I mentioned in my post yesterday about this time lapse, that I wasn't able to get a transition from complete darkness to light because I shot this time lapse so close to today -- the longest day of the year, and you can't park your car until 5:00am. At any rate, here is the first time lapse from yesterday.
My face got totally fried! The breeze was delightfully cool (a bit cold actually before the sun came up), probably in the low to mid 60's. So I had no idea I was cooking myself!
The cloud action, while not as dramatic as the fog coming in to engulf the cove and then moving out again, was still awesome! (The camera frame is actually considerably larger than the 16:9 video frame; so, you don't get to see the full effect in this video. Though what is here is great.)
Technical: Balancing three variables: the exposure time (very dark and then very light conditions in the same time lapse) with an aperture that will provide the best depth of field and sharpness with the shortest possible shot interval so the continuous motion of the waves in the finished time lapse appears as smooth as possible.
I placed my ISO at 400 since I would be shooting in very decreased light in the early morning hours but also in very bright light by noon. The exposure time (at f5.6) is pretty significant when its darker outside but then ran up to 1600 (at ISO 400) when it was noon). So I set my shot interval to be 20 seconds. (My experience has been that in near dark conditions, at ISO 400, the exposure time can be over 20 seconds. In yesterdays darkest time the exposure was only 2 seconds, but I just now noticed this! Rats! I could have done a 5 second shot interval.) Regrettably, once the sun comes up, a 20 second exposure time creates jerky wave motion. But the cloud action is pretty cool.
Therefore, halfway through the time lapse, I stopped and adjusted the ISO to 100 and the shot interval to 5 seconds. So, in the second time lapse I will post from my day at Malaga Cove, the wave action is considerably smoother. Stay tuned for the second time lapse to be posted later.
But, in the mean time, here is the early morning time lapse of Malaga Cove. Don't forget, you can click the full screen button when it starts playing. You can see the little tiny surfers and the water currents moving about. The one below is HD: 1280 x 720, so be sure you have your window as large as you can get it before clicking the play button. (If your monitor is too small to play the HD version, you can view the smaller version directly underneath the HD version.)
I'm not exactly sure why, but the HD version plays rather poorly over the internet using MediaBoxAdv; so, I just have it pop up in a separate window for excellent playback.
Related articles:
- First CineSlider Time Lapse (timtyson.us)
Your Malaga cove Time lapse is Awesome!! I am glad I ran into you while you were taking it. My family has taken a picture at that same spot on the same date, June 20th for the past 6 years. My father grew up in a house down the street from that point and I remember him taking me to that exact spot when I was little back when there was an old shipwreck rusting into the water.
Anyways, Great job
Josh Higgins