This project has been all these things so far: Nights of no sleep, nights of bone-chilling cold, nights spent under the clouds. But it could also be described as 100 nights of learning. I learn something new every time I head out for a shoot. Time-lapsing is a whole new photographic art form that I have been exploring. I can’t use techniques like focus stacking and exposure blending in the same ways I can while shooting still images, so I’ve had to learn how to get the most out of a single image, or 600 single images all put together.
Photos and time lapses © Rachel Jones Ross
This desert time lapse was filmed using the internal intervalometer on the Sony a7R III, paired with a Sony 16-35mm GMaster lens. The arch was lit using @luxlilight at 1% brightness and set to a custom white balance.
I’ve also learned a lot about the uniqueness of the light at night. I used to think about night shooting as primarily about chasing new moon, and dark, star-filled skies. But I’ve come to appreciate the moonlight, especially the way it casts long deep shadows across the snow in the winter. And thanks to Jess Santos, I have a new appreciation for the blue hour, and the kinds of images I can create in the pale blue light. Thanks to my mentor, Marc Adamus, I also notice the uniqueness of the light 40 minutes before sunrise and 40 minutes after sunset.
Jill Waterman: How do you decide on your camera settings when making a time lapse, and which settings are most critical to a successful result?
RJR: Making a time lapse is like making still images at night. The difference is that you can’t do blending or stacking. With that in mind, I try to push the camera to get the most out of a single image. I always shoot with the aperture as wide as possible (usually f/2.8), and I don’t like to work with the ISO above ISO 3200 (that is a personal preference; it is possible to shoot at a higher ISO and still get good results). To determine the shutter speed, I use the PhotoPills app. However, I can double the shutter speed for accurate stars and still get barely noticeable star trailing. Put another way, as a single image the viewer might notice the star trails, but in a moving time-lapse it is not noticeable.
At first glance, this might look like the sun breaking through some storm clouds, but it’s really the moon. I set up the camera hoping to catch twilight, which I just missed, so I captured the moon playing hide and seek with the clouds instead.
JW: What recommendations do you have for composing an image that will look good in a time lapse?
RJR: I look for two things when I’m time-lapsing at night. 1) I look for ambient light. If there isn’t ambient light from the moon or light pollution to work with, I determine whether I can add enough light to illuminate the whole scene. 2) I take into account that I’m shooting at a shallow depth of field for the stars, which means that I either need to have a reflection in my foreground, or shoot at a hyperfocal distance that allows my subject to be in focus when shooting at f/2.8.
JW: How do you deal with the limitations of battery life when doing an all-night time lapse in very cold conditions?
RJR: Battery life is not a factor for shooting in cold temperatures with Sony Mark III-generation cameras. I can shoot for six hours continuously at minus 20 Celsius and capture more than 1,800 frames. I haven’t needed the camera to last longer than six hours. However, if battery life is a challenge, you can buy a battery grip and use two batteries without needing to stop the time-lapse to swap out a battery. I’ve used a Vello battery grip in the past, and I highly recommend them.
JW: Does your lens choice for a time lapse at night differ much from the stills you would shoot in a given situation?
RJR: I tend to time-lapse primarily with the Sony 16-35 mm f/2.8 and the Sony 24 mm f/1.4. I only use the 12-24 mm f/4 when I have lots of ambient light (for example, shooting the aurora during a full moon).
This mountain in the Canadian Rockies is southeast facing, and therefore only gets an aurora when storm levels reach a KP 6. Imagine my delight when I set out to capture the Milky Way before the snow melted, and then got photo-bombed by the aurora!
JW: What kind of additional accessories do you use when shooting a time lapse—intervalometers, sliders, etc.—and what are your main considerations in adding such elements to a shot?
RJR: Ever since Sony introduced the built-in intervalometer in the Mark III firmware update, I haven’t carried my remote intervalometer. I do use slider equipment when possible. I tried out a Cintetics Lynx slider and found it intuitive to use with smooth and even motion. The biggest downside for me was the weight. The unit was too heavy to hike with, which meant most of the time I left it at home. I recently ordered the Syrp Genie II system; I’m looking forward to testing it!
JW: What kind(s) of software do you use for editing time-lapse footage? Can you share any tips for efficiency or control when working with this footage in post?
RJR: I edit most of my time lapses using LRTimelapse software. Sometimes, if I need to make adjustments, I will use Adobe After Effects. However, AE crashes so frequently that I don’t like to use it. Getting it right in the field saves countless hours of editing! Take your time on location to think through how the light will change and what the best strategy is for capturing the scene as it unfolds.
To read more from Rachel Jones Ross’s 100 Nights Project, click here for the companion articles in this five-part series: 100 Nights of Photography Under the Stars, 100 Nights Under the Clouds, 100 Nights in Bone Chilling Cold, 100 Nights of Learning, and 100 Nights of Inspiration.
Thank you for joining our journey into night photography! For more Visualizing the Night content, please click here: Visualizing The Night and share your enthusiasm for this theme in the comments section below, or reach out to us on social media using #visualizethenight. Thanks for reading!