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HDR Timelapse Workflow Question

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#21 aaronpriest
I did a pretty large HDR timelapse not long ago, testing some of this out. I used Oloneo PhotoEngine for the HDR tonemapping in batch mode. It did take a while on a Core i7, but certainly not more than a minute a set, and that was with 9 bracketed shots. I do have striped SSDs for my system drive, so maybe that helps, but I use a RAID array of hard drives for my photo storage, so I wouldn't think it that much different from your setup. Maybe Enfuse is just really slow in comparison, I haven't used it in a long time to remember. You could get a Promote Control to get more bracketed shots with your Canon, but you'd be stuck with manual exposure. Anyway, here is the final video. The clouds don't look that strange, probably because I shoot at 8fps and they can't move that much in one second with a wide angle lens: http://www.aaronpriestphoto.com/?p=724

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#22 oli
Hi Aaron,
(2011-08-18, 14:15)aaronpriest Wrote: I did a pretty large HDR timelapse not long ago, testing some of this out. I used Oloneo PhotoEngine for the HDR tonemapping in batch mode.

I will check the software out.

Quote:I do have striped SSDs for my system drive, so maybe that helps

I'm thinking of switching to SSD for the program files and the system. Have to check wether there's space left in my notebook. "Calculations" (not R/W) should be much faster.

Quote:You could get a Promote Control to get more bracketed shots with your Canon, but you'd be stuck with manual exposure.

I know the device, not cheap... Have to play a little with my timer. Maybe there's a way to fire three shots in a row.

Quote:Anyway, here is the final video. The clouds don't look that strange, probably because I shoot at 8fps and they can't move that much in one second with a wide angle lens: http://www.aaronpriestphoto.com/?p=724

Nice work! You're right! No problem with the clouds. A little too colourfull and HDRy for me but that's a matter of taste ;-)

Oli
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#23 aaronpriest
Yeah, I cooked the HDR a little hot on purpose and then added some Glamor Glow to the tonemapped files via Nik Software's Color Efex Pro, used batch mode in Bridge/Photoshop to do that. I liked the surreal effect, but realize it's not for everyone. :-) You can get more natural results from Oloneo quite easily.
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#24 Gevo
(2011-08-18, 12:21)oli Wrote: Hello All!

So far I haven't done any bracketing on my timelapse shots. I'm not sure if my remote timer can handle it (my camera - eos 550d- will only shoot a single picture in bracketing mode when triggered by the timer).

I worry that my camera processor is not fast enough to write 3 images in RAW format every 1 sec. Haven't tested it. Does anyone have experience with the 550d?

I do not have experience with the 550D but I will share my experiences with the 300D, it may be similar.

With the 300D, while you have it set to continuous shooting, the camera will do the 3 shots in a row with their respective EV. It will only take these 3 shots no matter the duration of the shutter timer.

So for example, I will set the timer to hold the shutter for 30 seconds with an interval of 30 seconds. This gives me 3 bracketed shots with about a minute between, and accounts for the exposure time (assuming the sum of all exposures is less than 30 seconds).

Looks like the 550D may function the same from looking at the manual on page 89 under Using AEB with continuous shooting.

I just use a cheapo timer using this method.

Hopefully this is helpful for you.
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#25 oli
(2011-09-01, 15:13)Gevo Wrote: I do not have experience with the 550D but I will share my experiences with the 300D, it may be similar.

With the 300D, while you have it set to continuous shooting, the camera will do the 3 shots in a row with their respective EV. It will only take these 3 shots no matter the duration of the shutter timer.

So for example, I will set the timer to hold the shutter for 30 seconds with an interval of 30 seconds. This gives me 3 bracketed shots with about a minute between, and accounts for the exposure time (assuming the sum of all exposures is less than 30 seconds).

Looks like the 550D may function the same from looking at the manual on page 89 under Using AEB with continuous shooting.

I just use a cheapo timer using this method.

Hopefully this is helpful for you.

Hi Gevo!

Thanks for the hint. I'll try when I have a little more time...

Oli
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#26 Katsumend
(2011-08-18, 12:21)oli Wrote: So far I haven't done any bracketing on my timelapse shots. I'm not sure if my remote timer can handle it (my camera - eos 550d- will only shoot a single picture in bracketing mode when triggered by the timer).

Isn't it a problem to combine shoots of (fast) moving clouds (e.g. 3 images -1/0/+1 EV)? I mean: The content of the images while change because of the movement.

I worry that my camera processor is not fast enough to write 3 images in RAW format every 1 sec. Haven't tested it. Does anyone have experience with the 550d?

