How to play the interval shooting function of star orbit and time delay?

At present, many cameras have interval shooting function. How to use this function and what effect can it produce? Without further ado, let's explain it to you.

The role of intermittent shooting

The function of intermittent shooting is that after inputting some shooting parameters into the camera, the camera can automatically shoot a specified number of pictures within a specified time.

It is usually used in some occasions that need long-term shooting, which can greatly reduce the workload of photographers and do other things during the shooting process. A large number of single pictures taken at the same time need to be synthesized later, which has certain effect.

How to use intermittent shooting

When using interval shooting, several parameters need to be determined, which are shooting interval, shooting times, shooting times each time and shooting start time.

The shooting time is easy to understand. One option is? Shoot now? As the name implies, after being selected, it will be shot according to the parameters you input. Another option is to set the shooting start time, that is, set a time, when the time is up, shooting will start automatically without control.

The remaining three parameters, shooting interval, shooting times and shooting times, need to be calculated simply according to your shooting plan.

In order to realize your shooting plan, you must first determine the total shooting time, then determine the number of shots during this time, so as to determine the interval time of each shot, and then calculate the number of shots each time by the number of shots you plan to shoot. These three parameters are determined in this order.

Here is an example to help you understand how these three parameters are determined.

For example, shooting the starry sky, and then synthesizing the star orbit through multiple pictures. The shooting stage can be realized by interval shooting.

In order to get a good track length, we must first determine the shooting time. The longer the shooting time, the longer the moving track of the stars.

For example, it is planned to shoot the orbit of the star within 1 hour, and it is ideal to shoot as many as possible in order not to break the orbit of the synthesized star, so it is determined to shoot 120 times (for the convenience of calculation, each time 1 piece). In this way, divide 1 hour (3600s) by 120 times, and the interval is 30s. Therefore, the interval time, the number of shots and the number of shots at one time are all determined, which are 30s, 1 20th and1time respectively.

There are several points that need special attention:

1. You can set the number of shots at intervals instead of just one shot at a time. When you set more than one lens at a time, the camera will automatically shoot each lens continuously to reach the number of lenses you set. Generally speaking, the number of shots at a time can be set to one.

2. The length of the interval time cannot be less than the duration of a single exposure. Because the duration of a single exposure is included in the interval time. For example, the exposure duration is 5s, the interval duration is 4s, and the shooting times are set to 3 times. In fact, the camera won't shoot three times, but only twice.

The reason is that when the camera sends out the shooting signal within 4s, the camera is being exposed and cannot execute the shooting instruction. It will only receive the shooting instruction and shoot at the third shooting, that is, at 8s (when the camera is not exposed), so it will only shoot twice, that is, once every other time.

This is also a point that the functional design is not humanized enough, which needs more attention from photographers, but Sony's cameras do better in this respect. When the exposure time is longer than the interval time, it cannot be set.

3. Turn off long exposure to reduce noise. The reason why we suggest you turn off long exposure noise reduction is also because of the problem mentioned in the second point. Because the noise reduction time is basically equal to the exposure time, it greatly increases the possibility that the exposure time is longer than the interval time, resulting in the failure to achieve the expected shooting.

Often forget to turn off the long-term exposure noise reduction after setting the interval shooting parameters, resulting in the number of pictures taken is half less than expected, which is likely to happen in starry sky photography.

4. Pay attention to whether the memory card has enough space to put down the photos taken. Because interval shooting often needs to take a large number of pictures, and more than 100 pictures are very common, photographers need to determine whether the memory card has enough space according to the quality of the pictures they choose, otherwise they will regret not saving it for a long time.

5. Pay attention to the battery charge. Although you can leave the camera and let it work by itself after setting the interval shooting, you need to pay attention to replacing the battery if it takes a long time, shoots a lot, or your battery itself has poor durability. In case the battery died, I thought I was filming.

Knowing the setting method and precautions of interval shooting, what effect can this shooting method achieve?

The effect that intermittent shooting can achieve.

1 stellar orbit

As mentioned in the previous explanation of the setting, the early shooting task of the star orbit can be realized by interval shooting, and the software needs to synthesize multiple pictures later. Compared with the single long exposure method, this method has less noise, thick lines and low fault tolerance.

