Stop motion photography has been on the ride for a long time especially for making impacts in advertising irrespective of the different modern platforms and mediums. It also combines modern commercial retouching processes so that it’s much more effective. And this animation technique achieved by capturing one frame at a time always impresses.
The impact of this genre lies in taking each shot, moving or reorganizing the objects for the next frame to involve movement is all together super fun. The post image editing services or product retouching is widely applied in this genre as well. When all captured photos are made into a video, it can excite audiences by signifying the objects are moving on their own.
Stop motion photography’s high demand these days, grabs and makes huge waves in social media. Commercial retouching or affordable image editing services goes hand in hand with this using advanced or specialized software, stop motion maker apps, or simple video editing programs. Product retouching techniques are done for product-based stop motions.
So let’s learn about the top stop motion photography tips to make you recognize out there
Have a Clear Plan
Always have a clear-cut plan way before your stop motion photography project starts and about the commercial retouching process. Understand that it is always subject to change as you progress as you should keep on brainstorming for it. Important things to consider are to make a general storyboard, an idea about the required number of frames, props, and more.
Number of Frames
10-15 frames per second is the typical norm to make a smooth video without any jerks. Or go with fewer frames if you want a jerky feel to make it look really fun. Normal videos are about 24 frames per second. But it’s always up to you. Increased video durations will require more of your effort even with commercial image or product editing/retouching services. Break your storyboard into scenes and apportion an approximate number of frames to each scene.
Transitions
While transitions are important, good, and highly creative for stop motion photography projects, make sure it doesn’t affect scene shooting order. Or you can solve this when you are carrying out your commercial post retouching or production process. Overall it creates a stellar appeal to your audience and adds a huge degree of professionalism to your videos.
Find the ideal Aspect Ratio and Backdrop
Depending on the platform of your choice to promote the stop motion photography project, make sure you fix on the ideal aspect ratio. The background color is up to you but generally, a white one always works. Or improvise more by bringing wood-based, or canvas drops.
Props
It’s a good idea to work on one scene at a time if you’re more into changing things, and it should be the same with your necessary props. If possible, create your own props for more uniqueness and signature by drowsing, coloring, making cut-outs, and more.
Even Lighting
Always maintaining consistent and even lighting procedures. Otherwise, your video will be affected by flickering even if the light source varies minutely. So make sure you have a solid light source, use a reflector on the side opposite the window to even out your lighting. This is especially useful for product photography and benefits your product retouching stop motion project. Simple LED panel lights are also excellent light sources.
The Shoot Setup
Overhead or flat lay angle/perspectives are ideal or for a bit more challenge a 3D approach. Choose the ideal backgrounds with your cam mounted on a tripod and always shoot with a remote shutter release just to avoid accidental bumping on your cam while shooting.
Shoot Your Scenes as Still Frames
Begin shooting with one scene and you don’t always have to start with the beginning. Pick the easiest to execute so that you can work out any kinks you encounter without adding complicating factors. If possible do a quick or light post-process to see how it looks.
So set up your props, take a shot, move it a tiny bit, take another shot and repeat until you’re done. Work out the math on the number of shots you require for each scene in a second. Ensure you are completely out of the frame and that means your shadow too.
The Edits
Implement the best of your image editing services skills even though stop motion photography requires a hassle-free post process. Consistency in your lighting is going to help you a lot while you do commercial retouching and it creates a uniform look.
Compile your still images into a video
Always export all of your images at full resolution in the software you are using for the post process. You can use any of the popular ones or the software you are most comfortable with for a standard, commercial output. Use it to compile your images into a movie. With any software, the general idea is to import a series of images and tell the program to play them at a certain frame rate. In most of the software you can do that through the time setting, which is set always set to a default number of seconds. You can change that to the number of frames per second that you want for your project, or you can do more math to figure out the same.
So follow all these essential stop motion photography techniques for creating the most commercial videos to definitely add a feel of the film.
