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Changing shutter for day to night time-lapse

Matthew J

Matthew J

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So tomorrow I am shooting a time-lapse that starts at sunset and goes to night. I did the same thing last week and noticed that because I had to have the shutter so high to control the light when it was early evening that when it got dark, I lost the image when it got dark. So I was wondering how people adjust the shutter as it gets dark to compensate? If I were using the iris I could do it manually, but I rather use the shutter so my DOF stays the same. However, the shutter makes a much bigger jump in the stop and I rather not screw up my TL because I was experimenting (I forgot about this issue until tonight AFTER the sun had set.) Does anyone have a method for adjusting for this?
 
I do this frequently...

The bad news - you need to forget about shutter. The only way you can handle it is with motorized manual aperture.
The new motion mount will definitely solve this, but until then you either have to use two cameras with +6 HDRx (and 3D rig if you need the exact same view), or you have to have a motorized manual aperture. I have done a sunrise TL (Mt. Fuji) with just a single Epic and +6 HDRx. I set my sweet spot at the time when the sun hit the peak of the mountain (measured the day before). That meant that I was severely underexposed before the dawn and overexposed the X-track by 10AM. So sunsets or sunrises are possible, but if you need both day and night exposure - see the above...

:sifone: Peter
 
Peter Majtan said:
I do this frequently...

The bad news - you need to forget about shutter. The only way you can handle it is with motorized manual aperture.
The new motion mount will definitely solve this, but until then you either have to use two cameras with +6 HDRx (and 3D rig if you need the exact same view), or you have to have a motorized manual aperture. I have done a sunrise TL (Mt. Fuji) with just a single Epic and +6 HDRx. I set my sweet spot at the time when the sun hit the peak of the mountain (measured the day before). That meant that I was severely underexposed before the dawn and overexposed the X-track by 10AM. So sunsets or sunrises are possible, but if you need both day and night exposure - see the above...

:sifone: Peter
Click to expand...

That's good to know, Peter. I was hoping for an easier explanation, too. Good to know that to make it properly it's that tricky (at least to be able to explain to clients when they ask for things like this in a ridicule budget). I guess the easiest way out is to still do this with a digital DSLR.
 
Jordi Figueras said:
That's good to know, Peter. I was hoping for an easier explanation, too. Good to know that to make it properly it's that tricky (at least to be able to explain to clients when they ask for things like this in a ridicule budget). I guess the easiest way out is to still do this with a digital DSLR.
Click to expand...

I actually have a 5D with me on these shoots and it runs out of DR way before the Epic / Scarlet...
Bracketing might work for some situations (mostly still landscapes), but you are better off with DSMC + HDRx...

P
 
FYI - making a slow motorized aperture is not as expensive (or difficult) as you may think. A handyman with access to HW store can make it for under $ 200 USD and in one day. All you need is a manual aperture lens (which are cheap to rent for the day if you don't have one)...
 
I may try it with HDRx tonight just to see what I can do. Even if it's not perfect, it'll be better than what I get without it.
 
You probably don't have time for this suggestion, but I'll offer it for future reference at least. There are options using a 5D or some kind of Canon DSLR. I am not expert by any means buy I have played with the day to night time lapse (called the Holy Grail). The problems I have run into is that changing the shutter manually causes flicker in playback because the 1/3 stop shutter increments provided by the camera are too large and the change in exposure is too abrupt. There is software that can help reduce/eliminate flicker (LR Timeplapse is one) but it might work better to try to eliminate flicker as much as possible on the capture end before using post software. Using bulb ramping (bramping) via an external bramper will get you a long way towards being able to cover the exposure range without flicker. These devices work by using the the bulb mode on Canon cameras and triggering the shutter in increments of milliseconds. For exposure ranges that exceed what can be accomplished purely by shutter many people use ND. The trick with the ND is know exactly how many stops your ND is, then once the ND is removed the exposure is adjusted a reciprocal amount via the shutter. As far as brampers, the last time I checked there were a couple available. The Little Bramper was a popular model but were hard to come by at the time. Magic Lantern enabled a bramper in the hack for the 5D MKII but I haven't used it. Like I said I am no expert, but there is a lot of information from much more knowledgeable people available on the Timescapes.org forums. Hope this helps, someone.
 
I have wondered about this myself. And while I have not actually tested it I want to.

What about using a variable neutral density filter and a light meter. Put the camera in manual mode and select your settings. You would have to get markings on your filter so you could see the stop increments. Rotate the filter over time. You could try it manually or hijack a motor from a time lapse rig with some gearing or pressure mount to change the filter X amount of stops over y amount of time.

I think it would work and would love to try.
 
Jim Hoffman said:
I have wondered about this myself. And while I have not actually tested it I want to.

What about using a variable neutral density filter and a light meter. Put the camera in manual mode and select your settings. You would have to get markings on your filter so you could see the stop increments. Rotate the filter over time. You could try it manually or hijack a motor from a time lapse rig with some gearing or pressure mount to change the filter X amount of stops over y amount of time.

I think it would work and would love to try.
Click to expand...

This is what the new Motion Mount will do on DSMC...
 
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