How to shoot a good time lapse at night?

[marcshap]

Hello there, I am curious how do you meter for exposure at night (stars), How long do you have to keep the shutter open for, how do know what will be correct. Does this make any sense?

 

Thanks

Marc

[Filip Plesha]

The same way you'd expose for still photography.

 

Yesterday i was shooting some stars with kodak ISO 160 film

The exposure was about 5 minutes.

When it comes to stars there is no proper exposure,it is a matter

of how you want them bright.

But this does not go for skies with moonlit clouds or haze

lit by city lights.This goes for a total clear dark sky with stars.

Otherwise you wont get black sky.

 

If you want to shoot objects lit by stralight only you need

about 4 minutes of exposure at f-2 with an ISO 100 film.

But you rarely get starlight only,if the sky is clear starlight comes

mostly together with moonligh.

 

If you have full moon on a clear night you need about 30 seconds of exposure

at f-2 with ISO 100 film.

If you have half moon give it one stop more (a minute of exposure)

 

By the way what are you shooting?

 

If you are shooting stars than you have your creatuve freedom.

If there are clouds or haze you have a limit to how much you can

expose the film.

If you shoot objects at night with no artifitial lights then folow

these exposures.

I would strongly suggest that you first test with a SLR still camera.

Shoot a role of film,bracked a little and then decide what

results you like the best.

 

By the way,i never used a time lapse camera,do they have

the same wide choice of exposures as still cameras?

[Mister X]

Unless your camera is upon an equatorial mount, (matching the apparent motion of the sky), exposures of more than fifteen seconds duration may show star trails.

 

Most astrophotography is done with still cameras, and these images are often linked together to produce animated films. Using a good intervalometer, (such as one offered by NCS Products), equatorial mount, light meter, and filters to reduce light pollution and enhance the subject, I think that some amazing films could be produced on a movie camera. Apart from finding a site away from city haze, highways, and farmyard lights, you're going to really have to experiment a lot to find out what works best with your equipment and different film stocks.

 

Check out:

 

http://www.polarimage.fi/

 

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/6529/primer.html

[marcshap]

Thanks for all your help, I will most likely be shooting on an arri435(intervelometer) using a medium speed tungsten film using standered speed lenses t2.1. Unfortunantly I do not have the budget to test, However I could test with my still camera using close to the same set up?

 

Thanks

Marc

[Jason Mann]

Go test, young man!

 

(And report back, because I've never shot a time lapse I was happy with...)

[Jason Debus]

It's quite difficult to get night shots to look like our eyes see.

 

I spent an hour & a half last night shooting the rising moon on a time-lapse shot (almost a full moon), exposing so that the clouds look as close as possible to what my eyes were seeing. Of course then the moon gets blown out and looks like the sun, it practically looks like a daytime shot.

 

 

In future shots I'm going to attempt to shoot single frames at different exposures and try merging them in Photoshop to see if I can come up with something more natural. Ultimately I'd like to get a detailed moon, clouds exposed correctly, and perhaps some sprinkle of stars in addition to whatever I'm shooting in the foreground. I'm thinking the optimum time may be when there's just a sliver of moon to illuminate the clouds, yet the detail of the moon shows since it's dark.

 

Any ideas on how to get night time time lapse to look more natural are welcome.