GASCOYNE TIMELAPSE - Behind the Photo
INTRO
Last month I went camping in the beautiful Gascoyne and Pilbara region. This blog post is about the techniques I used for this gascoyne time-lapse I captured below.
Somewhere between Gascoyne Junction and Mount Augustus, we pulled off to the side of the road to camp. I quickly found a good composition, set my camera on a tripod, connected my intervalometer, and pressed the shutter to get a time-lapse sequence underway, and then had a little explore before it got too dark. We climbed the rocky formation and from the top we could easily make out Mount Augustus in the distance, our next location. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, which meant it was going to be a very cold night, but also meant the stars were going to be clear and beautiful. The cold clear night combined with no light pollution from surrounding towns meant i could get some beautiful star trails early in the evening and early in the morning and still get a good nights sleep!
TECHNICAL INFORMATION & CAMERA SETTINGS for the time-lapse
This time-lapse consisted of 472 photos over 4 sequences. When converting photos to make a time-lapse, approx. 30 photos are needed for every second of video (if making a video at 30fps), therefore my 472 shots made 15 seconds.
The two important camera settings I used for this time-lapse were manual exposure and manual white balance.
Below are the exposure settings for each sequence ;
Sequence 1 - 284 photos began at 5.35pm and finishing at 6.40pm changing my settings as it got darker, starting at f10, 1/10 sec shutter speed and 100iso and finishing at f10, 30 sec shutter speed and 1250iso.
Sequence 2 - 79 photos beginning at 7pm and finishing at 8pm, with the setting staying at f2.8. 25 second shutter speed and 12500 iso.
Sequence 3 - 142 photos beginning at 5.15am and finishing at 6.45am, settings starting at 30sec shutter speed and 2500iso and finishing at 1/6 sec and 500iso.
Sequence 4 - 65 photos beginning at 6.46am and finishing at 7.15am, settings starting at .3sec shutter speed and 100iso and finishing at 1/60 sec and 100iso.
POST PROCESSING
There are many different ways to process time-lapse photography. If you are starting out and have photoshop and lightroom, it is easy to use these CC software only. However for this one I used LR Timelapse. LR Timelapse is perfect if you need to be constantly changing the exposure settings over time during the shoot, eg from sunset to night, LR Timelapse will smooth out the transition for you automatically through what is known as the Holy Grail technique. Finally the sequences where opened in Premier Pro where the transitions where made.
Arriving and setting up for the timelapse sequence 1.
View from the top looking at Mt Augustus
TIPS FOR TIME-LAPSE
1. Have a large memory card, at least 16gb
2. Choice 1/50th second or longer shutter speed (video will appear smoother)
3. Choice f8 or wider aperture (sensor spot wont show up as much)
4. Choice the correct interval between shots,
This can take a bit of time to get your head around, eg do you choice 1 shot every 5 seconds, or 1 shot every 1 second. (this will depend how long the event your are photographing will last), eg,
240 frames @ 1 sec interval = 4 mins
240 frames @ 5 sec interval = 20 mins.
It will also depend on how you want the subject to appear to be moving, eg clouds will move faster with a longer interval.
PHOTOGRAPHY TUITION
Please feel free to leave comments, ask questions, or contact me regarding upcoming workshops or 1 on 1 landscape photography tuition.