This post was last modified: 2016-06-12, 20:15 by Pukkascott.

Hi there, I am an experienced timelapser but new to LRT. I have recently shot sunset sequences using QDSLR resulting in the typical stepped curve.

After setting keyframes and hitting the Holy Grail Wizard I get the corresponding curve. So far so good and I don't change any of the settings. Save the metadata, take it into Lightroom (latest CC version). As a test I simply drop the exposure on keyframe 1 and use Lightroom script to copy the change to other keyframes. Go back to grid view select all frames and save metadata.

Reload in LRT click autotransition and save. The visual preview shows there are still large changes where the steps were.

The preview lum and visual lum values are pretty much the same with a large change at the step point even though the deflicker correction looks like it is working OK.

     Preview  Visual   HG Lum level  Deflicker
15   0.419    0.415           -0.122    0.024
16   0.417    0.414           -0.110    0.027
17   0.414    0.411           -0.108    0.030
18   0.412    0.409           -0.106    0.033
19   0.410    0.408           -0.104    0.035
20   0.452    0.449 Step    -0.188    -0.021
21   0.451    0.447           -0.184    -0.019
22   0.450    0.446           -0.181    -0.017

   

I would expect the Holy Grail Wizard to smooth this step out before the Visual deflicker stage. So I try the deflicker stage and the steps are still apparant no matter how I set these up. I can add a lot of deflicker (smooth curve) and the Visual Lum figures do not change.

Am I wrong in thinking that the Holy Grail Wizard stage corrects the steps? Does it just flag them up? When stage are the steps mean to be smoothed out. I looked at Gunters video and the smooth stepping of the Visual Lum only appears after the Visual deflicker stage but mine does not.

Appreciate the help.

Have you installed the latest Dng-Converter from Adobe?

Sent from my Mi 4i using Tapatalk

Thanks Gunter. I have now. No time to test as going on location now. Will reply next weekend.

Hi Gunter. Thanks for your help. Upgrading to DNG Converter 9.6 did fix the problem. From this I conclude that LRTimelapse is always working on DNG files (not CR2) so it has to convert on-the-fly. If so is it better to convert the CR2 files to DNG using your import tool before processing in LRT?

And from your own experience is it safe to create lossy DNGs as a long term storage medium to save storage space?

i had this same issue and i updated my DNG converter but the problem still persists. do i need to do something using the DNG converter or does LRtimelapse do the action automatically? please help this all started since the latest update 5.7 something and still happens in the 5.8 update. Please help

Thanks,
Matt

You don't need to do anything with the DNG Converter, LRT only uses it internaly for the Visual Preview generation.
With LRT5.7 and later, you need to take care that you have set the right Lightroom Version in the Settings because of the new Masks introduced with LR11.
Apart from that, If the visual previews are being created (green bar under the preview appears) and the pink curve builds up usually everything is alright.
If you think something is wrong, do a simple test, start with Metadata / Initialize in LRT to reset everything to a clean start. Then do only the KF-Wizard and holy grail wizard and activate the Visual Previews. The "Steps" should get smaller.
Then everything works.
You don't have a guarantee that the Holy Grail Wizard alone with remove the steps completely because that's a mathematical approach, not a visual one. The complete smoothness will be created by the visual deflicker later.

This fixed the problem, thanks GWegner. Do i need to Metadata/initialize in LRT for all my projects for the new DNG converter to do its magic?

Please check out my video where I explain the transition to Lightroom 11: https://lrtimelapse.com/knowhow/lrtimela...htroom-11/