Star Photography; Time-lapse
First, in case you haven't read my article, Star Photography One on One I highly recommend you do. Many of the same concepts and details from that article will be used here.
After seeing a few threads about this I figured it might be a good idea to share what I personally know, and to allow one common thread for people to post what they know. Alrighty then, lets start!
I'm going to assume at this point you are capable of taking night photos proficiently which is 3/4th the work of a time-lapse. Now that the camera is all set up on a tripod it's time to go ahead and start the time-lapse its self. Time-lapse's are controlled by an interval-meter. Its job is to tell your camera take so many shots every so many seconds for a certain amount of time. Sounds pretty simple, right? It is if you know what your doing. Many people guess on these settings and come up with less then perfect time-lapses's. Fortunately, there is a way to find the correct settings, and since we are shooting at night things actually become easier!!
How Many Pictures to Take?
First off, there is a proper formula to find out how many photos will need to be taken for a time-lapse.
-Desired length of video x FPS = Number of Photos Needed
-Number of photos needed ÷ by photos per minute = how many minutes are needed to take the photos
Let's say I want to make a time lapse that is 90 seconds (1 min, 30secs) long. Take those 90 seconds and multiply it by the frames per second (FPS) that the video will be set to. The FPS of videos can range from 24, all the way to 240, with 60 being the most common. So we take 90 x 60 and we get 5400. That number means that we need 5400 pictures in order for the video to be 90 seconds long at 60fps. So we know that we need 5400 picture but now what? Well we need to find out how long to keep our camera out for. Lets say our camera is set for a 25 second exposure. Theoretically this means that the camera has a rate of 2.4 pictures per minute. So we take 5400 pictures and divide it by 2.4 mins which gives us 2250. That means we need 2250 minutes or 37.5 hours to take the 5400 photos required for a video that is 90 seconds long at 60fps.
Well obviously there isn't even 37.5 hours in a day, let alone a night. So how do we get around this issue? The exposure time can't really be changed unless you get a faster lens and a better sensor, and that only helps marginally. The only real thing we can do is lower the FPS. Lower FPS means we do not need as many photos per second, which carries over to needing less photos taken. However, slowing down the FPS can make the video choppy if too slow. In my time lapse projects, I have found 24fps to be the MINIMUM FPS which is usable. After this, the video begins to get choppy which ruins the whole thing.
If we take 90 seconds and multiply it by 24fps we get a total of 2160 photos needed in order to make this time-lapse. Divide 2160 by 2.4 shots per minute and we find out that 900 minutes or 15 hours of strait photo taking is needed in order to make the time lapse. 15 hours of night is still not possible unless you live at one of the poles.
So how do we make a 90 second night time-lapse if we can't take photos any faster, or slow the FPS any more? The answer is simply you can not. Most time-lapse scenes are only about 12-30 seconds long, and most professionals put multiple scenes together to get the videos that are 90 seconds to 4 minutes long. That's what you're going to have to do too if you want a longer time lapse video.
Setting up the Camera and/or Interval Meter
All the same principles from the Night sky article apply here to set up the camera for the shot, so refer to that for help if needed. Once you have found a satisfactory frame and have all the camera settings tweaked, we can set up the interval-meter. Some cameras have them built in, while others do not and require an external one to plug into the camera. Both work the same way and take the same settings, which makes these settings pretty much universal.
Frequency or Interval:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This refers to how often a photo will actually be taken. The frequency has to be set to a time greater then the exposure time. I also recommend adding a second or two so that the camera has some more time to process the image just taken, and record it to the memory card. Otherwise the camera can actually have a data overflow, and simply stop working till the power switch is cycled.
For example, if my camera is taking a 25 second exposure, I might set the frequency to 28 or 30 seconds to allow the camera to process the image.
Exposure time:
-------------------------------------------------
This refers to the cameras exposure time, and acts like a remote to set the exposure. Nothing needs to be changed if you already have the proper settings in the camera.
Time Delay:
-------------------------------------------------
This setting allows you to delay the start of the photo shooting. This is convenient if you need to move a vehicle out of the frame before the camera begins to take photos. Just put in 5 or so minutes, and that's how long the camera will wait before it starts to take the pictures at the set Frequency.
Cut off:
-------------------------------------------------.
This setting refers to when the camera will stop taking photos. This allows your camera to stop taking photos after it has taken the proper amount thus saving battery, and camera life. Most interval meters max out at 999 photos.
That's it!!
Once you have your photos taken, edit them in a program such a Lightroom, and then compile them into a time-lapse video with software such as QuickTime.
Thanks for reading and good luck!!
