Timelapse Part 6 - Shape of Things to Come

Drew599

Drew599

Veteran
Here's a little timelapse video of some of the footage I have been getting for the past 7 months all shot on the 5D2. The Yosemite stuff is kind of thanks to Tom Lowe to getting me out to Yosemite to shoot some stuff. What an awesome location. The video is also in 1080p and is shot with the Canon 24mm 1.4 mk2 and some Zeiss ZF glass.

http://vimeo.com/12578735

Yosemite24mm.jpg
 
I have left a comment on the vimeo page.
This is really inspiring and dreamy. Very well executed and put together.
 
All the shots have amazing composition. It's a really well piece. It looks like the type of video that they would have playing on TV's in a shop to show how go they are.
 
very nice shots


EDIT: I had a client come in while I was responding, and clicked reply instead of Xing out, so let me add to what I was thinking earlier. I love the footage, sunrays coming through the clouds = spectacular. I also really like the oil-pump shot and the one later on that you grabbed the image from in your post. overall just amazing work. great job!
 
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Amazing work!

How did you do the shot at 1:30 (That you have in the still in post 1) from night to day?

- Mikko
 
That shot you have of the mountain and the sky - that's just breathtaking.

Few n00b questions.

1. How long do you need to expose for to catch the stars? I heard (30 seconds) but I'm guessing the factor of ground illumination has to be taken into consideration as well.

2. How do you prevent flickering when you do timelapse exposure for day turning into night and vice versa?

3. Your opinion/advice on getting the timelapse right? Any tips and tricks?
 
digifruitella said:
That shot you have of the mountain and the sky - that's just breathtaking.

Few n00b questions.

1. How long do you need to expose for to catch the stars? I heard (30 seconds) but I'm guessing the factor of ground illumination has to be taken into consideration as well.

2. How do you prevent flickering when you do timelapse exposure for day turning into night and vice versa?

3. Your opinion/advice on getting the timelapse right? Any tips and tricks?
Click to expand...

Well with the 5D2 you can have your shutter speed set to 15 seconds and ISO set to 3200. If you have at least a f2.8 lens you should be able to get some really nice shots of the stars. Of course adjust for different lenses and such. With wide lenses you can have the shutter open longer without seeing to much blur in the stars.

Flickering comes from a couple of places. One of them is using low quality lenses but you can get it even with some really nice glass. Usually a good rule of thumb is to not go higher than f5.6. But even a better way to get rid of flicker is to use manual iris lenses as the iris doesn't close and open with every shutter actuation. There are also tricks to twist the lens so it looses connection with the camera body but that's kind of dicy and I've never done it before.

I would say the best way to get good at timelapse is going out and shooting all the time. Through trial and error you start to see what looks good and what doesn't. Just keep shooting and trying new things until it looks right to you. I've been shooting timelapse for five years and it seems like I keep learning something new every time I go out to get some shots.

Hope all that helps.
 
Thanks. However I want you to elaborate.

You mention if you have at least a 2.8 lens you can get good shots - you mean you should go wide open to that number when shooting the night sky?

2. You mention not to go higher than 5.6... that is meaning not in sequential order like f8, f11..etc but in reverse (f4, f2.8 etc) ?

3. I'm gonna throw this in here, hopefully you can answer.

would a Canon EF 50mm 1.8 II be a good enough lens for timelapse WITHOUT flicker?

4. Do you ever need to change exposure during timelapse to compensate for day or night shifts, etc. Or just set the exposure and leave it.

So for example...correct me if I'm wrong

It's dusk, I set my aperture to f5.6 and expose to my liking... let's say one still at 10 seconds, every 2 seconds interval.

it's now turning into night...and I find out my previous exposure is not enough to capture the stars or is a bit dark... what now?

Please tell me if I'm on the right track in that example above before I get stuck.
 
digifruitella said:
Thanks. However I want you to elaborate.

You mention if you have at least a 2.8 lens you can get good shots - you mean you should go wide open to that number when shooting the night sky?

2. You mention not to go higher than 5.6... that is meaning not in sequential order like f8, f11..etc but in reverse (f4, f2.8 etc) ?

3. I'm gonna throw this in here, hopefully you can answer.

would a Canon EF 50mm 1.8 II be a good enough lens for timelapse WITHOUT flicker?

4. Do you ever need to change exposure during timelapse to compensate for day or night shifts, etc. Or just set the exposure and leave it.

So for example...correct me if I'm wrong

It's dusk, I set my aperture to f5.6 and expose to my liking... let's say one still at 10 seconds, every 2 seconds interval.

it's now turning into night...and I find out my previous exposure is not enough to capture the stars or is a bit dark... what now?

Please tell me if I'm on the right track in that example above before I get stuck.
Click to expand...


Yeah, what I meant was not to close the iris down any further than f5.6. I have found that most of the problems come from closing the iris down too much. For shooting stars you need to have your iris set to capture the most light and still be sharp. The Canon 24mm 1.4 mk2 I have I hardly ever shoot at 1.4. Most of the time I have it at 2.0 or 2.2. You want your images to come out as sharp as possible stop down the lens a little from its wide open setting. Of course if you can...sometimes you need a 1.4 aperture.

The Canon 50mm 1.8 II should be fine to get some timelapse. I think you would be better off getting something a little wider. But I'm sure you could find something to shoot with that lens.

I never change the exposure on my shots while I'm shooting. Every time I have seen someone else do it there always seems to be something off about it. I'm sure there are ways to do it and make it look good but I think there are other ways to handle it than changing the exposure on the fly.

As I said before the best way to learn is to go out and see what works. When you go out shooting timelapse a lot you start to get a feel for what the light is going to do during certain points of the day or night. It also requires sitting around waiting for the light to get where you want it to be. Not to mention it depends on what your shooting and what you are trying to capture. There really isn't a universal setting.
 
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