You've probably seen a time-lapse movie like this before. This was created by shooting one frame every so often and then stringing all those frames together into a movie, which shows a tremendous span of time. There are two ways of shooting time-lapse on the D800. The first is an interval timer, which simply tells the camera to fire off every so often, for a certain amount of time. The second mode is the Time Lapse Photography mode, which actually spits a movie directly out of the camera. The advantage of doing time lapse with the interval timer is that it's actually shooting normal still frames exactly to your specs.
So you can choose to shoot in raw, which gives you a lot of extra editing power. You've also got access to each individual frame of the movie. When you drop those into a video editor you've got more options for controlling time within the movie. You might also use the interval timer simply for times when you need to collect some data about a scene over a certain amount of time. Maybe someone's stealing crabapples off your tree and you want to know who, so you set it up to take a picture every hour or something like that and review them later. Finally, when shooting with the interval timer you get full-pixel-count images, which gives you a lot of additional postprocessing options later.
You could crop just a part of a scene out of an image. You've got more resizing options. When you shoot with Time Lapse Photography, you're going to be outputting at standard video sizes. To configure for time-lapse, I go to my menu, and in the Shooting menu I have an option called Interval timer shooting, which of course defaults to off. I'm going to come in here and take a look at this. I've got a range of parameters that I'm going to be scrolling through from left to right up here, and this down here is a status display that's going to show me how things are progressing as I set each of these options.
First, I can choose to start my time-lapse as soon as I'm done configuring, or I can set a time. So this is really nice if you're wanting to do a time-lapse of sunrise. You don't actually have to get up before the sun rises and configure your camera. You can say start this at 5 a.m. or whatever. After I've configured this, I can hit the left or right arrow button here to go to the next parameter, and that is the Interval: How often do I want it to take a picture? By default it's set for 01 second. I can configure this for hours, minutes, or seconds, or some combination thereof.
After that, the number of times, that is the number of intervals that I want it to go through, and the number of shots that I want it to shoot at each interval. So to figure out the number of intervals I would need to do some calculation on my own. If I want to cover a certain number of hours and I'm only shooting once every five seconds, I would need to do the math to figure out how many specific intervals that I would need to go at and then dial that in here. At each interval I can tell it to take a number of shots. So say, for example, I am shooting an HDR time-lapse and I want 3 shots taken at each one of my intervals. I would configure it this way.
I would need to make sure that I've turned on Auto Bracketing and configured that before I start my time-lapse. Finally, I get to this page. I'm all set up here. It's saying that it's going to start right away once I start it. It's got a 1-minute interval. It's going to go 111 intervals, shooting 3 shots each time, for a total of 333 shots. Finally, this is simply a clock showing my current time. You want to be sure if you're traveling that you've adjusted your time zone appropriately to be sure that your clock is accurate on your camera, especially if you're using a timer to start the time-lapse.
Since I don't have a timer set right now, I would simply go here and hit the OK button and it would start. There are a few things to check before you start your time-lapse though. First of all, make sure that you are run not in Self-Timer mode or Mirror Up mode; both of those are going to mess up your time-lapse as soon as it tries to trigger the Shutter button. Because my face is not going to be behind the Viewfinder here during the whole process, it's going to be possible for light to get in there and bounce around inside the camera and that might create flare, so I'm going to flip this closed so that closes off my viewfinder to be certain that no light gets in.
Finally, I want to be sure that I've got enough storage, so I need to do a little bit of calculation about whether 333 frames are going to fit on my card. I see up here that I do have enough space remaining. If I was shooting raw, obviously that would go down. Since I've got two card slots, I can put in a second card, and if I've configured for overflow, then I will very easily have enough space. My Release mode does impact interval timer shooting. If I've chosen to shoot multiple frames at each interval, if I go here to the low continuous rate, then they're going to shoot at that speed.
If I go here to the high continuous rate, they will shoot at my high continuous speed. If I'm on single shot, then they're going to go at the speed that is defined in one of my custom functions. If I come down here to the d category and go to d2 CL mode shooting speed, that's my low speed, which is currently set to 2. So if I have to find multiple frames in my interval timer, they're going to shoot at 2 frames per second.
