I need Time-Lapse Help

[d2creative]

I have a large saltwater aquarium. Taking photos of it can be a bit challenging due to the crazy white balance of the lights, and the fact that the lights are so intense and are well beyond the dynamic range of any digital camera.
But with some help from Lightroom, I can get some decent shots.




And with some HDR, I can really get some nice full-room shots.





But what I need to do now, is some time-lapse of the tank throughout the day. The LED lights over the tank run custom programs. They change color and intensity throughout the day, even run cloud and storm programs. So i need to capture the whole day. The problem is that I tried it the other day and metered the camera so that the highlights weren't blown too bad while the lights were on full power in the middle of the day, but I did have a lot of heavy shadows. And then as the night went on and the lights dimmed, it got to a point where the shots were almost completely black, yet the tank was lit up dark blue to my eyes. If i lighten the exposure to properly expose and show what I'm seeing at night, the day-time shots will be way overexposed.

So is there any way around this? Or would i need to retouch every shot by hand to get an accurate account of the entire day?

[Jake]

Not sure what camera you are using, but on the Canon end you can get a device to do bulb-ramping so you can set the exposure to change X stops over Y time.
Little Bramper - bulb-ramping intervalometer for Canon dSLRs

There is also a Magic Lantern hack for a few other Canon's.

You maybe able to do bramping on a Nikon but I'm not sure. Have you tried just shooting in AV mode and let the camera adjust with auto exposure? Or bracket and batch HDR maybe?

Or is the problem the tank stays about the same exposure and the room is the only thing changing? If that's the case I would do two passes and merge the two.

[d2creative]

I'm using the nikon d700.

I was afraid to do any kind of auto exposure for fear of not accurately depicting the ramping up and down of the lights, which is the whole point of the shoot. I'm trying to shoot this for the light manufacturer as I did all their still shots. Might be worth a try though.
What happens in the room doesn't matter. I just need to show how the light changes in intensity and color over time. So that's why i pre-set my exposure and white balance.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by d2creative

I'm using the nikon d700.

I was afraid to do any kind of auto exposure for fear of not accurately depicting the ramping up and down of the lights, which is the whole point of the shoot. I'm trying to shoot this for the light manufacturer as I did all their still shots. Might be worth a try though.
What happens in the room doesn't matter. I just need to show how the light changes in intensity and color over time. So that's why i pre-set my exposure and white balance.

I see, manual exposure would be what you want for that.
Can the tank be moved into another room with complete control over ambient light?

[d2creative]

It weighs over 1200lbs and that's just the water! Not the glass tank, the wood stand, all the rock, sand, etc.

But ya, i don't *think* the ambient light is the problem. I think it's just the dynamic range far exceeding the camera's capabilities.

[Jake]

In that case, I would try an auto mode and just see what happens.

If that fails, you could bracket the whole thing and then choose the right frames after the fact.
But that sounds like real work....

Hopefully someone has a better idea though.

[sknarberg]

I would definatley go for RAW and autoexposure. Auto gives you a reasonable exposure which together with RAW and the about two stops of slack to each side should enable you to get both shadow and highlight details. That said i know how tedious it can be to correct each frame for the time lapse sequence. I would recommend Lightroom for that. Good luck!

Cheers Steen, Fotograf from Denmark

[Todd Lambert]

Jake have you got a Bramper yet?

(I ordered mine - waiting for it to ship) - can't wait to see if this really works (day-nights are killing me with flicker)

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Todd Lambert

Jake have you got a Bramper yet?

(I ordered mine - waiting for it to ship) - can't wait to see if this really works (day-nights are killing me with flicker)

No, I haven't got one yet. When ever I get extra photography funds, I forget to order it and blow my money on something else....
Does it take awhile for them to ship it?

Thinking about putting that magic lantern on my t2i and try bramping that way.

[Todd Lambert]

Yeah, apparently Tom had a bad batch of cards or something from China... he's gotten a new supplier but won't ship until Nov 10...

I loaded Magic Lantern on my 5D2 at one point... awhile back, but I don't think it had ramping capabilities on it. Does the newer versions?

I did load the CMCHK (or whatever it's called) on my little powershot, allowing it to do time-lapse.. but have yet to use it.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Todd Lambert

.....

I loaded Magic Lantern on my 5D2 at one point... awhile back, but I don't think it had ramping capabilities on it. Does the newer versions?

I did load the CMCHK (or whatever it's called) on my little powershot, allowing it to do time-lapse.. but have yet to use it.

I think bramping via magic lantern is only available for a couple cameras(60d and t2i are 2 I know of).

I do have a hacked powershot and it does time-lapse pretty well. Not much flicker at all, but useless once it gets dark.

[Todd Lambert]

Yeah, that's what I figured... it'd probably be about as good as my iPhone for time-lapse.

Ah well... I am very interested in the Bramper though... if this can solve the flicker, I'd be mighty happy... I'm seeing it even in very modest changing light using AV or TV and auto ISO. Canon's Auto implementation sucks ass.

Give me a holler the next time you go out, would definitely like to shoot with ya again.