Hello Gunther and world,

thank you for developing a really solid working platform to assist in making timelapse videos! I've been watching videos online and trying to learn the tools. I could use some pointers and would appreciate any guidance, links to appropriate resources, und so weiter. I am something of a newbie to this process and really hope to improve.

Here below are links to two videos shot yesterday morning using qDSLRDashboard linked via WIFI to a Sony A7iii with a 15mm lens (no option for aperture ramping). I used the Holy Grail option with the NTC2 adjustment on the ipad 6. The Sony was triggered with a Saatechi intervalometer @ 6 second intervals. I forget the ISO ranges.

I downloaded and installed the LRTimeLapse 5 program and muddled through the processes, finally figuring out the pass back and forth to LightRoom via the metadata saving and reloading.

The first video seems to either have a focus issue, or a depth of field (focused on stars using f 2.8) issue - hopefully, I can resolve that being more careful with focus or using a different f stop in the future.

I was more happy with the first resulting video (shot @ f2.8) : https://youtu.be/GbuLpkcwn-U
than the second (shot at f 8) : https://youtu.be/yWuIISRL7h8

The second one seems to have lost the transition from twighlight to sunrise. I tried remaking it several times, but it strikes me as being much more bland than the unprocessed raw files might suggest.

I look forward to learning from this forum and thank you for the opportunity to present my videos and questions.
Chris

This post was last modified: 2020-05-06, 16:04 by Kmotion.

Were you intentionally trying to make it look like an iPhone by shooting vertically? It would be wise to shoot anything meant for video output as horizontal to take advantage of the landscape.

Some tips:

Try shooting much earlier for sunrises, when the sky is completely dark and then end much later, when the sun is much higher. That will give you more drama in the timelapse transition. Use a longer interval as well like 15-20 seconds. Your white balance seems to be off, so hopefully you are shooting Raw files. In Lightroom, make your first key frame balanced properly for tungsten and then the last frame for daylight. (Reversed if shooting sunset). If shooting into the sun, under expose a little by a stop, other wise you might cause unwanted highlight pumping (flicker) as it rises. Also try longer exposures times (100 ISO, higher f-stop, longer shutter or ND filters) to blur out objects like bugs and birds that you can't control. A little trick in Lightroom is to start off each keyframe by just hitting Auto, it usually does a good job, then manually adjust from there. Take advantage of your great Sony dynamic range by slightly lightening your shadows and darkening your highlights. For Astro shots, the number one rule is location, get away from light pollution or use a dark sky map https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.ht....00/-98.00 to find a location that has the least light pollution. Honestly on Sony you don't really need qDSLR, just shoot a combination of aperture priority, auto ISO (set range from 100-6400) and a SS MIN of 15 seconds for Astro transitions. Look up a video on how to do a Lens Twist for real flicker reduction or use manual only lenses. Never do aperture ramping, only adjust shutter speeds or ISO over time.

Kmotion already gave you valuable tips. If you need more in depth explanation of all of those techniques, I'd like to recommend my E-Book wher I explain all the details you need to know on 480 pages: https://lrtimelapse.com/buy/ebook/

Thanks Kmotion. Yes regarding the vertical image capture. The target was for Instagram and specifically to interest local realtors (r/e photography), and wanted stars with some known foreground, hence portrait mode. Light pollution there was a known issue, but I wanted to try to learn the entire process using the Holy Grail thingy from qDSLRDashboard, and driving to a better spot wasn't going to help that, only cost more sleep, lol.. Your comment about using 100-6400 is quite interesting.
Comments on w/b are also quite helpful, I hope!

I would still shoot horizontal, and just crop 1080x1350 for instagram when you render. That way you can have the 4k for Youtube. I'd revise my auto ISO range, probably would only use 100-6400 if true Astro, like out in the desert with minimal light pollution. But maybe in the city with light pollution auto ISO at 100-800 to keep grain down.

thanks again. I've made a 'note to self' on the 100-6400 iso, which I'll amend to restrain to 100-800 for polluted areas. I'm thinking to return to the same area tonight to try to catch the moon rise

I wonder - does anyone use a true fish eye for time lapse? I've got a sigma 8mm which I use for Google 360 tours.