Hey Oli, I have the 600d and I assume its bus is really similar to the 550d. I can shoot three RAW images every 4 seconds... I have tried a timer for 3 seconds but I think it turns out to be more like 3 1/2 seconds. I'm also using a Sandisk 30mb/s SD card. This affects your write speed.

I am not an experienced HDRTL shooter, but just starting and sharing my experience.

And if you haven't already, DO check out Magic Lantern for your camera. The built in intervalometer supports HDR timelapses and will shoot your brackets as fast as possible (my shutterboss remote will evenly space out the brackets within the time interval, which leads to severe ghosting)

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#27 Ulli
Even in LRTimelapse 2.0 the HDR-Workflow Link points to this older Thread, so I'll show you my problem here.
   
As you can see from the screenshot there's a large HDR-Sequence loaded - Exposure from LR4/Initialisation ist zero for all Pictures. Flicker was three times recalculated for every third Picture, so the flickervalue get's down to values expected instead of the very high and oscillating values when enabling Flicker to the whole sequence.
In this case the deflicker seems not necessary, the flickervalues for the first shown pictures are very low but the calculated new Exposure is still wrong trying to deflicker over the whole sequence - +2,224 for the second Picture with -2EV and -2,661 for the third Picture with +2EV. Any Ideas what's going wrong here?

Regards Uli
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#28 aaraiz
I've been shooting HDR time lapses for a good amount of time but am new to LRtimelapse and am very excited to change up my work flow a bit.

I've viewed all the tutorials and have begun using the HDR workflow showcased earlier in this thread but have a couple of questions:

1. Once I've finished setting all the ' select every nth + 0, 1,2' parameters and then repeated that same process to recalculate deflickering.. I save the metadata and proceed with my usual HDR workflow.. If I then import the images into photomatix will it read the metadata changes? ..or do I need to reexport the images from LR into photomatix to have those changes reflected? (sorry.. I know this is probably a photomatix question)

2. I gather the main purpose of the proposed HDR workflow is to alleviate potential flickering and what not before it gets processed in photomatix, for example. Should I do most of my color temp and overall grading before as well so as not to do it once the images are processed because I'll then be working off a jpeg and not a raw image?

I would much rather tweak my color and exposure changes once I have the processed hdr images to work with.. or is there another photomatix equal that will output something close to a RAW? Tiff or exr? I know lrt won't work with these.

Hope I've made sense..
Thank any of you for your time and responses.

Andre
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#29 FableBlue2010
Hi all,
Here is a sequence I did before LR5 that i have shot for hdr. (I do not know why it is pixelated on youtube). http://youtu.be/u-hUBOBHC5U
I am working on a few more.

My question about your workflow is: Are the images being exported to photomatix at any point before they get exported to be rendered or are they staying as individual images and being rendered?

Thanks
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#30 aaronpriest
FableBlue2010, what did you use for your bulb ramping? It was pretty good. If it was auto exposure without ramping then the deflickering did a really good job.

I'm not quite sure I follow your question or aaraiz's questions. But I can describe my workflow and maybe that will help. Before I do anything in Lightroom I go through the first row of steps in LRTimelapse. I don't do any cropping there because I do it later in Premiere Pro. But this sets up all the parameters in Lightroom for tweaking, including two gradients that can be tweaked. I choose some key frames here sometimes if I did any manual exposure jumps. Then I go over to Lightroom and start my editing on the first keyframe, syncing it to all the photos. I'll go to my next keyframe and adjust, and so on. After saving all the metadata, including keywording, copyright, geotagging, etc. I'll read it again with LRTimelapse and do my deflickering and exposures curves, etc. After saving the metadata again I'll go back to Lightroom and read the metadata again and skim through the sequence looking for anything that looks bad or is unexpected. Then I'll set another keyframe in any areas that look off (maybe white balance changes were too gradual for example) and edit those images, saving them again. Then I go back to LRTimelapse, read the metadata, and save the deflickering and everything again. And I'll go back and forth until I get the nice smooth changes I want in my sequence.

The last thing I do is export to JPEGs for rendering my timelapse in Premiere Pro. If it's an HDR sequence I'll either export via LR/Enfuse and then tweak those exports (usually too "flat"), or I'll export as TIFFs to tonemap or use exposure fusion in SNS HDR, Oloneo, Photomatix, whatever. Hope that helps!

Here is one of my most recent timelapses done with a Promote Control, bulb ramping, and LRTimelapse. The clouds and weather didn't cooperate very well, but it's a double bulb ramping test of my pond from sunset through the night into sunrise. http://vimeo.com/aaronpriestphoto/sunris...lb-ramping

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