Let's set the interval shooting parameters first:

According to the precautions mentioned above, turn off the long exposure noise reduction, and determine the memory card capacity and battery power.

Then set the camera to manual, and the exposure time should be within 30s. Note that the exposure time must be less than the interval time. To be on the safe side, it is better to be within 4s to 5 s. Aperture uses the maximum aperture of your lens, the ISO value is as low as possible, manual focusing is used for focusing, and the focusing distance is adjusted to infinity.

Take a photo and observe whether the starry sky is clear and the exposure is normal. If the exposure is normal, start shooting at intervals.

After the interval shooting is completed, the pictures are imported into the computer for post-processing.

Most specialized satellite orbit synthesis software can't directly process photos taken in RAW format, but only JPEG format. And Photoshop can complete this operation, there are two specific processing:

The first method: click the Photoshop file menu? Script? Load the file into the stack, select the photos to be processed, and check? Create smart objects after loading layers? , click OK, and then the computer will process it automatically. After waiting patiently, a smart layer will be generated, and then select smart object in the Photoshop layer menu? Stack mode? At most, the orbit will be revealed.

The second method: in the interface after selecting the image to be processed, click OK without checking any options. After the calculation is completed, select all layers in the layer operation interface (shortcut key F7), and then set the layer mode to? Highlight? Stellar orbits will also appear. The effect is the same as the first method.

2 Time-lapse photography

The function of interval shooting is more used in time-lapse photography. Time-lapse photography is a photography technique that takes an image or video at a low frame rate and then plays the image at a normal or faster rate.

Interval shooting is also one of the early shooting methods of time-lapse photography, which needs post-synthesis after shooting. Share a time-lapse photography tutorial with you.

The early stage of time-lapse photography is also realized by interval photography, and the setting method and idea are the same as those of the star-orbit photography introduced above. Manual focusing is also selected, but the shooting mode is not suitable for M-stop, so it is recommended to use aperture first.

The reason is that the light conditions of star-orbit shooting are very uniform, and a set of exposure parameters can ensure that the exposure will not be too biased. However, many subjects in time-lapse photography, such as sunrise and sunset, have great changes in lighting conditions, so the use of aperture priority mode can ensure that the camera will choose the exposure time according to the actual lighting conditions every time during the time-lapse photography process, so as to ensure the correct exposure of multiple photos. The following focuses on the later methods of time-lapse photography.

Late stage of time-lapse photography

Photoshop CS6 time-lapse photography:

Use version: Photoshop CS6

Operation difficulty: simple

Practicality: ★★★★★★★

Step 1

Then open Photoshop CS6 and select Menu File/Open Old File.

Second step

Click the first picture, then check the "picture order" below, and then click to open the old file.

Third step

Set the frame rate. Generally, a webpage can be set with 24~30 frames.

Fourth step

After loading, you will see the movie clip in the timeline panel, and then click the arrow icon at the bottom of the timeline panel to output the movie.

Step five

Then set the name, location and format of the output movie.

Step 6

Press "calculus" again and start running.

Step 7

When finished, you will see the output video file in the folder just now.

Step 8

After the double ring, you can directly show the movie. I didn't expect to shoot for more than an hour, only five seconds XD~

3 oil painting sky

Seeing this, you may find that interval shooting is actually just a shooting tool to let the camera shoot automatically according to its own intention. What kind of pictures can appear in a series of pictures depends on the photographer's second creativity.

For example, the oil painting "Sky" introduced below is also shot at intervals, but the post-processing is processed by superposition, which has artistic effect. I also hope that you can make more late attempts in your own photography.

The following group of pictures is the artist Matt? Canadian photographer Murray's oil painting "Sky Effect" is composed of hundreds of photos superimposed at intervals.

But I tell you, the oil painting "Sky" doesn't need too many superimposed pictures, provided it is in a windy and cloudy weather environment. Of course, the color and effect obtained are definitely not as good as the artist's paintings. After all, it took him three years.

After reading this article, do you have a certain understanding of the setting method and application of interval shooting? Then pick up the camera and try it. Remember: no pains, no gains.