The reason for this post is to get an explanation of duration ramping as it applies to the Pro Timer. I am familiar with exposure ramping by changing the shutter speed or ISO either manually or in automation with qdslrdashboard.
When using duration ramping I assume that the interval is being changed positively or negatively. What throws me is the target interval for ramping. I simply don't understand the concept of duration ramping.
Also as I read the code, it appears that the longest interval between shots that can be programmed is 99.9 seconds. Am I correct?
I appreciate your help
Dave Lindey
Hi Dave:
I have the same doubts in another thread.
https://forum.lrtimelapse.com/Thread-bul...optocupler
I understand that if we change the duration ramping, there is an effect of change of speed in the clouds, for example. And if this effect is not for creative purposes, I do not think it's good.
My interpretation is that: When the exposure times get dark and longer, the added "dead time" that the camera needs to load the photo on the card must be added to the interval.
This is what I mean by ramping for length.
But I still do not know how to work, especially in Bulb mode.
I also read the code and indeed, the longest interval is 99 seconds. I think it is more than enough and even too much.
I am still waiting for that help or a good tutorial on the correct use of the Pro Timer.
Regards
Hi Dave, you are right, the ramping feature ramps the intervals.
So let's say you start a timelapse during the day with 10 secs interval. You'll be using an external ramping tool (like qDslrDashboard) to control the camera, and eventually when it gets dark, your exposure times will be at 8 secs and could not be increased anymore because of your interval of 10 secs. Now you could use the interval-ramping to increase the intervals gradually. Of course this would lead to an acceleration in the final clip.
Okay - now how to set this up.
First click "right" and choose Ramp Interval in the LRTPTF.
Now choose the time, that it should take to go to your destination interval, for example 20 minutes. This means from now on in 20 minutes ther LRTPTF will have reached the final interval that you will define next.
Click right and now you can define this final interval, for example 20 secs. After you click right again, the LRTPTF will start ramping the interval. It will take 20 minutes to get from 8secs interval to 20 secs. While ramping, you'll get a "*" indicator on the display and you can observe that your intervals on the top right of the display will get longer and the remaining time (bottom left) will get longer too of course.
That's it! Reaching a longer interval means that you could further push your exposure times, for example by changing the "Longest Exposure time" in qDslrDashboard to 18 secs after you reached your 20 secs interval.
Regarding the 99,9 secs interval limit: Yes, and for normal timelapse it's more than enough. However, there might be long-term applications (for timelapses over months and years) where longer intervals may be desired. I've now pushed a new version (0.90) to GitHub, where the limit for intervals is 999 secs.
https://github.com/gwegner/LRTimelapse-Pro-Timer-Free
Thanks so much for your help. I understand better now. In a use or real case situation please clarify or correct me if I am off track. I am shooting a day to night timelapse using qdslrdashboard to control my holy grail sequence. I am trying to capture a sunset through to Astro-Dark (Milky Way). As we know an astro-dark exposure is going to be in the neighborhood of ISO 6400 and say 25 seconds exposure with a 20 mm f/2.8 lens depending upon the darkness of the site and if there is any influence from moonlight. So I start the timelapse 30 minutes before the sunset time choosing a starting exposure appropriate to the light. The light is obviously going to diminish as we move through the phases of sunset, civil twilight, nautical twilight and finally astro-twilight at which time the exposure should remain constant until the end of nautical twilight before sunrise begins.
My plan is to shoot through the night until the camera batteries die which is typically 6 to 7 hours after I start the sequence.
So I start the sequence before sunset and set up the pro-timer to control the timing sequences and qdslrdashboard to automate the exposure. I obviously need to invoke duration ramping and at the time when I am ready to do so, (likely the duration through the twilight phases) as I understand it, I will right press the timer which pauses the timing function, to set the duration of the ramping sequence and the target ramp time. If I know that the twilight phases will take 75 minutes and my end exposure will be 25 seconds, I set the Ramp Time to 75 min. and the target duration to 25 s. Am I on the right track?
Fortunately I am working with my brother-in-law who has experience with Arduino and electronics projects and hope to have this up an running soon.
Thanks again for your contributions.
Dave
Hi Dave, yes that's how it works.
But the configuring the ramping on the LRTPTF will not stop the intervals. It will all be seemlessly.
I'd use a shorter interval ramping time. Normalle 30 minutes is good, usually I use the shorter intervals during sunset/blue hour, that way the sunset is not too fast. After that I do the interval ramping to the longest interval that I will need for the stars and I use a transition time that is not too long. But of course it depends on the visual effect you are aiming for.
Like with any tool: you will have to gain some experience by trying things out.
Thanks again Gunter. I can't wair to try it once the build is finished
Best regards
Gunter Hello. I built the LRTPTF and works as said (THANKS FOR THE CONTRIBUTION). I Can´t understand why in this post you mention that the camera is been controller by qdslrdashboard since my objetive is only to use LRTPTF ? Would be great if you create a VIDEO EXPLAINING THE USE OF THE LRTPTF. I am still confused on the way I need to use it. Thanks
Qdslrdashboard is for controlling the camera settings (exposure, iso, aperture) when shooting day to night transitions.
The LRTPTF is for releasing the camera and controlling the interval.
When you don't shoot transitions, the timer of enough. For the transitions you add qDDB.
Posted mobile via Tapatalk...
I built LRTPTF because my Sony a7rII doesn´t works with Qdslrdashboard ...
If possible , still asking for a video of using the LRTPTF, please
Thanks