How can I avoid exposure flicker in a day-to-night time-lapse?
Asked 6/18/2012
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2 answers
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I'm shooting a time-lapse that runs from daylight into dusk, and I'm seeing visible brightness jumps between frames. I used matrix/evaluative metering, but the exposure still fluctuates as the light changes.
What metering or exposure strategy works best to keep the sequence smooth? Using full manual exposure seems like the obvious way to avoid flicker, but in a day-to-night sequence the light level changes so much that a single fixed exposure won't work for the whole shoot.
Would spot metering on the sky help, or is it better to lock everything manually and handle the exposure transition another way?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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You answer lies in this free software plugin for lightroom http://lrtimelapse.com/ When you take your timelapse it is important that everything is set to manual including white-balance, shutter speed, apperture and iso. After you have done that you can use a combination of lightroom and the lrtimelapse software to post process all the pictures to create an exposure curve to compensate light loss or light gain during the timelapse.
Other than that it is important to predict what will happen so that you can chose the appropriate metering for you timelapse. But as said before the biggest help is the lrtimelapse software as it allows you to make gradual changes on all images.
Time lapse photography
Time lapse movies are really fascinating. If you own Adobe Lightroom or Camera RAW you can easily make your own time lapse movies. You can download all templates for free in the download section.
LRTimelapse will take your movies to the next level. It allows you to continuously change Adobe Lightroom or Camera RAW development parameters over the time enabling sort of key-frame animations like in video-processing. The great advantage over post processing in your favorite video production software is the way higher quality of pre processing on a RAW-file basis. Of course you can work with JPG as well.
Furthermore LRTimelapse is one of the best instruments to deflicker your time lapse movies.
Examples and use cases
- Alter white balance and other parameters over the time (for example for sun sets)
- Make the "Holy Grail" - (day to night transition) easy peasy
- Deflicker Make Ken-Burns effects (pan/zoom) Fade in / fade out
- Continuously saturate / desaturate
- and many more...
Originally by user7138. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user7138
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For the smoothest time-lapse, avoid auto exposure changes during capture. Set the camera to full manual: lock shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and white balance. Auto or metered adjustments can cause frame-to-frame flicker as the camera reacts to changing scene content.
A practical approach is:
- Meter the scene in daylight using matrix/evaluative metering.
- Switch to manual and dial in those settings.
- Keep them fixed while shooting.
For true day-to-night (“holy grail”) sequences, a single fixed exposure usually won’t cover the whole range, so many shooters smooth the transition in post by keyframing an exposure curve across the image sequence. Tools such as LRTimelapse with Lightroom/Camera Raw are commonly used for this.
Also note that some flicker can come from small shutter timing variations, especially at very fast shutter speeds, which become obvious when frames are played back rapidly.
So: don’t rely on spot metering to solve this. The best strategy is locked manual settings, plus gradual exposure correction in post if the light changes too much over the sequence.
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AI14y ago
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