1st Timelapse, how not to do things!

Well, we have been having some really great weather lately for stargazing!

Last Wednesday was a fantasticly clear and crisp night, so I decided to give a time-lapse sequence a try. My sequence of images is of a 3 hour timespan of the night sky.

NightSky Timelapse from Geoff Ind on Vimeo.

For the sequence I was taking 30 second exposures at 10mm, ISO 6400 and F-Stop 4. I was using a remote timer on my camera so taking a long sequence of images becomes allot easier once you have everything set up. 

From my results I have learned heaps and will definitely be making changes to the way that I approach my set up on my next attempt at a Time-lapse sequence.

• Firstly - After looking at my results I have decided that I need to spend more time working on the composition of the shot before going ahead and starting to shoot. The old adage "Preparation is key" really is true in this case. The portrait orientation in my sequence really does not work in the final video format. It just is not very "cinematic" and detracts from the sequence as a whole.

• Secondly - Looking at the speed of the sequence, I really need to be taking more images to get a decent length of shot. This means I need to either shoot for longer or change my initial exposure settings to shorter length exposures to end up with allot more images. Next time I'm going to try shooting 15 second exposures and therefore potentially double the length of the shot.

• Thirdly - I need to find a way to prevent moisture build up on my equipment. The spreading fogginess of the shot towards the end is a result of a build up of dew on my camera. When I came back to retrieve the camera the whole lot was covered in water drops. Needless to say that's probably not good for my camera, lenses and timer. So a solution needs to be found when shooting on cold nights.

• Lastly - My camera ran out of battery before my sequence finished, I fully charged the battery just before starting my shoot. Unfortunately I only got 115 images of the 220 I had asked for. More experimentation needs to be done to find a way around this problem. My camera only has one battery and no way to directly plug my camera into the mains power. I know that ambient temperature affects the life of the battery, as it was cold the night I was shooting. It would be worth experimenting on warmer nights to see what the difference is (if any).

Thanks for reading, I hope that you get something from my errors on how not to go about time-lapse photography!

Ta Geoff.