How do I avoid overexposure and flicker in a sunrise timelapse as the light changes?
Asked 4/21/2020
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I’m shooting a timelapse of a flower unfurling in the morning. As the sun rises, the ambient light gets much brighter and the later frames become badly overexposed.
I tried locking settings manually to avoid flicker: aperture around f/5.4–f/6.4, shutter speed 1/40, and white balance set to a daylight/sunny preset. In earlier timelapses, leaving exposure settings on auto caused visible flicker between frames, so I used manual settings this time. That prevented flicker, but it didn’t handle the steadily increasing brightness.
What’s the best way to shoot a timelapse when light is changing gradually, such as at sunrise, without getting flicker or blown-out frames?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
1
What you are trying to do is accomplished by a technique known as bulb ramping, or bramping (see: What is bulb ramping?), where the camera's exposure is gradually changed to accommodate changing lighting conditions. There are several commercial products and open source projects that bulb ramp cameras to create smooth timelapse sequences without jarring discontinuities in exposure.
Bramping is useful for the situation you are desiring, where the lighting conditions change gradually, and more importantly, predictably (i.e., sunsets, sunrises). For best results, bramping is used in conjunction with post-processing software that adjusts the images' exposures to smooth out unpredictable changes in lighting, such as passing clouds. Depending on the software, this exposure smoothing can be automatic, with the ability to tweak individual frames or sequences of frames.
Originally by user11924. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11924
6y ago
0
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For a sunrise timelapse, the usual solution is bulb ramping (also called bramping). Instead of keeping exposure fixed, the camera’s exposure is changed gradually over time as the scene brightens, which avoids the severe overexposure you saw.
The key is that the changes must be smooth, not abrupt, so the timelapse doesn’t flicker. This is commonly done with dedicated timelapse controllers or software workflows designed for sunrise/sunset transitions.
A good approach is:
- Keep settings that should stay visually consistent locked when possible, especially white balance.
- Gradually adjust exposure over the sequence as light increases.
- Use post-processing/exposure-smoothing software afterward to even out any small irregularities, such as passing clouds.
In short: fully manual exposure works only if light stays constant. For predictable changing light like morning sun, use bulb ramping plus exposure smoothing in post.
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