Last light

[Ben Egbert]

Jim Dockery challenged me to shoot sunset time lapse in manual mode with no exposure compensation. I spent the entire week wrapping my head around this. If I were shooting stills, I would be exposing each image for the maximum exposure I could get. But this is not a still, it’s a progress in time. And it does get darker as we progress.

(1) The summit | Focal World

I did some with iSO set for 800 max, and or shutter to 1/30 min. But they just keep adjusting exposure to a daylight look until they go out of range and then rapidly descend to dark in an unnatural way. They also speed up considerably.

So I finally went to the setting in my R5 that sets the first exposure and does not reset it afterward. My settings were f5.6 and around 1/140 sec and ISO 160. I used 2 second intervals and 2000 shots for a time of 1.06 minutes. I started at 5:30 with sunset at 6:15. I had to cut off the last 1/3 or so of the video because it was pure black. The resulting video was too short so I reduced the speed to 75%. Next time I do one of these I will use 3 second intervals.

I sort of like the result, tell me what you think.

@Jim Dockery

 

[Jim Dockery]

I was ready to write that this wouldn't have been one I'd process because of the lack of action with the light or clouds, but then that last red sunset light made me exclaim an outloud, "Wow!" As cool as that was I would cut most of the first part to make a very short clip.

 

[AlanLichty]

I like that this does show me the progression of light which is something I expect with a time lapse sequence. The clouds weren't really in your favor until near the end when the sun peeked out from below the cloud deck as it set.

 

[Jameel Hyder]

What Jim said - the last part is really great with the light on the hills.

Here is an idea. You can make a collage out of many of your TL videos taking the best part of each into a nice set.

 

[Ben Egbert]

I was ready to write that this wouldn't have been one I'd process because of the lack of action with the light or clouds, but then that last red sunset light made me exclaim an outloud, "Wow!" As cool as that was I would cut most of the first part to make a very short clip.

Right, it started out as an experiment but then the light show happened, so I decided to show it. I have already cut out a lot, If I had started later, I might have had a darker start and the exposure settings might have lasted longer. My normal mode of doing these gives me at least 1:25 or so minutes of finished video. Before I stretched this one it was like 30 Seconds or so.

I like that this does show me the progression of light which is something I expect with a time lapse sequence. The clouds weren't really in your favor until near the end when the sun peeked out from below the cloud deck as it set.

Right, Alan, not very interesting start. I am not sure what I could put with it to make a longer video. I am thinking about a star rise, but that needs a clear view and would not match this video.

 

[Ben Egbert]

What Jim said - the last part is really great with the light on the hills.

Here is an idea. You can make a collage out of many of your TL videos taking the best part of each into a nice set.

I could do that Jameel. I might give it a go.

 

[JimFox]

Hey Ben, This one sure ends with a bang! For me, it seems too dark at the end, I would prefer it to be a good stop brighter at least. When the last light hits the peak and they turn red, the mountains should not be that dark.

As to the testing the shutter speed. I mentioned to you, either Shutter priority or manual mode is best because it is imperative that the shutter speed does not change during the timelapse or the speed of the timelape playback will then also change. We want a consistent speed, hence, the shutter speed can't change. You can allow the aperture to change or the ISO, but not the shutter.

I have a new aquarium video that currently has 2 more hours to upload to YouTube. After that's uploaded, I am going to start on some of my night time timelapses again.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Jim, this was locked in, no changes of any kind during the video. The camera has the option to expose each frame, or use the first exposure for the entire video. I have always used expose each frame, but Jim Dockery's challenge caused me to try this with the first exposure used for the entire video.

The video ran for about 20 minutes after what you see here. The mountain was still visible to the naked eye. That's exactly why I normally use expose each frame. But as I said, this was done especially to see what happens when I do as Jim suggested.

It seems I can't please everyone.