Hi,

I recently used QDSLR Dashboard, and LR Timelapse to create a 'Holygrail' Timelapse over sunset. Overall I was impressed with the results, however I had an issue where the exposure ramping kicked in considerably out of sync with the sunset (around 20-40mins). This results in the image fading for sunset to almost black, then ramping up again once dark to my desired night exposure settings - rather than a smooth day to night transition. Luckily as I shot this in RAW and have used LR Timelapse to compensate I've managed to save the timelapse considerably, however I'd like to know how to avoid this for next time....

I used the following settings:
Starting Aperture: 2.8
Starting Exposure: 1/250
Starting ISO: 100

Max Aperture: 2.8
Max Exposure: 20 seconds
Max ISO: 800

I used Auto Holgrail (sunset) alongside the auto NTC function to compensate for the nightime and allow for the ramping. This timelapse was taken in Chamonix, France at an Altitude of around 2100m. I wonder whether being in the mountains might have effected the 'Sunset time' in terms of light.

Although I'm new to this, is there a way to correct this, or manually put in a 'sunset' time (time when you might want the ramping to begin), or would the solution be to manually do the NTC?

Cheers!

Normally, qDDB analyzes the Histogram and tries to stay with a correct exposure along the timelapse. NTC will only make the reference value shift a little bit during the transition times (Dusk/Dawn).
This wouldn't explain what you are describing. Could you please post a screenshot of the preview with the blue luminance curve in LRTimelapse?

Hi Gwener,

Thanks for getting back to me! I've attached some compressed screenshots from throughout the timelapse. Let me know what you think might have happened?

Thanks!

As you can see the blue curve went way to far down, that means the images are really underexposed.
I can only say that 1 minute interval is quite uncommon for such a sequence and most likely it's way too long also for qDDB to keep track of the exposure. Remember that qDDB changes in steps of 1/3 stops and only every 3 shots. This means in your configuration it can only change 1/3 stop in 3 minutes which might be too slow.
Such a timelapse would also run way too fast.
It's go for intervals of 10 to 15 secs - if you go until the milkyway, maybe 20 max. But not more.
Such a curve will be quite impossible to correct with LRTimelapse since the night images are way underexposed.

Hi Gwener,

Okay that is good to know. I'll try and reduce the intervals next time - It sounds as if that would explain what went wrong.

Thanks for your help!