Timelapse settings

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Farzad

New member
Hi guys!

I've always wanted to make time-lapses with some landscape/ building and clouds moving. The thing is, I don't know what settings to use for this (I don't want the brightness of photos change- it will look weird in the final work).

I guess I shouldn't use auto. I was thinking of putting it in aperture priority and choosing a reasonable iso, and let the camera adjust the shutter speed over time. Do you think this will work?

I will also turn auto-focus off.

Thanks in advance.
 
Scott Murray

Scott Murray

Senior Member
Farzad said:
Hi guys!

I've always wanted to make time-lapses with some landscape/ building and clouds moving. The thing is, I don't know what settings to use for this (I don't want the brightness of photos change- it will look weird in the final work).

I guess I shouldn't use auto. I was thinking of putting it in aperture priority and choosing a reasonable iso, and let the camera adjust the shutter speed over time. Do you think this will work?

I will also turn auto-focus off.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

A mode can work but you will see changes, best bet is to use M and set everything manually. I did experiment with one in A mode and it did not work as expected.
 
P

pettypoh

Senior Member
hi,

manual works best for timelapse
here's some settings you can try (for daylight timelapse)

1 - select manual mode
2 - iso at 100 (don't use "auto-iso")
3 - aperture set at f/11
4 - shutter - just set it correspondingly for correct exposure - might be somewhere between 1/100 to 1/1000
5 - white balance - choose direct sunlight
6 - turn off "active d-lighting" << if you are using nikon
7 - manual focus
8 - image quality / size = raw


Farzad said:
Hi guys!

I've always wanted to make time-lapses with some landscape/ building and clouds moving. The thing is, I don't know what settings to use for this (I don't want the brightness of photos change- it will look weird in the final work).

I guess I shouldn't use auto. I was thinking of putting it in aperture priority and choosing a reasonable iso, and let the camera adjust the shutter speed over time. Do you think this will work?

I will also turn auto-focus off.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
 
F

Farzad

New member
pettypoh said:
hi,

manual works best for timelapse
here's some settings you can try (for daylight timelapse)

1 - select manual mode
2 - iso at 100 (don't use "auto-iso")
3 - aperture set at f/11
4 - shutter - just set it correspondingly for correct exposure - might be somewhere between 1/100 to 1/1000
5 - white balance - choose direct sunlight
6 - turn off "active d-lighting" << if you are using nikon
7 - manual focus
8 - image quality / size = raw
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot pettypoh, but the sun will move and pictures might get overexposed after 2 hours... should I leave the settings unchanged or should I change over time?
 
P

pettypoh

Senior Member
@farzad,

siamthai1 is correct, by shooting in raw instead of jpeg, you will be able to edit the photos later in post

it's better to shoot in late morning / early afternoon first (light is "stable") and get the steps right, before shooting the sunrise / sunset where light can change a lot within a short period of time

you should leave the settings unchanged throughout the shoot, unless it suddenly changes from bright sunshine to thunderstorm .... which i guess you can pack up and go home, and try again another day =D
 
B

bechdan

Senior Member
another tip is to use a neutral density filter such as 0.9 or 1.2 (+3 or +4 stops) which reduces the amount of light entering the lens which allows you to use slower shutter speeds. You are going to need a tripod for best results.
 
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