LRTimelapse Forum

Hi all,

I've been doing quite a few day to night holy grales and would like to hear some of your experiences in changing shutter speeds during sunset.

What I am encountering is that the subtle orange tones in the clouds tend to blow out dramatically when I do a 1-2 fstop decrease in shutter speed.

That results in a major task fixing up the 2* frame to the 3* frame, sometimes impossible to fix at all.

What is the biggest steps you do during that delicate time span from when the sun completely vanishes?

Basically I'm trying to get a handle on how to change the fstops in that very "day-to-night" moment without having to deal with major issues in making the 2* and 3* "the same".

I have the feeling I need to be a lot more on the ball during that period and make more adjustments that are more subtle.

Any technique or guideline is welcome!

And sorry for bringing this topic up once more, I know it is a much discussed issue but I have yet not found the precise answer I'm looking for.

My setup consists of a Canon EOS 7D with a Tokina 11-16mm.
I also don't touch the ISO sensitivity because I don't like noise :-)

Looking forwards to your response.

Thanks
Damien

For the time when the sun is still in the frame, closely take care to rather under-expose to save the highlights, and use small steps like 1/3EV. After the sun is gone you can go back to bigger steps.

With the DslrDashboard approach - see http://lrtimelapse.com/gear/dslrdashboard/ - making the changes and judging the histogram is easy.

(2013-08-29, 10:05)gwegner Wrote: [ -> ]For the time when the sun is still in the frame, closely take care not underexpose to save the highlights, and use small steps like 1/3EV. After the sun is gone you can go back to bigger steps.

With the DslrDashboard approach - see http://lrtimelapse.com/gear/dslrdashboard/ - making the changes and judging the histogram is easy.

Thanks Guenther,

As always you're right on the ball, good stuff!
Just timelapsing using the DslrDashboard. How nice is that!

As I'm capturing in RAW my only question is, can DslrDashboard display the histogram for RAW frames as well? From the looks of it only JPEG is supported.

Cheers
Damien

Hi Damien,
it will automatically switch to RAW-JPG when shooting, then just transfer the jpg for histogram checking and delete the jpg again. So the histogram if from the JPG, but your card will hold the RAW file. To transfer the raw files would take too much time.
Best
Gunther

(2013-08-29, 14:56)gwegner Wrote: [ -> ]Hi Damien,
it will automatically switch to RAW-JPG when shooting, then just transfer the jpg for histogram checking and delete the jpg again. So the histogram if from the JPG, but your card will hold the RAW file. To transfer the raw files would take too much time.
Best
Gunther

That's great, I saw my camera had switched to JPEG + RAW and thought this is strange, I never switch it to that mode.

Thanks again
Damien

(2013-08-29, 10:05)gwegner Wrote: [ -> ]For the time when the sun is still in the frame, closely take care not underexpose to save the highlights, and use small steps like 1/3EV. After the sun is gone you can go back to bigger steps.

With the DslrDashboard approach - see http://lrtimelapse.com/gear/dslrdashboard/ - making the changes and judging the histogram is easy.

Guenther - did you mean to take care not to OVERexpose to save the Highlights?

Yes, you are right, will change it in my answer. Thank you.