I wanted to try my hand at time-lapse recording. Setting the camera out and recording for a length of time, taking it and shrinking it in editing and seeing how it looks.
The problem is, it works fine. No wait thats not the problem. Er what I mean is. Daytime shots work fine. Sunset its difficult. I can't seem to get it to show up. The sky is completely white and blank, just a surreal glow like it was erased while the buildings and everything come in clear.
At this time of day, my white screen-door is slightly touched with shadow so, although it is still white, it has a cool hint of blue. The camera sort of picks that up- until, that is, I do a wet balance setting that door as white (its perfect white so I use it all the time) and then it comes out bright white like it does during noontime. And all the trees, and the grass, and the houses and cars look like its noon. And the sky is gone.
I tried using something that was white for white balance that wasn't in the shade, but it was the white siding of my neighbor's house. The angle of the sun (though the sky was still blue at the time, not orange) made the sunlight a deep orange so the siding turned orange and still the sky wouldn't come out.
Not sure what the right way is.
You need to set your white balance at noon, as tints will change as the sun goes down. Then lock the white balance and let the camera do its thing.
Actually, the best solution is to set the white balance to a preset "sunlight" setting if possible, as this will eliminate any error introduced in setting the white balance manually.
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Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
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-----------------
Andrew Gingerich
Exploding Goldfish Films
Check out my blog at http://www.exgfilms.com
and my reel at http://portfolio.exgfilms.com
This also could be an exposure problem-- how is your camera compensating for exposure as the sun goes down and light level drops? Is it doing something automatically, or do you set it at the beginning of your lapse and it stays put for the duration?
The colour temp of the ambient light as the sun sets gets much warmer (lower in degrees K) than it is during the day, when it's a lot bluer (higher in degrees K). If you want the sunset to turn out, my idea would be to white balance under the lighting conditions that you want to capture (say, when the sun is half over the horizon) the evening before, save that setting, then on the next evening-- provided that the weather conditions are similar, set up the time-lapse under the pre-set from the night before. I've never tried to get that effect myself, but that's how I would start...
Good luck.
Well I'll try them both. I'm not really familiar with lighting or how the camera interpret's it. I figure if I set it at sundown, when I start out it will be very bright- if I set it at noon, it will be very dark. Hmm. I'll try both. Could be fun! =) Thanks.
