need advice about timelapse

[Federico Prieto]

I will make a timelapse for about 12 hours at 1 frame each 8 or 10 seconds...I need capture the clouds formation and displacement over a city....Do yuo have any tip or recomendation about?

thanks

fp

[Mike Schrengohst]

Using the HVX??
I would shoot 1080 30p.
You must use video cam mode for timelapse.
This will give you more flexibility in post.
Try to go the day before at noon for a light reading.
White balance at that time. Carefully record your
camera settings for exposure and focus.

Day of the shoot, make sure you have reliable power!!
Set your camera up and do not white balance!! Leave it
set as the day before. Set up your camera exposure
as the same as before. Make sure exposure and focus
are set to manual!! If you leave anything in auto
your day will be wasted!

In the morning it will look dark of course.
The magic of timelapse will make it work.
And oh yes. Get the biggest heaviest tripod you can find
and have the area roped off so no one touches the camera!!!

Let us know how it goes!!

[Federico Prieto]

Sure!!! HVX200 and I have a very good tripod (Cartoni)...I will not have power problems and the camera will be protected from the enviroment (sun...rain etc)

But I am not sure about manual mode....I was thinking that automaticc will be the key....Like I will shot from 5:30am to +/- 7:00pm, in automatic mode the camera will set a +/- decent white balance...and the same with the light exposure....etc......

In any case I am interested in to know how to work the timelapse with the manual mode 'cause I am not sure if I understand you in a correct way....

If I made the white balance and the exposure lectures the day before (at noon) How can I know that the day after it will be the same? For that reason I believe the auto mode is a must....What I am missing about?

thanks for your help

fp

[Kevin Railsback]

I shoot my timelapses with everything on manual except for the iris.
I've found that the sun ducking in and out of the clouds can cause a wide range of exposure values.

Many times I just set the white balance to 5600k focus to infinity and leave the iris in auto.
That's the setup I used for this one...
http://www.silverphoenixllc.com/sunset.mov

[Federico Prieto]

Kevin, can you tell me how many seconds are between each frame in this shot?

thanks

[Kevin Railsback]

That particular one was 1 frame every 2 seconds.

[Federico Prieto]

Originally Posted by Kevin Railsback

That particular one was 1 frame every 2 seconds.

Thanks...the clouds speed is very nice;-)

[Phil Bloom]

Am I asking the impossible here?

Timelapse of day and night. How on earth can i have manual exposure when the latitude is so great? Even if I expose for the usual overcast day I will be well under for night

[Sam Jankis]

Originally Posted by Phil Bloom

Am I asking the impossible here?

Timelapse of day and night. How on earth can i have manual exposure when the latitude is so great? Even if I expose for the usual overcast day I will be well under for night

Maybe you could slowly lower the iris (1 stop every half hour?) and adjust as needed in post.

[Robert Lane]

Kevins' methodology is probably the easiest and for most subjects makes the most sense. However Mike is correct in that in many situations you'll need to have fully manual control over everything and, spending a day to get the exposure values for each extreme - night and day - is critical if you really want to get the best possible look for each extreme.

For this sunrise timelapse shoot I went out the day before and got the exposure value needed to achieve the look I was after, which was a silhouette of the distant mountains yet not having the sun completely blow out the outline of the mountains once it was above them.

Basically it comes down to testing (which takes a lot of time for extended timeplapse) and figuring out which method works for the look you want.