{"id":661,"date":"2014-10-14T12:18:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T11:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamiebrightmore.com\/?p=661"},"modified":"2015-01-02T01:01:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-02T01:01:27","slug":"remove-birds-from-a-timelapse-sequence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamiebrightmore.com\/timelapse-photography\/remove-birds-from-a-timelapse-sequence\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Perfectly Remove Birds from a Timelapse Sequence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Birds can be the scourge of a timelapser’s workflow. I often see high-end timelapse clips with birds flicking in-and-out of shot. Personally, I can’t deal with seeing this so will\u00a0always go through the painstaking process of eliminating the feathery squawkers from my work.<\/p>\n

Aside from the main goal of a perfect visual aesthetic quality, it’s a actually quite a satisfying process but does require time and patience.<\/p>\n

Can’t I prevent these problems\u00a0while shooting?<\/h2>\n

Yes and no. Aside from\u00a0bringing a shotgun along to a shoot, dragging the shutter can often prevent the birds from being captured, albeit the occasional smudge will show depending on the distance between the camera and avian in question.<\/p>\n

However, using longer shutter speeds is not always possible, for example when shooting (shutter ramped \/ bramped) sunsets where light is lower and an ND filter can’t be used. In instances like these, you will inevitably capture some crisp dinosaur descendants\u00a0in your sequence.<\/p>\n

Removing the birds (de-birding)<\/h2>\n

The first port of call in the quest for perfect bird-less timelapse sequences is to use the spot removal (heal and clone) tool in Lightroom. Laboriously healing a sequence frame-by-frame can work very well, wherever the background is uniform, but there will always be birds that are just impossible to remove, over clouds and complicated backgrounds for example.<\/p>\n

So, I’ll always do what I can in Lightroom first<\/em> and then move over to After Effects for some further bird removal processing.<\/p>\n

Nb<\/strong>. While in Lightroom, I will make a note of the frame numbers of any birds which require further work. This helps me to quickly locate the affected frame in After Effects. You can CMD-click the time indicator in AE to switch to show frames<\/em> and enter a specific frame number.<\/p>\n

After Effects Frame Cloning<\/h2>\n

Use this recipe which essentially clones \/ masks a portion of the previous frame to seamlessly remove the birds. This technique can also be used to remove other undesirable things from a frame too, for example I’ve used it to remove unwanted humans from sequences. There’s a brief video demo of the technique in action below.<\/p>\n

Go forth and enjoy perfection in your\u00a0clips : )<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Find \/ go to frame containing a\u00a0bird<\/li>\n
  • Duplicate the main sequence layer – name as ‘Mask Layer 1’ etc.<\/li>\n
  • Zoom-out the timeline<\/li>\n
  • Drag the duplicated layer back 1 frame<\/li>\n
  • Zoom-in the timeline to see the frame in more detail<\/li>\n
  • Cut the frame ( \u00a0alt + [ \u00a0)<\/li>\n
  • Step forward one frame ( page down )<\/li>\n
  • Cut the frame again ( \u00a0alt + ] \u00a0)<\/li>\n
  • Step back one frame ( page up )<\/li>\n
  • Cut the frame a final time ( \u00a0alt + ] \u00a0)<\/li>\n
  • Hide ‘Mask Layer 1’ ( click the eyeball icon )<\/li>\n
  • Draw a circle mask onto the hidden ‘Mask Layer 1’<\/li>\n
  • Toggle the eye on \/ off to ensure the mask covers the bird<\/li>\n
  • Toggle the ‘Mask and Shape Visibility’ icon to see clearly view the masked area<\/li>\n
  • Highlight ‘Mask Layer 1’ and nudge the mask back once to compensate the frame movement ( back arrow key )<\/li>\n
  • Rinse and repeat for all affected frames.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \n\t \t