Once I have started a time-lapse, I can go back to the Time Lapse menu item to either pause the time-lapse or stop it, if I need to stop it early, or I can just turn the camera off. Obviously, for best results you're going to want to be locked down on a tripod. If you're going to be shooting through a length of time that's long enough that your lighting is going to change because the sun is coming up or going down, or moving around, then you're going to need to give some thought to your exposure. Do a little research into time-lapse to learn more about what mode you should choose and what you should expect in the way of exposure changes over time.
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Released
11/8/2012Next, the course introduces more advanced exposure options: program mode, exposure compensation, ISO adjustments, and more. After Ben briefly defines each option, he shows how to adjust it using the camera's controls.
Ben also discusses white balance options, advanced metering and autofocus controls, flash, live view, and video shooting. The course ends with a chapter on maintenance, including sensor- and camera-cleaning and care tips.
- What is a DSLR?
- Attaching lenses
- Powering up and down
- Formatting the media card
- Holding the camera
- Shooting in the Auto and Program modes
- Changing the ISO
- Controlling autofocus and white balance
- Using a self-timer
- Working with the exposure control options
- Activating Live View
- Shooting video
Skill Level Beginner
Duration
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Photography Foundations: Lenses
with Ben Long2h 32m Beginner -
Learning DSLR Filmmaking
with Chad Perkins1h 10m Intermediate
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Introduction
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Welcome2m 12s
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What is an SLR?5m 18s
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Using this course1m 54s
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1. Getting to Know Your Nikon SLR
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Attaching a lens3m 28s
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Powering up2m 8s
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Setting the date and time1m 50s
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Setting the language1m 20s
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Formatting the media card2m 15s
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Holding the camera4m 9s
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2. Shooting in Auto Mode
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What are shooting modes?2m 11s
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Autofocus basics2m 42s
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Metering basics1m 31s
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Reviewing images2m 21s
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Working with image playback7m 16s
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Adjusting beeps and timers1m 52s
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Changing button behavior2m 2s
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Using screen tips1m 13s
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3. Shooting in Program Mode
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Changing ISO2m 30s
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Using auto ISO4m 25s
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Exploring Flexible Program2m 49s
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Setting a virtual horizon2m 17s
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Setting the color space1m 22s
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4. Controlling Autofocus
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Exploring focus modes2m 6s
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Using focus points1m 57s
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Using manual focus3m 56s
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5. Controlling White Balance
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Using auto white balance1m 1s
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6. Understanding Release Modes
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Exploring Continuous mode5m 56s
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Using the self-timer3m 26s
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Locking the mirror up1m 39s
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7. Using the Exposure Control Options
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Exploring metering modes3m 4s
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Using the auto exposure lock4m 35s
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Using depth of field preview2m 50s
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Working in Manual mode2m 40s
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Exposure bracketing6m 40s
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Using Active D-Lighting1m 19s
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Using the Info button1m 48s
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8. More Playback Options
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Adjusting LCD brightness2m 31s
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Hiding images1m 35s
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File naming1m 21s
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Creating storage folders2m 3s
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Adding copyright info1m 50s
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Using in-camera retouching2m 26s
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9. Shooting with Flash
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Using the fill flash1m 48s
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Using Flash mode3m 18s
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10. Specialty Shooting Features
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Creating multiple exposures3m 38s
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Using the interval timer5m 42s
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Working with the image area4m 25s
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Using the remote control1m 43s
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11. Understanding Picture Styles
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Selecting a picture control1m 38s
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Modifying a picture control2m 38s
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12. Using Live View
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Activating Live View8m 9s
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Focusing in Live View5m 27s
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13. Shooting Video
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Using Playback mode3m 17s
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Customizing movie controls2m 25s
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14. Customizing Menu and Modes
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Using menu banks3m 31s
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Using the My Menu feature2m 12s
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Autofocus fine-tuning1m 25s
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Saving and loading settings1m 36s
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15. Using Custom Settings
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Using Exposure Delay mode1m 20s
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Using the Assign FN button2m 42s
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16. Caring for Your Camera
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Camera sensor cleaning3m 29s
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Getting firmware updates1m 19s
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17. Applying Settings and Shooting
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Using an exposure strategy6m 50s
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Conclusion
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Goodbye22s
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Video: Using the interval timer