Messages

I was thinking about getting a 5D MKiii for Black Friday or Xmas.

Of course I want to install ML on the 5D MKiii, but I want to know what are the current problems with ML for the 5D MKiii.

I shot a 600D (T3i) using ML and it worked flawlessly for me.  So I was wondering whether ML will work flawlessly on the 5D MKiii as well.

I really like the timelapse features (e.g., intervalometer, AETTR, deflicker, dual ISO, etc.) that ML offers for the 600D.

Does ML for the 5D MKiii also have all of these features?

Also, I've been reading about this "boot flag" problem.  What is this problem and has it been fixed?

I also been reading about ML 1.1.3 vs ML 1.2.3.  Which one is more stable?

Lastly, has anyone ever experienced any serious problems with the 5D MKiii after installing ML?  I doubt it, but it never hurts to ask since all the Devs are very meticulous and competent coders.

Any help to these questions is appreciated.  Thanks.

Thanks again to everyone for helping me out. I would never have thought I could make a partial sunset timelapse until you guys helped me. Once I get paid, I'm going to setup a PayPal account and make a donation.

I wish Canon would learn from you guys, instead of taking stupid (well, not so stupid since we still buy their products) marketing strategies to monetize from their devoted consumers. Just give us what we want, Canon!

As for increasing or decreasing the interval time, I see that the sun sets around 5 at where I live. I want to have an interval of about 5-10 seconds while the sun is out. But I want to increase the interval time to 15-25 seconds as the sun is setting, and 25-40 when the sun is basically completely set.

How can I predict when to set these keyframes and how do I do that?

Also, it's my understanding that, if I use ML deflicker, I need to compensate 3-5 seconds for the deflicker module to do its thing, in addition to the 2-3 seconds for the camera buffer to clear. That's a total of about 8 seconds just to do in-camera processing. Is this true?

Thanks again for everything. Once I get a hold of these modules, I want to contribute to the community by writing a thread for newbs like me.

Audionut, thanks for replying.  By the way, thanks dmilligan for creating adv_int.mo.

I read dmilligan's entire thread about adv_int.mo and I'm not really sure how to use this module.  I'm not really sure what keyframes are and I'm not sure why it's set based on time. 

From what I read, I think keyframes tell ML when to change certain exposure settings (e.g., ISO, shutter speed, and aperture) when the clock on the DSLR reaches that set time.  But doesn't this require you to predict the time of when the sun is setting/rising?

Also, why does dimilligan's example of adv_int.mo change the aperture?  Wouldn't this make something that is in focus, out of focus after the ramping?

Can someone explain to me in very simple terms how Auto-ETTR works alongside adv_int.mo, using the specific example of a sunset timelapse.

What I intend to use adv_int.mo for is to somewhat slow down the daytime portion of my sunset timelapse to kind of match the speed of the night-time portion of the timelapse.  In my recent test with Auto-ETTR (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiwjuJS5Eto&feature=youtu.be), the daytime portion was too fast for my liking, so I wanted to find a way to slow it down - i.e., taking more pictures during the day.  My interval for my sunset timelapse was set to 30 seconds, so I wanted to slow it down by maybe setting the interval to 10 seconds.

I going to continue practicing with Auto-ETTR, deflicker, and dual_ISO, but I would love to move on to using adv_int.mo also.

Thanks audionut.  I'm going to give it a try again in a few days.

I have a questions about Auto-ETTR.  When I was shooting the timelapse, I noticed it displayed "Auto ETTR Settled at 1/(shutter speed)" after each picture.  What does it mean when Auto-ETTR settled at a shutter speed?

Also, I was wondering if there is any way to ramp the interval time?  For example, I want the intervalometer to take a picture every 5 seconds.  As the sun is setting and less less light, I want the intervalometer to take a picture every 10 seconds. 

I felt that the sunset timelapse I made the other day was moving too fast.

audionut...I have the raw histogram and zebra enabled. So are you saying I should over expose some things in my frame other than the sun? I set my highlight ignore to 3 or 4 because the default settings made the next picture really dark. I played around with highlight ignore until I was happy with the exposure of the next picture. Is this the correct way to do this? I might try again tomorrow.