First, in case you haven't read my article, Star Photography One on One I highly recommend you do. Many of the same concepts and details from that article will be used here.
After seeing a few threads about this I figured it might be a good idea to share what I personally know, and to allow one common thread for people to post what they know. Alrighty then, lets start!
I'm going to assume at this point you are capable of taking night photos proficiently which is 3/4th the work of a time-lapse. Now that the camera is all set up on a tripod it's time to go ahead and start the time-lapse its self. Time-lapse's are controlled by an interval-meter. Its job is to tell your camera take so many shots every so many seconds for a certain amount of time. Sounds pretty simple, right? It is if you know what your doing. Many people guess on these settings and come up with less then perfect time-lapses's. Fortunately, there is a way to find the correct settings, and since we are shooting at night things actually become easier!!
How Many Pictures to Take?
First off, there is a proper formula to find out how many photos will need to be taken for a time-lapse.
-Desired length of video x FPS = Number of Photos Needed
-Number of photos needed ÷ by photos per minute = how many minutes are needed to take the photos
Let's say I want to make a time lapse that is 90 seconds (1 min, 30secs) long. Take those 90 seconds and multiply it by the frames per second (FPS) that the video will be set to. The FPS of videos can range from 24, all the way to 240, with 60 being the most common. So we take 90 x 60 and we get 5400. That number means that we need 5400 pictures in order for the video to be 90 seconds long at 60fps. So we know that we need 5400 picture but now what? Well we need to find out how long to keep our camera out for. Lets say our camera is set for a 25 second exposure. Theoretically this means that the camera has a rate of 2.4 pictures per minute. So we take 5400 pictures and divide it by 2.4 mins which gives us 2250. That means we need 2250 minutes or 37.5 hours to take the 5400 photos required for a video that is 90 seconds long at 60fps.
Well obviously there isn't even 37.5 hours in a day, let alone a night. So how do we get around this issue? The exposure time can't really be changed unless you get a faster lens and a better sensor, and that only helps marginally. The only real thing we can do is lower the FPS. Lower FPS means we do not need as many photos per second, which carries over to needing less photos taken. However, slowing down the FPS can make the video choppy if too slow. In my time lapse projects, I have found 24fps to be the MINIMUM FPS which is usable. After this, the video begins to get choppy which ruins the whole thing.
If we take 90 seconds and multiply it by 24fps we get a total of 2160 photos needed in order to make this time-lapse. Divide 2160 by 2.4 shots per minute and we find out that 900 minutes or 15 hours of strait photo taking is needed in order to make the time lapse. 15 hours of night is still not possible unless you live at one of the poles.
So how do we make a 90 second night time-lapse if we can't take photos any faster, or slow the FPS any more? The answer is simply you can not. Most time-lapse scenes are only about 12-30 seconds long, and most professionals put multiple scenes together to get the videos that are 90 seconds to 4 minutes long. That's what you're going to have to do too if you want a longer time lapse video.
Setting up the Camera and/or Interval Meter
All the same principles from the Night sky article apply here to set up the camera for the shot, so refer to that for help if needed. Once you have found a satisfactory frame and have all the camera settings tweaked, we can set up the interval-meter. Some cameras have them built in, while others do not and require an external one to plug into the camera. Both work the same way and take the same settings, which makes these settings pretty much universal.
Frequency or Interval:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This refers to how often a photo will actually be taken. The frequency has to be set to a time greater then the exposure time. I also recommend adding a second or two so that the camera has some more time to process the image just taken, and record it to the memory card. Otherwise the camera can actually have a data overflow, and simply stop working till the power switch is cycled.
For example, if my camera is taking a 25 second exposure, I might set the frequency to 28 or 30 seconds to allow the camera to process the image.
Exposure time:
-------------------------------------------------
This refers to the cameras exposure time, and acts like a remote to set the exposure. Nothing needs to be changed if you already have the proper settings in the camera.
Time Delay:
-------------------------------------------------
This setting allows you to delay the start of the photo shooting. This is convenient if you need to move a vehicle out of the frame before the camera begins to take photos. Just put in 5 or so minutes, and that's how long the camera will wait before it starts to take the pictures at the set Frequency.
Cut off:
-------------------------------------------------.
This setting refers to when the camera will stop taking photos. This allows your camera to stop taking photos after it has taken the proper amount thus saving battery, and camera life. Most interval meters max out at 999 photos.
That's it!!
Once you have your photos taken, edit them in a program such a Lightroom, and then compile them into a time-lapse video with software such as QuickTime.
Thanks for reading and good luck!!
Last edited:
