Settings for nighttime timelapse with ultra intervelometer?

robotman

13

« on: 13 / August / 2009, 22:19:05 »

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Hi!

I'm wanting to do a nighttime timelapse of moon and stars using the Ultra Intervelometer script. Can someone tell me what settings to put the camera on? I'm a point and shooter, but if someone tells me what mode and settings, I hopefully can figure it out.

Thanks!

John

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barret

125
S3 & a550

Re: Settings for nighttime timelapse with ultra intervelometer?

« Reply #1 on: 14 / August / 2009, 09:35:38 »

it depends on what do you want to achieve: for stacking such photos to create star trails for example, you should use as long exposures as possible. but on the other hand, if you want smooth animation, you will need a lot of images, and that means shorter exposure times. shorter exposure means lower light, so you need your lens wide open, and maybe even iso increased.

one problem with the moon is that it is extremely bright compared to stars, so you have to decide: overburned moon, clear stars, or clear moon, dimmed stars. (or maybe try hdr with that? hm... never thought of that).

i myself have done such animation some time ago, you can see it here:

(why duplicated? is that forum error?)

« Last Edit: 14 / August / 2009, 09:37:26 by barret »

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my timelapses on Vimeo my startrails gallery

robotman

13

Re: Settings for nighttime timelapse with ultra intervelometer?

« Reply #2 on: 15 / August / 2009, 13:41:51 »

Thanks for the tips. Your timelapse came out pretty good! Looks like there was some orange light illuminating the clouds?

What mode and settings were you using?
Is there any way to compensate for the sunrise so it doesn't overexpose?

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barret

125
S3 & a550

Re: Settings for nighttime timelapse with ultra intervelometer?

« Reply #3 on: 17 / August / 2009, 08:36:41 »

yes, there are some scripts that change exposure during sunrise/sunset, but i haven't tested them myself.
search the forum and you will find it.

when i shoot night timelapse and want to capture stars, i set everything manually (constant time, constant exposure), and try to minimize the time between shots (focus manually set to infinity, disable dark frame subtraction in the raw menu, disable review). i shoot in M (manual) mode. Before launching interval shooting i make few test shots to see if everything is ok. in the intervalometer script i set delay between shots to some low value, like 50 ms. nevertheless delay between shots is between 0.5 and 1 sec.

and yes, those clouds were (unfortunately) light up from below (i live in a city).

btw: for this purpose i had to use HD mode in vimeo, because resizing images to lower resolutions causes loss of fine detail -> stars.

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my timelapses on Vimeo my startrails gallery