I want to shoot a timelapse of my wedding from about 9am to midnight from a balcony overlooking a room roughly 20m x 80m. My goal is a smooth sequence that shows movement well, with some motion blur from people, while also handling the big daylight-to-evening light change. Gear available: - Nikon D60 - Sigma 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6 - Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-S - Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 - Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro - sturdy tripod - laptop with timelapse software and USB cable - external power for camera and laptop Space/storage is not a major concern. I was considering one frame every 5 seconds. What shooting mode, lens choice, interval, exposure approach, and other settings would be best for this kind of very long day-to-night wedding timelapse?

You might get lucky, but I don't think that it's likely you'll be able to get an entire 9am to midnight timelapse capture with no human intervention at all, regardless of the equipment chosen, barring the construction of a light-sensitive intervalometer which can make adjustments shot-by-shot[1]. The reason for this is that it is still a complex and 'fiddly' task for cameras to handle lighting changes during timelapses (especially during the critical day --> night transition which can easily span more than 12 stops of light). Having said that... With the equipment you have, the only potential way to achieve a smooth day-to-night timelapse transition with no human intervention is to do the following: take bracketed exposures[2] with as many stops between the brackets as your camera will allow, cross your fingers that at least one of the bracketed exposures will be 'in the ballpark' of properly exposed, and then use fading transitions in a video post-production solution to 'fake' a smooth transition when the most drastic day --> night lighting changes will occur. Set your camera to its Manual mode, focus the lens, set the aperture[3], and then disengage the lens from the camera by unlocking it and giving it a quarter turn so the communication contact points are no longer touching.[4] Start the timelapse and hope for the best. [1]Yes, I have built one. No it is not easy, and it does require both electronics and imbedded circuit programming knowledge (or at least the time and willingness to experiment with them). Sadly, there is currently no commercial equivalent on the market, though I'm aware of a couple different manufacturers who have been poking around the Timescapes forum (where all of us hardcore Timelapse geeks hang out and experiment with these sorts of things). So at "some point" down the road there might be a commercial option available. [2]Which if you're planning to shoot at 5 second intervals will work out to be approximately 32,400 individual frames, so... Make sure you've got plenty of space on that tethered laptop! :-) [3] You'll probably want to set your aperture to give yourself a relatively deep depth of field... Somewhere between f/8 and f/11, I'd guess... [4] Your camera resets its aperture between every shot. While it is accurate enough for still shots when performing this reset, there is still some variation every time it performs the operation... Which will cause constant flickering throughout your timelapse unless you disengage the lens so the camera can't change the aperture between shots.

Best camera settings for an all-day wedding timelapse with changing light

Asked 5/16/2011

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2 answers

I want to shoot a timelapse of my wedding from about 9am to midnight from a balcony overlooking a room roughly 20m x 80m. My goal is a smooth sequence that shows movement well, with some motion blur from people, while also handling the big daylight-to-evening light change.

Gear available:

Nikon D60
Sigma 10-20mm f/4.5-5.6
Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 AF-S
Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3
Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro
sturdy tripod
laptop with timelapse software and USB cable
external power for camera and laptop

Space/storage is not a major concern. I was considering one frame every 5 seconds. What shooting mode, lens choice, interval, exposure approach, and other settings would be best for this kind of very long day-to-night wedding timelapse?

wedding-photography timelapse intervalometer nikon-d60 exposure

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

15y ago

2 Answers

You might get lucky, but I don't think that it's likely you'll be able to get an entire 9am to midnight timelapse capture with no human intervention at all, regardless of the equipment chosen, barring the construction of a light-sensitive intervalometer which can make adjustments shot-by-shot[1]. The reason for this is that it is still a complex and 'fiddly' task for cameras to handle lighting changes during timelapses (especially during the critical day --> night transition which can easily span more than 12 stops of light).

Having said that... With the equipment you have, the only potential way to achieve a smooth day-to-night timelapse transition with no human intervention is to do the following:

take bracketed exposures[2] with as many stops between the brackets as your camera will allow, cross your fingers that at least one of the bracketed exposures will be 'in the ballpark' of properly exposed, and then use fading transitions in a video post-production solution to 'fake' a smooth transition when the most drastic day --> night lighting changes will occur.
Set your camera to its Manual mode, focus the lens, set the aperture[3], and then disengage the lens from the camera by unlocking it and giving it a quarter turn so the communication contact points are no longer touching.[4]
Start the timelapse and hope for the best.

[1]Yes, I have built one. No it is not easy, and it does require both electronics and imbedded circuit programming knowledge (or at least the time and willingness to experiment with them). Sadly, there is currently no commercial equivalent on the market, though I'm aware of a couple different manufacturers who have been poking around the Timescapes forum (where all of us hardcore Timelapse geeks hang out and experiment with these sorts of things). So at "some point" down the road there might be a commercial option available.

[2]Which if you're planning to shoot at 5 second intervals will work out to be approximately 32,400 individual frames, so... Make sure you've got plenty of space on that tethered laptop! :-)

[3] You'll probably want to set your aperture to give yourself a relatively deep depth of field... Somewhere between f/8 and f/11, I'd guess...

[4] Your camera resets its aperture between every shot. While it is accurate enough for still shots when performing this reset, there is still some variation every time it performs the operation... Which will cause constant flickering throughout your timelapse unless you disengage the lens so the camera can't change the aperture between shots.

Originally by user2838. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user2838

15y ago

AI Answer

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A full 9am-to-midnight timelapse with no intervention is difficult because the light change from day to night is too large for a camera to handle smoothly on its own.

Best approach from the advice given:

Use a wide lens from the balcony, likely the 10-20mm.
Mount solidly on the tripod and use external power.
Shoot at a fixed interval such as 5 seconds if you want dense coverage.
To get smoother day-to-night results, use exposure bracketing at each interval if your D60/software allows it. This gives you multiple exposures per moment so you can blend or choose the best one later.
Expect that a completely hands-off capture may still not work perfectly through the day-to-night transition; that’s the hardest part.
For the “people blurred but sometimes still” look, use a relatively slower shutter speed when light permits, but this will become harder as the room gets darker.

In short: a wide lens, tripod, external power, 5-second interval, and bracketed exposures are your safest setup. The key limitation is not storage but smoothly handling the changing light, especially around evening, which may still require later post-processing or some manual adjustment.

Best camera settings for an all-day wedding timelapse with changing light

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