Time lapse photography

[butteredlime]

Hi
I need help!
I want to try my hand some time lapse photography, particularly sunset and sunrise city scapes.
I'd like a bit of advice on where to start, exposure-wise. Should I let the camera decide for each shot or have one setting for the whole shoot?
Hope someone can help!
Thanks
Butteredlime

[GreggObst]

Since your position and scene will remain static but your exposure will change as the light changes, you will want to shoot in Aperture Priority mode and set an aperture that makes sense for the scene you are capturing. Let the metering figure out the shutter speed over time. Make sure you pre-focus and then set your focus to manual focus so it doesn't try and change over time.

That should get you started.

[butteredlime]

Thanks, GreggObst

I'll give that a go...

[BigFuzzy]

Actually, I can't agree at all with Gregg. This type of photography is all about manual and controlling the exposure.
If you let the camera decide on any aspect of the image (and shutter speed being most relevant for ambient light, ie the background!) you'll have many images that are exposed differently which will cause your video to appear to flickr which is a sign of poorly done time lapse.

you need to find a good exposure that you think covers the whole scene well and shoot everything with that. Don't let the camera decide anything.

I tried to find a good example of a bad time-lapse to illustrate here:
canal lock | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
It's not the best example, but I think you can see what I mean by the 'flickering' going on which is what happens if any of the exposure values, especially shutter speed, change over time. If I find a better bad video, I'll posta again.

Since I could find it quickly I'll post my video as an example of why you should shoot in Manual. Yes, the light changes a bit through the video, but never because of changing exposure IN the camera which makes it smoother and more natural.
Lucid Dream Time-Lapse | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[BigFuzzy]

THIS is a great example of what can happen if you leave on AV
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zhenyx/...melapsevideos/
The person even talks about it in their description.