By the way, do you guys think setting my highlight ignore to 3 or 4 EV was the right move? Maybe I should have set it to 1 or 2 instead?

Thanks to dmilligan, audionut, pauljbis, the ML team, Gunther from LRTimelapse, and everyone else that helped me with learning how to make a timelapse.  I shot a sunset timelapse last night using Auto-Ettr and Deflickering modules, and it came out better than I expected (I was expecting a lot of flickering or over/under exposed timelapse).  Here's my short timelapse clip (5 secs), which I'm sure can be improved, which I'm striving for:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiwjuJS5Eto&feature=youtu.be

dmilligan: LOL...thanks for that, I'm actually working on getting my hands on a wide angle lens; I need to save up some money first though.  The 24-70 standard lens on my crop sensor is not capturing enough of what I want in the frame.

I just got home from the beach and I want to process the timelapse, but I ran into a problem already. 
I used the deflicker and AutoETTR modules in ML, which gave me a bunch of XMP and CR2 files. 
I imported the pictures into LR5 and the exposure of each picture is different, so I'm assuming the XMP files that ML created for deflickering works.  But I'm stuck from this point on. 
If I use LRTimelapse, the first thing I need to is "initialize."  But if I do this, the exposure for each picture is set to zero, which means all the XMP deflickering files created by ML is useless.
Does anyone have a workflow for this?

By the way, how do I post a CR2 file so that you guys can download?

Audionut, thanks for replying.  I'm still out trying to shoot the timelapse.  I'm going to try and process the sequence through LR5 and LRTimelpase and see how the end result is like.  I'll post a CR2 file after. 

As an aside, the reason why I set highlight ignore to "3" is because the sun was in my frame, and I think ML was trying not to overexpose the sun, which made everything else really dark. 

I'm trying to shoot a holygrail timelapse right now. When I take a test shot, the next picture comes out extremely under exposed. So I increase the highlight ignore to 3 and everything looks fine. But now it's getting dark out and the pictures are too bright - I.e., the pictures are way brighter than it really is outside. Did I do something wrong?

I have time over the weekend to try and shoot a sunset-holygrail timelapse.
This time I'll be enabling the deflicker module with sidecar XMP file.
But I have a questions about the XMP files created by the ML deflicker module.
So I basically save the CR2 file and ML XMP files onto my hard-drive.
Then I import both the CR2 files and XMP files into Lightroom.
I'm assuming this will change the exposure to reduce any flicker, right?
After this, I would be using LRTimelapse to create the timelapse video.
In this instance, can I actually use the deflicker program in LRTimelapse to do additional deflicker-ing? Or will this not work?
Thanks.

thanks, I'll give it a try when the weather gets better here.

Can some teeach me how to synchronize the XMP files with my raw files? I think I need to save the raw and XMP files onto my hard drive and then import the raw files into LR5. does the XMP files automatically get applied to the raw files upon import into LR5 from my hard drive?

dmilligan:  Thanks for the input.  I'm going to switch the deflicker to XMP.  So let me get this straight, I basically import the Raw files from my SD card and LR will automatically deflicker the Raw files using the XMP files?  I'm going to give this a try in a few days.  Thanks again.

Hi guys.  I was able to find some time last night to shoot a day to night (sort of) sequence.  Right off the bat, there's a lot of flicker, although it seems that AutoETTR has been working well after I downloaded the latest Magic Lantern Nightly Build.  Here is the link to the timelapse:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCNcF8tdY1g&feature=youtu.be.  Below are my settings for this sequence:

1) Modules:
      - raw_rec = On;
      - deflick.mo = On;
      - dual_iso.mo = On; and
      - ettr_mo = On.

2) AutoETTR with the following parameters:
      - Trigger Mode = Always On;
      - Slowest Shutter = 32 seconds;
      - Exposure Target = -0.5EV;
      - Highlight Ignore = 0.1%;
      - Midtone SNR Limit = 6EV;
      - Shadow SNR Limit = 2EV; and
      - Link to Dual ISO = On.

