Perseids Meteor Timelapse Guide Help

[Fireman77]

As you all guys HOPEFULLY know, the perseids meteor shower is happening the night of August 12th, and i'm definitely going to be out there capturing photos and maybe even making a time-lapse too. The only thing is, I know meteors last for maybe a second or two.. so what should my best ML workflow for capture this beautiful nature event? i mean all the details, exposure and other for do it properly? to capture as a time-lapse motion of the meteor moving through the skies..

I hope you can help me, i´ll do that the first time..

[kihlbahkt]

Fireman77,
I recommend that you do some experimentation prior to to your Aug 12th shoot.  I have done some night clouds and moon sequences and it took a bit of fiddling to get it right. I am not an expert in astrophotograghy by any means. These are just basics for getting to know your camera. Do some star shots one night. Break it into short sequences to keep wait and review times short. Take notes/review metadata/ check images on computer screen,  to see what setting looked best. The good thing about digital is that you have results immediately for review and then can tweak the image. Doing preparation like that will give you a sense of using your camera in a dark environment and a general idea of camera setup based upon the results of your experimentation. Throw in some additional experimentation during your shoot as well. For infinity focus always back off the focus ring a bit to avoid out of focus issues.  Knowing how to use your camera efficiently will always pay off when shooting in the dark or some other odd setup. I will carry my camera around for hours at a time, making adjustments and shooting, this helps me become familiar with my camera menus, ML menus and operations, which really annoys my wife, by the way. There are also some ML options for LV display that might help with eyestrain for nighttime viewing of LV screen. Look under ML menu Display>ColorSchemes. Good luck with your shoot.

Also, you may be able to recover great images in post, from images that on first look arent that great, especially if shooting RAW. I have pulled great images from stuff that looked like underexposed crap, initially. Always give the images a tweak in an editor, you may end up much happier with the final result.

[Fireman77]

Thank you kihlbahkt, i like your words and recomendations, i was thinking the same, is logical for me that before trying to immortalize this important event, i would have to practice, i dont want to screw it, i know some more the settings of ML but i need to learn a lot more, my exact question is how can i use the settings of the intervalometer and other technical things in ML for make it right, do i have to use in video mode or shooting in raw? i´ll make this for the first time and i want to practice from now to Saturday night, it will be my first meteor or star trail o whatever timelapse. =)  Regards.

[kihlbahkt]

I recommend shooting RAW and/or JPEG images. Exposure time and interval may depend on the frequency of meteor activity as well as aperture. An interval of 3-20 seconds, and exposure of 2-20 secs as a guess on my part, might help you figure what needs to be done to satisfy your photo goals. Good luck and hopefully no clouds to screw up plans.

[Fireman77]

Wich mode my friend, please?

My answer : Manual Mode. =)

[vk2him]

I use ML to do timelapse videos, checkout one here and others on my Vimeo feed

https://vimeo.com/44600721

My workflow is:

Camera set to Manual -
RAW only - no JPG
Auto WB
Iso either 1600, 3200 or 6400
To avoid star trails and not overexpose, for a 16mm lens - Exposure - 30 sec (iso1600), 20 sec (iso3200) or 15sec(Iso 6400)
For other focal lengths, to avoid star trails use the formula  Max exposure= (600 seconds / (focal length (mm) * crop factor).
Aperture - widest - I use f/2.8
Set to not preview image after taking a shot
Set focus to infinity and lens to relevant zoom

Set ML to turn off display, and redraw after 30 secs
Set Timelapse for interval of two seconds for an unlimited number and to start without any delay

To avoid fog build up on lens, use the small packets of hand warmers you can buy - just attach one to your lens with an elastic band http://www.xtm.com.au/products/accessories_hand-toe-warmers.html

I then develop with Lightroom and create the timelapse movie from the "Slideshow" workflow in Lightroom using some free timelapse presets downloaded from here http://lrtimelapse.com/download/

Easy !!! Good luck!