Time Lapse

[Sterling Youngman]

I just did my first time lapse test. I had my laptop hooked up to the camera, shooting a new still every 8 seconds. I ran it for an hour.

The camera was set to Aperture Priority, f10
ISO: 160
Shutter speeds went from 1/1000 to 1/50

The odd thing is that the size of the setting sun seems to jump every now and then. Any ideas why this would happen? Any pointers in shooting time lapse?

You can see what I'm talking about here:

Time Lapse Test on Vimeo

Cheers,

Sterling

[Jon Fairhurst]

One problem with small apertures is that any lens with the aperture controlled by the camera will open the aperture wide between shots for ease of focus and framing. When the lens stops back down, the aperture size won't be exactly the same from frame to frame.

The solution is to select the aperture, hold the DOF preview button (near the lens release) and then release and untwist the lens. I do this in Live View and when I hear the shutter close, I know that I've untwisted the lens far enough.

This isn't necessary with a manual lens on an adapter.

Best of luck with your next timelapse. When you nail it, the results can be really rewarding!

[Sterling Youngman]

Jon,

Thanks for the info. So this problem with the camera opening wide still happens, even when the lens is set to manual focus?

As a matter of fact, the auto focus on the lens I used is broken. The lens in question was a 28-70 L series.

-Sterling

[Jon Fairhurst]

It's not a focus problem, it's an aperture issue. You want to set the aperture once and have it stay there. If the camera opens and closes the aperture for every photo, it will vary slightly from pic to pic.

Also, I would shoot in full manual in Live View, stills mode. If you need various exposures, use bracketing. You can then blend the streams or process HDR.

Also, an ND filter (0.9 to 1.8) would allow you to run longer shutter times, which will create smoother motion.

[Liam Hall]

You'll have more success using manual mode to begin with and maybe choose a subject that is easier to get a good and consistent exposure; even with experience, the setting sun is tough to get right.

[Sterling Youngman]

Jon,

Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I'll try your ideas and share the results. I have clouds today, so perhaps it will at least look better instead of a bunch of haze.

Cheers,

Sterling

[Warren Kawamoto]

Since you're in aperature priority, the aperature will remain constant, so the problem is not aperature although it looks like it. I think what you are seeing are uneven clouds passing over the sun. A denser cloud creates a less prominent halo than a lighter one as it passes.

[Sterling Youngman]

Warren,

There were no clouds. So I can't imagine that was the problem.

-Sterling

[Sterling Youngman]

Originally Posted by Liam Hall

You'll have more success using manual mode to begin with and maybe choose a subject that is easier to get a good and consistent exposure; even with experience, the setting sun is tough to get right.

Liam,

This makes sense. I was just wondering how I'd handle the exposure in manual mode, when the shutter speed goes from 1/1000 to 1/50 over the course of the hour.

Practice, practice, practice!!!

-Sterling

[Jon Fairhurst]

Originally Posted by Warren Kawamoto

Since you're in aperature priority, the aperature will remain constant, so the problem is not aperature although it looks like it.

I think it's two things. With aperture priority, the shutter speed will change, but it's not likely to be consistent and linear. But it's also the aperture. It doesn't matter if you set a fixed aperture in the camera if you do not untwist the lens. The aperture never stops down exactly the same from shot to shot. The only way to ensure a truly fixed aperture is to set it, hold the DOF preview button and untwist the lens - or use a lens with a mechanical aperture ring, such as an older Nikkor with an adapter.

Canon should develop a timelapse mode for their future cameras that holds the aperture steady from shot to shot.

[Sterling Youngman]

Jon,

Canon should develop a timelapse mode for their future cameras that holds the aperture steady from shot to shot.

That's a great idea for Canon. When the 5DM2 first came out, they used to have a site where you could post suggestions. I don't know if it still exists. They probably never looked at it anyway.

Cheers,

sterling

[Sterling Youngman]

Folks,

I did another test, though not at sunset.

I followed Jon's suggestion:

I set my aperture, and while holding down the DOF button, I twisted the lens a bit to break communication between it and the camera body.

I stayed in Aperture Priority mode. I suppose with this shot, I could have gone completely manual, but the camera did very the shutter speed from 1/1600 to 1/800. I was locked in at f7.1, and if anyone cares, I used a 17-35mm L series lens.

It was quite windy, so I should have probably shot a frame every 4 secs instead of every 8 seconds, to get a smoother motion from the clouds.

Time Lapse 2 on Vimeo

Cheers,

Sterling

[Jon Fairhurst]

Very cool flares. :)

For a shot like this (as compared to a sunset/sunrise), a fixed exposure would have made it flicker free. It's okay for the image to get a bit darker when the clouds pass over. An ND filter and longer exposure will make it even smoother still.

Also, you can go for an even smaller aperture for more of a sun star effect, which can look very nice.

BTW, there is a rule of thumb that for sunny days you can shoot f/16 with the shutter speed at 1/ISO. So... for 50 ISO (this is available if you set a menu option), you would shoot f/16 and 1/50. If you use a three stop ND (0.9), you can shoot at 1/6. With a six stop ND (1.8), you can shoot at 1.3 seconds, which is perfectly smooth for a 2.5 second interval and not bad for longer intervals too.

Sometimes you want a fast shutter time lapse. For instance, with a tree and wind in the foreground (like your example), you might want a fast shutter to keep the leaves/needles sharp in the wind, even though they will twitch. For the sun and clouds alone, you want it to look smooth and seamless. Same with cars at night - make those taillights stretch! I did a timelapse recently with a wide lens down on the ground, letting people walk right in front of the lens. With a long shutter, they simply ghost by the lens quickly. People further away move more gently and smoothly. It's a really nice effect.

If you bracket, you can shoot +/-2 stops for sunsets. Starting with f/16, ISO 50, ND 1.2, and 0.3 seconds for the sunny setting, you can also capture 1.3 seconds for the transition, and 2.5 seconds for the dark. That's a total of 4.1 seconds per group, which can be covered within a 5 second interval. Shoot a cityscape sunset like that, combine them with HDR or blend them as the light changes, and the results can be stunning.

[Sterling Youngman]

Jon,

You're a fountain of knowledge. I'll keep testing and posting the results.

BTW, there was a weird thing that popped into the top of the frame on a couple images. After careful inspection, I realized that a bird had landed on top of the lens :)

Cheers,

Sterling

[Sterling Youngman]

Originally Posted by Jon Fairhurst

If you bracket, you can shoot +/-2 stops for sunsets. Starting with f/16, ISO 50, ND 1.2, and 0.3 seconds for the sunny setting, you can also capture 1.3 seconds for the transition, and 2.5 seconds for the dark. That's a total of 4.1 seconds per group, which can be covered within a 5 second interval. Shoot a cityscape sunset like that, combine them with HDR or blend them as the light changes, and the results can be stunning.

Jon, what are you using to control your camera when shooting time lapse? The EOS Utility, doesn't seem to allow me to shoot bracketed shots, when using the timer option in the software. Perhaps I am doing something wrong.

-Sterling