Posts: 37
Threads: 15
Joined: Oct 2014
Hello fellow timelapsers!
I have started to shoot my first timelapse transitions using Holy Grail in conjunction with qDslr Dashboard and my Canon 5D Mark II as suggested by Gunther in his videos.
In the beginning I had some issues with the intervalometer but after I got Pixel Timer all ISO ramping problems were fixed, but now I have some issues related to the work flow in order to capture what I want. I would like to have your opinion and hear from your experience in this sense if possible, it'd be great.
What I want to do is:
Start shooting about 1 hour before the sunset, then transition from day to night and stars with milky way.
The issues are related to f/ stop and intervalometer as well as manual intervention:
- Because sunset I'm using a 10 seconds interval with exposure ramping up to 6 seconds and then iso ramping up to 2000. That works great
- However, after that I will need to change interval to a much bigger one to capture the stars and milky way if I wanted to. Let's say to about 30-35 seconds with my Samyang 14mm f2.8
- My initial f/ stop is as high as possible before sunset so that I can get the lowest exposure time to smooth the water or anything that moves, but that brings up another issue, if I have f22 or a bit lower, I can't get the miky way correctly, I need a much wider f number so that I can get more light.
- f stop ramping is not supported with qDslr Dahsboard so I will have to change my f/ stop manually and then adjust it with holy grail. I did it and it "worked", I had no flickr because I used a manual lens, my Samyang 14mm, the problem is when I want to use an automatic lens. Why? If I want to avoid flickr, I will need to disconnect my canon lens from the lens connection so the f/ stop is fixed and flickr is avoived. Deflickr is not recommended with a holy grail scene, Gunther mentioned to me in a post that it won't affect the keyframes, so that's a problem
My question about the day to night transition is:
- What would be a good workflow to follow in order to capture this long transiton timelapses using both
A) a totally manual lens like Samyang 14mm. I believe that changing the f/ stop manually could work, tried it and it more or less works. I would need to calculate the correct exposure and compensate it when I stop to change to a new interval. For example, if I am shooting at 10 secs interval at f22 and iso 2000, then I could change it to a lowr f/ like f8 and then even lower to f/4 and f/2.8 for milky way. I would do that manually by rotating the f/ stop ring in my manual lens... flickering would not exist since lens is manual. But what about automatic lens?
B) Automatic lenses. If I have to disconnect lens from the lens circuit by pressed the DOF button and concinve the camera that the f/ stop is fix, let's say f22 at the start before sunset... how can I make a transition up to the milky way and ramp down f/ stops together with exposure and iso ramping up? Once the lens is disconnected, connecting it again and changing the f/ manually a few times would move the camera, would take a long time to do and the whole process is most likely to fail
** Also using ND filters and ND gradients is a problem. If I am using a 6 stops ND before sunset to smooth water at the sea and the sun sets, if I remove the ND then I don't think that number of stops can be fixed in any software. So how can a correct transition be made using ND filters to smooth pre-sunset scenario, and then transition to darker night and stars/miky way? Any recommendations?
This is my first transition: https://vimeo.com/110007715
It's in the city where I live (Marbella, South of Spain), testing qDslr Dashboard with my Canon 5D Mark II, working nicely. But my iso was at 2500, my f/stop couldn't be changed from f22 to lower, exposure 6 seconds max, I did the exposure+iso ramping, my Canon 24-105mm is automatic and the f/stop cannot be ramped down. How would you solve this issue? What if I was in the middle of the countryside and I wanted the stars and milky way to appear? I would need a much lower f/ and flickering needs to be avoided
This is the second tansition video I shot, : https://vimeo.com/110054174
I had some issues right in the middle since I shot 2 separated ones, filenames count started from 0001 again in canon and had to merge them independently in Premiere so I couldn't process well the transition in the middle and it flickrs (I know how to solve that now).
There are the issues I'm dealing with, any recommendations on which way to go in order to shoot a day to night (night to day) transition correctly?
Thanks a lot!
