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Time Lapse exposure
I’m doing a full day time lapse of a city scape starting just before sunrise and ending just after sunset. We’re shooting this on a Arri SR2 with an intervalometer. The interval will be 20-30 seconds per frame. I’m a little unsure on setting exposure. Should I do a light meter reading for every frame and adjust the exposure accordingly? That sounds like a lot of work, but I’m guessing it’s the best way to go. Thoughts?
Thanks,
Renny -
5 Replies
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No, your exposure is going to be bouncing around all over the place if you do that, it will look very jittery and uneven.
I’d suggest you pose your question in the forum over at konvas.org, which is another cinematographers forum that I belong to (it’s a forum where most of the users, like me, shoot 35mm film primarily with Russian Konvas and Kinor cine cameras).
Those guys are mostly shooting film (no offense to the great COW, but most of the production people here are video, not real film), and there are several people there with lots of experience in time lapse work.
And they are a friendly group… no worries, just because your camera is German and not Russian you will still be welcome. 🙂
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Renny,
Take reading on the day before at high noon. Use this exposure. Shot will start in the dark and end in the dark.
JS
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It really seems like the exposure difference will be pretty extreme. Using 50D film, the meter readings are calling for an f-16 at full sun and an f-2 near the end of the sunset. I wonder if it would work to slowly crank down the iris over the course of a lot frames?
Renny
Renny McCauley
SkipJack Studios, MD -
If the point is to show the course of the day, then one exposure will do that. What you’ll miss is the city lights coming up as the day recedes unless you pull the4 iris, but unless you do it carefully and correctly, you’ll ruin the shot. try a sample test run first to find out.
JS
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By the way… does the SR2 have a capping shutter for time-lapse? For longish wait times between frames, I’m told by veteran time-lapse guys that a capping shutter is a must… that just the intervalometer is not enough.
Your 20-30 second spacing might be short enough to avoid needing that, I’m just not sure. Smarter time-lapse minds than me would know that for sure.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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