Hey, this is George Racy at TheVoter.com, coming at you with another tutorial meant
to help improve your time lapses.
This is a two-part tutorial, and in our first part I'll show you how to set your camera
up for shooting an HDR time lapse, and in the second part we'll actually show you how
to compile it using After Effects and HDR Expose.
And here's an example of what we'll be making.
Along with your camera, this tutorial will require you to have a sturdy tripod, as well
as a remote timer with timing options.
You can use a super expensive one, or if you're like me and broke, you can use one of the off
brands and only cost $25 on Amazon.
Just make sure it has multiple timing options on it, and you're set.
Alright, so get out your camera and I'll show you how to start.
I'm going to be using the Canon 5D Mark II, but this information is good for other cameras
as well.
First, you'll want to change the mode of shooting.
Since you don't want your aperture changing during the shoot, you'll want to switch your
camera to M, or manual mode.
In the previous version of this tutorial, I stated it was AV, but as pointed out, manual
is the best choice.
The reason we switched to manual mode is to keep the depth of field consistent throughout
the entire shoot, or else your photos won't merge as well, if at all during the HDR process,
since the depth of field would change in every shot, which is a very bad thing.
By switching to manual mode, the bracketing system we're going to use will only change
the shutter speed of the camera, leaving aperture alone to whatever we set it at, which is exactly
what we want.
Next, we want to set the camera up for continuous shooting.
This can be different on other cameras, so do what you need to do on your camera to get
it to shoot continuously.
On the top right of the Canon, by the LCD screen, you'll see a button marked AF drive.
Press it, and turn the large wheel on the back of the camera, and select what looks
like three rectangular boxes stacked on top of each other.
This will allow your camera to take multiple photos in a row with just one click, first
having to click each individual photo.
The reason we do this is because HDR photos need to be a back-to-back succession of photos,
or else you'd be left with scene artifacts that change while you were clicking away.
It's also necessary for a remote timer.
Next comes the most important part to setting up your camera, the bracketing.
Since Canon decided not to put a physical bracketing button on their lower-end pro-sumer
cameras, you have to go into the menu system and change and activate this setting.
First, press the menu button, then using the top scroll wheel, work your way over the
icon with a camera, two squares, and a red background.
It's the second one from the left.
Next using the big wheel on the back, scroll to Expo Comp AEB, and select it using the
center button on the large wheel.
This is the automatic exposure bracketing system.
Once you're in the menu system, using the top scroll wheel, click over one notch to
enable bracketing.
You'll notice another line of bracketing intervals appear under the top ones, as well
as your exposure numbers jumping from negative 2 plus 2 to negative 4 plus 4.
When setting up an HDR shoot, it's important to remember that you need at least three photos
to make an HDR composition.
You could use two, but it probably wouldn't turn out so well.
For this tutorial, we're only going to be shooting three frames for our sequence.
One at negative 2, one at zero, and one at plus 2.
This is going to give us a wide dynamic range for shooting.
If you're shooting something incredibly bright or dark you may want to slide the bracketing
system either to the left or the right using the big wheel after you've rotated the top
at least once to reveal the bracketing intervals.
Go ahead and turn the wheel five times to the right to set the exposure at negative
2, 0, and plus 2.
If you think that's too much for what you're shooting, change it to the appropriate stoppage.
Perhaps you only need negative 1 or plus 1 for your scene.
It's going to vary depending on what your subject is and how it's lit.
After you're done with that, make sure you press the center or set button on the back
big wheel to accept the setting.
If you don't do this, the camera won't bracket, which totally defeats the purpose of what
we're trying to do.
It's also important to know that once you've switched your camera off, the setting is going
to be removed from memory and you'll have to set it up all over again once your camera
is back on.
Next, you want to set your white balance to whatever situation you're shooting.
Since I'll be shooting outdoors, I'll choose the outdoor sun setting.
It's important not to use the auto white balance because this can change your composition
as well as add flicker to your time lapse.
Once you've set the white balance, your camera is ready to go and we'll go ahead and move
on to setting up your remote timer.
So first, make sure your timer has a delay, long, and interval setting on it.
The long and interval setting are definitely a must.
The delay option is basically a countdown for your timer when the start button is pressed.
This is going to allow you to situate your remote and move away from your camera.
Next is the long setting, which is the most important setting.
This is going to set the number of frames your camera will take during each interval.
Since our bracking system needs three exposures of negative 2, 0, and plus 2, we'll need
to set the remote to take three photos.
By selecting set and moving the selector all the way to the right and selecting the
second spot, increase the duration to three seconds, which will equate to three shots.
If your camera is able to set more than three brackets, you can increase the second spot
to the correlating number to achieve those extra brackets.
After that set, move to the interval setting and select the designated time between frames
that you want.
Since I'm capturing fairly slow moving clouds, I'll set the interval to six seconds.
Next we have the option of setting the number of frames we want to capture.
You should choose whichever number you like.
Just remember that 30 frames equal one second of footage if your composition is based on
a 29.97 frame rate.
Before you begin shooting, make sure you're shooting on the correct quality format.
For the best HDR results, shoot on RAW, but just remember it's going to require a lot
more computing power to put your composition together.
If you want a good, faster way to compile your images, shoot on larger medium JPEG.
You'll definitely be happy when it comes to render time.
So after you've set your intervals and the picture quality, you're ready to shoot your
HDR time-lapse.
In part two, I'll show you how to merge your HDR time-lapse into a work of art using HDR
Expose and Adobe After Effects.
Look forward to it soon.
I'm Drew Gerasi and thanks for joining me.
I'll catch you on the next VODBlog tutorial.