3) Post Deflicker with the following parameters:
      - Sidecar File Type = UFRaw;
      - Deflicker Percentile = 50%; and
      - Deflicker Target Level = -4EV.

3) Intervalometer with the following parameters:
      -Take a Pic Every = 35 seconds;
      - Start After = 3 seconds;
      - Stop After - Disabled; and
      - Manual Focus Ramp = Off.

Although I enabled post-deflicker, I didn't use the sidecar file in this timelapse.  I think this is a little too advance for me right not.  I'll revisit post-deflicker when I get the basics down first.

So, I followed LRTimelpase (Gunther's) holy-grail tutorial but, as you can see, there's a bunch of flicker in the timelapse.  Also, I'm not sure what that blip was around the 2 to 3 second mark of the timelapse.  Is there something wrong with my settings?  Any help to remedy this issue would be great.

Sorry guys, but I was given a big project at work and didn't have time to test out the AutoETTR and other ML features in a timelapse.  I'll get right on it when things at work die down a little.

Surami:  How did you use the ML Sidecar XMP files with LRTimelapse? Can you please teach me.

[Update:]

dmilligan:  I think I can answer only some of your questions. 
1)  I thought I need to use LV to use AutoETTR? Guess not, after your comment.  Not sure why I thought I had to us LV, but I will try again tomorrow without using LV.
2)  The Canon and ML setting is set on RAW.
3)  I didn't hear any beeps from AutoETTR at all.  Didn't know I had to hear beeps actually.  What do the beeps mean?  And what do I need to do to hear the beeps?
4)  I didn't see the expo messages from AutoETTR.  What are the expo messages supposed to say? And what do I need to do to see the expo messages?
5)  I did not see any errors or "Raw Errors."
6)  I have the zebra and Raw Histogram enabled under the Overlay tab in ML.  I only see zebras and the Raw Histogram.
7)  I'm using a Canon 600D (T3i).  I might have the wrong ML/TL nightly build installed on my camera.  A while back, I installed TL [600D]NewMem.zip, which probably doesn't have a properly working AutoETTR.  Which ML or nightly build should I be using on my camera?

Thanks again for the help.

Update:  I just downloaded the most recent ML nightly build and it makes the beeping sounds and shows the messages you were talking about.  I'll give it another try tomorrow after work and hopefully I'll be successful this time.

Sorry for the long posts, but I didn't know how to explain things without going into the nitty-gritty details.  I'll do my best not to make it long.

I just went outside to my backyard to try and shoot a timelpase while the sun was setting.  I wasn't sure if AutoETTR was working because the exposure wasn't automatically changing as the sun was setting.  In other words, the sky was getting darker, and so was the pictures.  It didn't seem like AutoEttr was exposing to the right.  Here are my settings:

1) AutoETTR with the following parameters:
      - Trigger Mode = Always On;
      - Slowest Shutter = 16 second;
      - Exposure Target = -0.5EV;
      - Highlight Ignore = 0.1%;
      - Midtone SNR Limit = 6EV;
      - Shadow SNR Limit = 2EV; and
      - Link to Dual ISO = On;

2) Post Deflicker with the following parameters:
      - Sidecar File Type = UFRaw;
      - Deflicker Percentile = 50%; and
      - Deflicker Target Level = -4RV;

3) Intervalometer with the following parameters:
      -Take a Pic Every = 20 seconds;
      - Start After = 3 seconds;
      - Stop After - Disabled; and
      - Manual Focus Ramp = Off.

With these settings, I took a few test shots and was able to see what was being overexposed via the zebras in Live-View.  After the test shots, I enabled the intervalometer and let the camera do its thing.  I stood next to it the entire time and was checking the image preview and Live-View after each shot.  As the sun was setting and the sky getting darker, the ISO and shutter speed didn't change at all.  Then my battery died, which meant that it was game over for the night.  What did I do wrong?