Greetings from south of Spain,
Alfonso
I have started to shoot my first timelapse transitions using Holy Grail in conjunction with qDslr Dashboard and my Canon 5D Mark II as suggested by Gunther in his videos.
In the beginning I had some issues with the intervalometer but after I got Pixel Timer all ISO ramping problems were fixed, but now I have some issues related to the work flow in order to capture what I want. I would like to have your opinion and hear from your experience in this sense if possible, it'd be great.
What I want to do is:
Start shooting about 1 hour before the sunset, then transition from day to night and stars with milky way.
The issues are related to f/ stop and intervalometer as well as manual intervention:
- Because sunset I'm using a 10 seconds interval with exposure ramping up to 6 seconds and then iso ramping up to 2000. That works great
- However, after that I will need to change interval to a much bigger one to capture the stars and milky way if I wanted to. Let's say to about 30-35 seconds with my Samyang 14mm f2.8
- My initial f/ stop is as high as possible before sunset so that I can get the lowest exposure time to smooth the water or anything that moves, but that brings up another issue, if I have f22 or a bit lower, I can't get the miky way correctly, I need a much wider f number so that I can get more light.
- f stop ramping is not supported with qDslr Dahsboard so I will have to change my f/ stop manually and then adjust it with holy grail. I did it and it "worked", I had no flickr because I used a manual lens, my Samyang 14mm, the problem is when I want to use an automatic lens. Why? If I want to avoid flickr, I will need to disconnect my canon lens from the lens connection so the f/ stop is fixed and flickr is avoived. Deflickr is not recommended with a holy grail scene, Gunther mentioned to me in a post that it won't affect the keyframes, so that's a problem
My question about the day to night transition is:
- What would be a good workflow to follow in order to capture this long transiton timelapses using both
A) a totally manual lens like Samyang 14mm. I believe that changing the f/ stop manually could work, tried it and it more or less works. I would need to calculate the correct exposure and compensate it when I stop to change to a new interval. For example, if I am shooting at 10 secs interval at f22 and iso 2000, then I could change it to a lowr f/ like f8 and then even lower to f/4 and f/2.8 for milky way. I would do that manually by rotating the f/ stop ring in my manual lens... flickering would not exist since lens is manual. But what about automatic lens?
B) Automatic lenses. If I have to disconnect lens from the lens circuit by pressed the DOF button and concinve the camera that the f/ stop is fix, let's say f22 at the start before sunset... how can I make a transition up to the milky way and ramp down f/ stops together with exposure and iso ramping up? Once the lens is disconnected, connecting it again and changing the f/ manually a few times would move the camera, would take a long time to do and the whole process is most likely to fail
** Also using ND filters and ND gradients is a problem. If I am using a 6 stops ND before sunset to smooth water at the sea and the sun sets, if I remove the ND then I don't think that number of stops can be fixed in any software. So how can a correct transition be made using ND filters to smooth pre-sunset scenario, and then transition to darker night and stars/miky way? Any recommendations?
This is my first transition: https://vimeo.com/110007715
It's in the city where I live (Marbella, South of Spain), testing qDslr Dashboard with my Canon 5D Mark II, working nicely. But my iso was at 2500, my f/stop couldn't be changed from f22 to lower, exposure 6 seconds max, I did the exposure+iso ramping, my Canon 24-105mm is automatic and the f/stop cannot be ramped down. How would you solve this issue? What if I was in the middle of the countryside and I wanted the stars and milky way to appear? I would need a much lower f/ and flickering needs to be avoided
This is the second tansition video I shot, : https://vimeo.com/110054174
I had some issues right in the middle since I shot 2 separated ones, filenames count started from 0001 again in canon and had to merge them independently in Premiere so I couldn't process well the transition in the middle and it flickrs (I know how to solve that now).
There are the issues I'm dealing with, any recommendations on which way to go in order to shoot a day to night (night to day) transition correctly?
Thanks a lot!
Greetings from south of Spain,
Alfonso