Frank Caggiano

Q: Time lapse photography on the cheap.

Needed to do some quick and dirty time lapse shots over the weekend. Automator has a Take Picture action but not all cameras are supported (for some strange reason) and even though I can tether shoot in Aperture my Canon 40D isn't supported by Automator.

 

So I cobbled together this AppleScript. It has the added bonus that the images are already in Aperture, no need to import.

 

enjoy!

 

There is a down loadable  version of the script at my website Crystal Objects

(*
          ©2011 Frank Caggiano

          Time Lapsed Tethered Shooting in Aperture

          Create and select Aperture destination project for the tethered shots before runnig this script.

*)
set delayTime to 10 -- Number seconds between shots
set totalShots to 5 -- Number of shots to take


tell application "Aperture" to activate
tell application "System Events"
          tell process "Aperture"
                    click menu item "Start Session…" of menu 1 of menu item "Tether" of menu 1 of menu bar item "File" of menu bar 1

                    click button "Start Session" of window "Tether Settings"
                        delay 1
                    click button "Capture" of window "Tether"

                    repeat (totalShots - 1) times
                                delay delayTime
                              click button "Capture" of window "Tether"
                    end repeat
                         delay 1
                    click button "Stop Session" of window "Tether"
          end tell
end tell



 

Message was edited by: Frank Caggiano Modify delayTime and totalShots for your needs (in case thats not obvious)

iMac Intel 3.06 GHz 8GB Mem; Macbook5.1 2.4ghz 4GB Mem, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Aperture 3.1.2

Posted on May 9, 2011 10:28 AM

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Q: Time lapse photography on the cheap.

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  • by paulrustad,

    paulrustad paulrustad Dec 29, 2013 10:53 PM in response to Frank Caggiano
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 29, 2013 10:53 PM in response to Frank Caggiano

    I want to thank you for having the script in this forum.  This has saved me so much time.Big Dipper .jpg

    I can now run Aperature in Tether Mode while taking the picutes (it is -18 F right now in MN) while drinking coffee and reading...no more freezing my fingers off.  Looking forward to seeing what else I can capture.

     

    Paul

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 30, 2013 4:23 AM in response to paulrustad
    Level 10 (105,690 points)
    iLife
    Dec 30, 2013 4:23 AM in response to paulrustad

    A great picture of Polaris, Paul.

    Envy. My camera does not support such a long exposure time. 10 seconds is the best I can do.

     

    You are right, it is a very useful script. I hope, Frank will turn it into a user tip some day, so it will be easier to find again.

    -- Léonie

  • by Frank Caggiano,

    Frank Caggiano Frank Caggiano Dec 30, 2013 4:58 AM in response to paulrustad
    Level 7 (25,782 points)
    Dec 30, 2013 4:58 AM in response to paulrustad

    Yes a great image, glad you found the script useful and I saved your fingers. I have found at -18 something a bit stronger then coffee is needed.

     

    I had forgotten all about that one, as it uses GUI scripting (actually having the script pretend to press the buttons in the application) I'm surprised it still works. Any minor change to the  applications UI will throw the script off so as a rule these types of scripts need constant tweaking between app versions.

     

    Léonie, your right I should put this in the user tips, good idea.

     

    regards

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Dec 30, 2013 7:04 AM in response to Frank Caggiano
    Level 10 (105,690 points)
    iLife
    Dec 30, 2013 7:04 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

    I have found at -18 something a bit stronger then coffee is needed.

    Try irish coffee - only don't, when you are looking for binary stars. Too much whiskey will result in too many false positives, if they stars will double before your eyes