First time lapse video attempt. Advice needed

[Shadowness]

Here's my first attempt at a time lapse video.

720p viewing is best

I set the interval timing up to shoot every 5 seconds, and I left it for most of the evening. I ended up with 1961 frames in total.

Imported into iMovie '11, I created the video then RE-imported that video and sped it up more. I found that the first video it created was a little jerky, so I sped it up 300% again to create the smooth motion.


Now I need a bit of advice about exposure settings. I started when it was pretty bright, I think the settings were around 1/250th at f/11. I left that going for a while, but obviously as it got darker, the photos started becoming very dark.

While the interval timing was still going, I reduced the shutter speed (which you can see at around 19 seconds in).

I did this a few times. How do you adjust the settings so that you can smoothly go from capturing bright conditions, to sunset then night in one video?

Surely if I left the settings as they were from the beginning, I would get an almost black photo even when it's around dusk?

All advice most appreciated!

 

[Razor-BladE]

This is what I've wanted to find out as well as when I done my first timelapse going from day to night, it did show up completely dark when it was still quite bright!

 

[Shadowness]

I read a few guides saying leave it on aperture priority. But surely that's going to create flickering, as the camera will constantly be changing the shutter speed?

 

[FreeStream]

I read a few guides saying leave it on aperture priority. But surely that's going to create flickering, as the camera will constantly be changing the shutter speed?

Fix that in PP.

See one of mine:

 

[Shadowness]

Vid not showing

Can photoshop even the exposure of an entire set of photos? Or similar software?

 

[Clown]

Fix that in PP.

See one of mine:

You only need the Youtube code for the tags.

 

[SDK^]

That looks good but surely it would be easier to just buy a cheap video camera and speed up the final footage.

 

[Clown]

More control in a time lapse and you can also shoot at much larger resolutions.

 

[D.P.]

More control in a time lapse and you can also shoot at much larger resolutions.

How many people have 4K cinema screens? Heck, I don't even have an HD TV....


Anyway, under certain conditions time lapse is awesome, normally over long extended time periods.

My worry is shutter life, on low end camera the average shutter life is about 25-40K. The video in the OP took nearly 2k frames. Even high end cameras don't go much about 150K actuations.

I would be looking to buy an old D70 or something rather than my main DSLR.

 

[Clown]

How many people have 4K cinema screens? Heck, I don't even have an HD TV...

Your monitor is probably more than HD but that's not the point! You can do nifty things like panning and scanning and zoom within the time lapse with no apparent loss of quality. I say all this but when I get a camera, mine will probably look like poo.

 

[FreeStream]

How many people have 4K cinema screens? Heck, I don't even have an HD TV....


Anyway, under certain conditions time lapse is awesome, normally over long extended time periods.

My worry is shutter life, on low end camera the average shutter life is about 25-40K. The video in the OP took nearly 2k frames. Even high end cameras don't go much about 150K actuations.

I would be looking to buy an old D70 or something rather than my main DSLR.

I took 5.8k images over 7 hours yesterday using my 40D.

If the shutter goes the shutter goes.

£99 to fix it.

A 40D could very well do 100k images no worries at all, batteries will do 2000-3000 shots no worries at all too.

No point and shoot will do that. Period.

 

[D.P.]

Well, yes it all depends what you want and expect out of your camera. I was just making a point that if you shoot a lot of time lapses you can expect a shorter life time of your camera., weather you care or not is a different matter.

Some minor points,
£99 sounds cheap, I've heard £150-180 to replace a shutter.
And 100K actuations is the manufacture stated mean time to failure for prosumer models. A large percentage wont make it to half that.

 

[D.P.]

Your monitor is probably more than HD but that's not the point! You can do nifty things like panning and scanning and zoom within the time lapse with no apparent loss of quality. I say all this but when I get a camera, mine will probably look like poo.

I guess you have some additional cropping options for sure.

 

[FreeStream]

Well, yes it all depends what you want and expect out of your camera. I was just making a point that if you shoot a lot of time lapses you can expect a shorter life time of your camera., weather you care or not is a different matter.

Some minor points,
£99 sounds cheap, I've heard £150-180 to replace a shutter.
And 100K actuations is the manufacture stated mean time to failure for prosumer models. A large percentage wont make it to half that.

Given mines just clicked over 55k and not missed a beat, I will recon it will get there

A point and shoot would struggle to hit 10k let alone 50k!

40D (£600 new + £200 shutter over 50k shots): 1.6p/shot
PaS (£200 new over 10k shots): 2p/shot...

 

[D.P.]

I don't know the official lifetime of a point and shoot, but since there is no mechanical shutter and mirror to move out the way I would imagine it would happily go more than 10K.


Anyway, i was more meaning getting a 2nd hand Nikon D70,canon 350D etc. for < £150 than usign e.g. are £1700 5DmKII or D700!

 

[FreeStream]

I don't know the official lifetime of a point and shoot, but since there is no mechanical shutter and mirror to move out the way I would imagine it would happily go more than 10K.


Anyway, i was more meaning getting a 2nd hand Nikon D70,canon 350D etc. for < £150 than usign e.g. are £1700 5DmKII or D700!

I've used or had friends with PaS that have never passed 10k, the aperture goes or the lens goes or whatever.


But yes, hence why I'm using my 40D instead of a PaS or my 7D.