Time lapse from night to day. Exposure help?

cryptyk · Feb 1, 2015

Hi all,
I'm playing with time lapse, but I've found anything from day to night (or night to day) results in an undesirable difference between exposure of the landscape and the sky. I'm shooting in Av to account for the different shutter speeds needed between the lighting conditions. Basically, if I'm shooting from night to day:
1) Night: The sky and landscape are exposed properly
2) Pre-dawn: The sky gets light which causes the landscape to be underexposed.
3) Dawn: The exposure of the landscape starts to ramp up as the light hits it
4) Day: The exposure is again balanced between the sky and landscape.

I'm hoping for a way to get both the sky and landscape to "ramp up" their exposure at the same time.

Is this possible, or should I just start my shots at pre-dawn to eliminate the perception of the landscape getting darker as the sun comes up?

Thanks!
Ryan

jsecordphoto · Feb 1, 2015

Using AV mode for timelapse isn't really suggested as it leads to flickering over the course of the final output video due to small changes in exposure. This type of night to day timelapse is sometimes called a "holy grail" timelapse. It's definitely possible though, but difficult. I'd look into the promote controls, or magic lantern if you use canon. Do some research on using bulb ramping, which is what you'll need to transition evenly from night to day

Buckster · Feb 1, 2015

Check this out:

Google

And, in particular, THIS:

cryptyk · Feb 1, 2015

Thanks for the reply. I used Magic Lantern for the capture, but the 70D build for my camera doesn't support bulb ramping. I've been using Av and GBDeFlicker as an alternative.

Sounds like I'll look for another solution to get bulb ramping so I can get that nice consistent exposure.

Thanks so much! I'll continue the search for the holy grail