Amazing timelapse video of aquatic life

‘Slow Life’ – a Gorgeous Underwater Macro Time-Lapse Created from 150,000 RAW Images

Underneath the surface of the ocean, a rarely seen world exists. This colorful, hypnotic underwater world of corals, sponges and other aquatic life can only be seen under high magnification and in time-lapse due to the slow process that is naked to the human eye.

In ‘Slow Life,’ photographer Daniel Stoupin brings us a mesmerizing look at the secret lives of these beautiful creatures. Painstakingly using focus stacking, the 3 and a half minute video uses 150,000 22-megapixel RAW images to give us in crystal clear detail. Shot in 4K resolution, each frame is a stack of 3-12 image to give us the shallow depth of field required for macro photography. One frame took ten minutes of processing time, which included the raw conversion and stacking. After three weeks of continuous processing, unsurprisingly, his laptop died.

Video - vimeo.com...
Video author's blog: notes-from-dreamworlds.blogspot.com.au...

This is gob-smackingly beautiful! Looks almost alien. These creatures are very fragile and are at risk from human activity and pollution. I'd hate to see these life forms go extinct because of our greed and ignorance.

To make this little clip I took 150000 shots. Why so many? Because macro photography involves shallow depth of field. To extend it, I used focus stacking. Each frame of the video is actually a stack that consists of 3-12 shots where in-focus areas are merged. Just the intro and last scene are regular real-time footage. One frame required about 10 minutes of processing time (raw conversion + stacking). Unfortunately, the success rate was very low due to copious technical challenges and I spent almost 9 long months just to learn how to make these kinds of videos and understand how to work with these delicate creatures.

Thanks for posting

These images and life-forms are just wonderful. When I think of the depths of the seas, it usually creates a sensation of bad nerves and the creeps. It's cold down there and the food chain is relentless and unforgiving. Then we see this kind of video and it returns the beauty and magic to what's such a harsh environment.

The efforts of guys like Daniel Stoupin might not *save* the environments of the corals. They'll certainly record for posterity (remorse?) what once were diverse, multi-dimensional assets to life on Earth.

In threads like this, someone always manages to speak in clichés and they're hard to avoid! Sorry!

Absolutely stunning!!! Appreciate all the hard work that went into making this video Mr. Stoupin!
Have been diving for years and love seeing this world shared with others…
At this tiny macro level is sharing something deeper with even the seasoned underwater explorer
*&F Wildespace Thanks for sharing!!

reply to post by wildespace


(edit, never mind) Great find. Thanks.

without having anything constructive to add to this thread, sometimes i am blown away at the pure beauty of life.
amazing.
thanks for sharing.

Thank's for that amazing video! Micro photography is sooooooo cool.