The Night Comes Alive

[JimFox]

The night came alive in Joshua Tree last Friday night. The moon made an unexpected entrance in the beginning, and then the clouds had to make their way into the show after the moon went to sleep for the night.

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All comments are welcome,

Jim

 

[Rick Nantais]

This is fantastic ! I'm going to experiment this in 2 weeks. Was it put together in a software or in the camera ? (Nikon can offer this)

 

[JimFox]

This is fantastic ! I'm going to experiment this in 2 weeks. Was it put together in a software or in the camera ? (Nikon can offer this)

Thanks Rick.

This is done in Photoshop, and then Movavi. But other programs can do it.

When I do daytime timelapses of clouds or such, then I will do them in camera in my Nikon, as it makes it so easy. But at night, it's a totally different story because the images end up totally dark on the ground area. The moon helps light up the ground, but it always sets or rises part way through the timelapse. If you play it back, you can see just how dark it gets after the moon is set. So by taking photos throughout the night, I can take them into ACR, and I can do 100% shadow recovery, often 50% black recovery to pull some detail from the ground, all the while also increasing the exposure while pulling down on the Highlights.

What I just described, would be impossible to do on a video. Editing a video is like editing an 8-bit jpg photo but worse. So while you can do some shadow and highlight recovery (with the right video editing software) it's still limited. Maybe only 10 % of the amount of recovery compared to a raw image.

So, night time timelapses are done as photos, and turned into a timelapse to allow greater editing flexibility.

Day time timelapses without the great dynamic range between the ground and sky are done in camera, with just minimal editing afterwards.

I look forward to what you get.

 

[Rick Nantais]

Thanks Rick.

This is done in Photoshop, and then Movavi. But other programs can do it.

When I do daytime timelapses of clouds or such, then I will do them in camera in my Nikon, as it makes it so easy. But at night, it's a totally different story because the images end up totally dark on the ground area. The moon helps light up the ground, but it always sets or rises part way through the timelapse. If you play it back, you can see just how dark it gets after the moon is set. So by taking photos throughout the night, I can take them into ACR, and I can do 100% shadow recovery, often 50% black recovery to pull some detail from the ground, all the while also increasing the exposure while pulling down on the Highlights.

What I just described, would be impossible to do on a video. Editing a video is like editing an 8-bit jpg photo but worse. So while you can do some shadow and highlight recovery (with the right video editing software) it's still limited. Maybe only 10 % of the amount of recovery compared to a raw image.

So, night time timelapses are done as photos, and turned into a timelapse to allow greater editing flexibility.

Day time timelapses without the great dynamic range between the ground and sky are done in camera, with just minimal editing afterwards.

I look forward to what you get.

Thanks for the answer. I'll experiment with this in 2 weeks. I have somewhere a night time lapse I made with a little Nikon camera.

 

[JimFox]

Thanks for the answer. I'll experiment with this in 2 weeks. I have somewhere a night time lapse I made with a little Nikon camera.

I look forward to it.

I need to write up or record a video on doing Timelapses for our Tutorial section.

 

[JimFox]

@Douglas Sherman what is happening to the moon Doug? Or is that simply a couple of artifacts from the lens?

 

[AlanLichty]

I almost felt like I needed to duck as the clouds came rolling past

 

[Douglas Sherman]

@Douglas Sherman what is happening to the moon Doug? Or is that simply a couple of artifacts from the lens?

That is one of the most interesting phenomena I have ever seen. I think that it might be a lens artifact, but I am not sure. Was it cold that night? Did the lens have fine dew droplets or ice crystals on it? The moonlight is encountering some water or ice particles as it sets but it must be approaching them at an angle. The starburst occurs at the edge of the intersection, but I am not sure why the halo is displaced so that the sun is outside the halo unless it has something to do with the lens. Did you witness this with your naked eye? It looks like as the moon gets more in line with your lens that the halo gets more rounded. I do see a small lens flare prior to the appearance of the moon.

Whatever is going on here it is interesting. I can't find anything on the internet about it. I would suggest that you send it to the astronomy department at Cal Tech to see what they think.

 

[Vieri]

That is beautiful, Jim, thank you for sharing it! Best regards,

Vieri

 

[JimFox]

That is one of the most interesting phenomena I have ever seen. I think that it might be a lens artifact, but I am not sure. Was it cold that night? Did the lens have fine dew droplets or ice crystals on it? The moonlight is encountering some water or ice particles as it sets but it must be approaching them at an angle. The starburst occurs at the edge of the intersection, but I am not sure why the halo is displaced so that the sun is outside the halo unless it has something to do with the lens. Did you witness this with your naked eye? It looks like as the moon gets more in line with your lens that the halo gets more rounded. I do see a small lens flare prior to the appearance of the moon.

Whatever is going on here it is interesting. I can't find anything on the internet about it. I would suggest that you send it to the astronomy department at Cal Tech to see what they think.

Thanks Doug! I appreciate you taking the time to think about it. I also am of the mind it's from a lens artifact. I use dew heaters on all of my lenses at night, so it wouldn't be crystals on the lens.

I did another timelapse on Tuesday with the same lens/camera combo and made sure to include the moon in it. I haven't looked yet to see, but it will be interesting to see if it also has the offset halo.

 

[JimFox]

That is beautiful, Jim, thank you for sharing it! Best regards,

Vieri

I appreciate that a lot Vieri. It's sure a lot of fun.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Very nicely done Jim. I like the clouds and the sky very much. Good choice on music. I left a like at You-tube

 

[Beth]

another great timelapse from you!

 

[JimFox]

Very nicely done Jim. I like the clouds and the sky very much. Good choice on music. I left a like at You-tube

Awesome! Thanks so much Ben. I am glad you enjoyed this.

 

[JimFox]

another great timelapse from you!

I appreciate that.