Best Settings for Time Lapse with a streaky look? frame Summing?

[Dan Kanes]

Did some tests with Dragon using Frame summing in order to get long exposures. Results looked cool but kind of Grainy for what the client was looking for.

i didn't do a special blackshade for long exposure. Thinking that may be the culprit, or just that I'm not a time lapse master using Drafon yet...

wondering what settings you guys use for long exposure streaky time lapse (car lights) that look clean and not grainy or crushed? Also blackshade procedure for such if that's my problem here.

thanks!

 

[David Battistella]

Any frame summing mode would require a bs calibration to go with the summing or averaging you are attempting.

Here's a little test I did with a flashlight when build 4 came out with 8 frame summing I think.

https://vimeo.com/56633038

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

If you don't need more than 1s long exposures then Frame Averaging not summing is the way to go. It reduces noise by averaging multiple frames into a single exposure. It's also good for something like car headlights because you with a 360degree shutter at say 1/4s exposure you can get a 4s long exposure with 16 frames averaged which is like 100 ISO noise vs 1600 ISO noise. Frame summing accumulates noise Frame averaging reduces noise.

 

[Dan Kanes]

Thanks for the tips guys!

so, a good technique might be to blackshade while in frame average mode with the above settings and let her rip?

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Well, first just determine what exposure at 360 degree shutter gives you the exposure levels you want and then blackshade at that exposure and then enable frame averaging and let it rip. You don't actually need to be in frame averaging mode to blackshade. In fact it'll just turn it off and go to whatever exposure duration you specify in the blackshade settings so it's important to determine what that needed exposure is.