projectweekend/Pi-Camera-Time-Lapse

Installation & Setup

The following instructions cover everything necessary to setup your Raspberry Pi for this project. I tried to script out a good chunk of system installation stuff to help keep things fairly simple. With that said, I welcome feedback about how to make this better.

Step 1: Clone this repository

git clone https://github.com/projectweekend/Pi-Camera-Time-Lapse.git

Step 2: Authorize Dropbox account

To automatically upload time-lapse images to Dropbox, you must authorize your account with the Pi Camera Time-Lapse Dropbox app. I made the the following website to handle this process and generate a key file you will need to save on your Raspberry Pi: http://pi-camera-time-lapse.herokuapp.com/. Once the dropbox.txt file is downloaded, save it the root of the project directory: Pi-Camera-Time-Lapse/.

Step 3: Run install script

From the project directory Pi-Camera-Time-Lapse/, run the following command:

./install.sh

NOTE: This step will probably take several minutes to complete. When the script starts to install Upstart, you will receive a warning message. It will prompt you to type the following message to confirm the installation: Yes, do as I say!. You must type it exactly.

Step 4: Reboot

sudo reboot

Making a time-lapse

Time-lapse sequences are controlled using job files written in YAML. This file describes everything needed to execute the time-lapse. Job files must be saved in the directory /home/pi/time-lapse/jobs and prefixed with job_. If multiple files are found, they will be processed one at a time. When a time-lapse has completed, the job file will be moved into the archive folder: /home/pi/time-lapse/jobs/archive.

The time-lapse service runs in the background as an Upstart job. As soon as it finds a job file, in the directory referenced above, it will load those configurations and begin taking photos. Since there is no image preview, it's best to run a couple test images on your subject before commiting to a full time-lapse job. To do this, simply save a job file with a snap_total of 1. When the resulting image shows up in Dropbox, review it, tweak settings, and repeat until you get what you want.

Example job file

Name: job_sunset_time_lapse.yml

snap_interval: 60
snap_total: 30
file_prefix: sunset
resolution_x: 2592
resolution_y: 1944
quality: 100
ISO: 400
brightness: 50
contrast: 0
saturation: 0
sharpness: 0
shutter_speed: 0
exposure_compensation: 0
exposure_mode: auto
rotation: 0
awb_mode: auto

Each of the configurable options in the job file corresponds to a setting in the picamera.PiCamera object. Any setting not specified in the job file will use its default value in picamera.PiCamera.

If you want to disable automatic Dropbox uploading, add the following line to the config file:

auto_upload: Off

AWB_MODES List

I dug these out of PiCamera.AWB_MODES so you don't have to. Use these values in your job file for the awb_mode. The default, if the property is not set, is auto.

auto
cloudy
flash
fluorescent
horizon
incandescent
off
shade
sunlight
tungsten

EXPOSURE_MODES List

I dug these out of PiCamera.EXPOSURE_MODES so you don't have to. Use these values in your job file for the exposure_mode. The default, if the property is not set, is auto.

antishake
auto
backlight
beach
fireworks
fixedfps
night
nightpreview
snow
sports
spotlight
verylong

IMAGE_EFFECTS List

I dug these out of PiCamera.EXPOSURE_MODES so you don't have to. Use these values in your job file for the image_effect. The default, if the property is not set, is none.

blackboard
blur
cartoon
colorbalance
colorpoint
colorswap
denoise
emboss
film
gpen
hatch
negative
none
oilpaint
pastel
posterise
posterize
saturation
sketch
solarize
washedout
watercolor
whiteboard

projectweekend / Pi-Camera-Time-Lapse