Putney and Hammersmith, while quite a long way from the bank. Fortunately the rising tide floated them off...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Agree. I have seen boats touch the bottom between Putney and Hammersmith, while quite a long way from the bank. Fortunately the rising tide floated them off...

 

Here's a chart, which also shows why you should shoot the centre of Hammersmith Bridge when going upstream - as in the Video.

 

post-13477-0-82224500-1485197717_thumb.jpg

Edited by Scholar Gypsy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nah, pass under the second lamppost from the right, it's the fastest stream wink.png

 

... when going downstream? http://www.twrc.rowing.org.uk/coach/tideway.htm

 

So second from the left when going upstream ? (and hope there is nobody coming downstream). I think I'd prefer the B of BRIDGE.

Edited by Scholar Gypsy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.