Time Lapse Tools

[Hillsilly]

There's a new ferry terminal being built outside my office and I thought it would be fun to make a timelapse movie of it. I'm thinking of taking one photo per day - probably towards sunset.

But, this will be my first longer term time lapse movie. So I've got a query. With sunset times varying each day, are there any easy programs which will help you calculate the exact time of day to take your photo so that (in theory at least) I'd have the same ambient lighting conditions every day? Or am I overthinking this and should just use a light meter and wait for the right time or should I just take the photo at the same time each day?

 

[pablo]

the photographers ephemeris will show you the position of the sun at any time of day.

rises north east, sets north west for now.

can't account for day to day cloud cover etc...

shoot what you can, use a good solid tripod, what if a concrete section or metalwork is delivered or installed away from your ideal time of day....?

sun position is different from moon position, moon might not affect light and shadows, but will affect tide....

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Hillsilly.
I have been pondering a similar question, I have been invited by a relative to take shots of him painting a mural at a local campsite, I thought it would be a good opportunity to do something different! I decided to take more shots and bin any with no (significant) change.
I am thinking on the first day I will use shorter intervals and then adjust based on actual time between significant changes, or just keep the same interval and bin more, not sure yet, still pondering, not starting until September.
Having seen some larger building projects some days you don't see a change, some days there will be multiple significant changes, you should also consider the length of the time lapse movie you might achieve at one frame per day at 24 fps that is about ten seconds per year assuming a 5 day working week with no holidays (if I did my maths right)! What is the project completion date, months, year or years from now?
Even discounting significant changes, there will always be subtle differences, tide, clouds, cranes, flags and weather to add interest in between significant changes.
Very interested to see other peoples input on this.

Edit, I meant to say make the position of the camera one that you can easily reproduce quickly and easily especially if there is a boss in your office that might get annoyed with you "fiddling with that bloody camera again"! This to me would include height, distance from a wall or edge and direction of the lens (significant static landmark on the edge of frame) and focal length if using a zoom!

Cheers, Graham.

 

[eeek]

Take a look at LRTimelapse. Specifically, this:

http://lrtimelapse.com/tutorial/long-term-construction-time-lapse/

Granted, that's more towards very long term, multiple shots, but it may help.

 

[jprusa]

The Photographer’s Ephemeris or Sunseeker . Also take tides into consideration as well.