PaulJBis:  Sorry, I should have phrased what I said a little differently.  What I meant to say is that I was shocked your interval was either 15 seconds OR 30 seconds for a single timelapse.  That was my mistake for phrasing it incorrectly.  But I now understand that a single timelapse can have a long interval, as opposed to my initial misconception of setting a short interval to make sure I capture enough information.  Thanks for clearing that up for me. 

dmilligan:  You're right that clouds do move slow, very slow, or very very slow  .  To answer your implied question, yes, I am overly concerned with getting "smooth" timelapses.  I think my concern stems from the tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4SzZXLiyvk) at 3:40 to 4:30.  Maybe I interpreted this section of the tutorial incorrectly, or applied it to the wrong scenarios.

Your approach to what you set first in your timelapse is opposite of mine, which I now know is the incorrect way.  I'll try to analyze what I'm shooting and then set my interval first, followed by the shutter speed and ISO.  I like taking timelapses of nature or landscape, so I'll remember to set my interval anywhere between 15 seconds to 30 seconds.  I'm going to be camping in Pennsylvania, upstate New York, Lake George, or Delaware next month, so I kind of want to have this down before I go.

With respect to the 180 rule, I just want to make I sure understand it.  For example, if my interval is set to 30 seconds, I should divide the interval by 2 to get my approximate shutter speed, right?  In this example, an approximate shutter speed of 15 seconds.    But this 180 rule shouldn't matter anymore once I learn how to use AutoETTR, right?, since AutoETTR automatically adjusts the shutter speed and ISO based on the available light in the scene.

My last question for the day is about your comment on the shutter speed varying from 1/8000 all the way to 32 seconds.  I'm assuming that it was AutoETTR that varied your shutter speed, right?

Since everything I pieced together in the past year about timelapse has essentially went out the window, I'm going to try and shoot a regular daytime timelapse with everyone's' comments in mind.  Hopefully the final product will come out to what I expect.  I eventually want to learn how to shoot sunset/sunrise timelapses, and hopefully I will soon.  Dmilligan, your timelapse link above is really nice, especially at the 30 second mark where the cloud appears out of now where and moves across the sky.

I hope that you guys can continue to educate me and correct me where I'm wrong, like you did above.  Thanks again and it's really appreciated.

Sorry about PM-ing a number of people to get help, but I was really eager to find out some answers to my questions.  I figured that some my not see my post, but will see my PM.  I'll post in the thread from now on.  Sorry for the trouble.

dmilligan: Thanks for confirming and answering my questions.  I watched your timelapses and they all look really good.  So I'm guessing in each of the day-to-night timelapses you had a constant interval throughout the whole time?  What was your interval and shutter speed for the Fall Creek timelapse?  I'm going to try my best to find some time tomorrow and try out a long interval time and shutter speed to see how the timelapse comes out.  Do you have a recommendation for setting the shutter speed and interval for slow, medium, and fast moving clouds?  If not, I can wing it and see how the timelapse comes out.

PaulJBis:  Thanks for answering my questions.  While we were talking about staccato, I was shocked that you said your interval was anywhere from 15 seconds to 30 seconds throughout a single timelapse.  The reason I was shocked is because I kind of pieced a lot of information from my research and it said to use faster intervals for medium to fast moving subjects.  For instance, this timelapse tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4SzZXLiyvk) at 3:41 to 4:45 makes the distinction between smooth and jerky timelapses.  He states, essentially, that fast moving subjects require a shorter interval to obtain a smooth timelapse, while a longer interval will result in a more jerky/choppy timelapse.  This is what I was talking about in my cloud example in our PM and, having made smooth timelapses in this way, I was shocked to hear that a smooth timelapse can also be achieved through a long interval.  I'm going to shoot a timelapse, any suggestions for slow, medium, and fast moving clouds?

By the way, I'm currently using the trial version of LRTimelapse to make my regular timelapses.  Do you guys suggest buying the full version of LRTimelapse?  I was thinking of purchasing it because I'm capped at 400 frames and I'm not sure that's enough for a day-to-night timelapse.  On the flip side, do you guys suggest I subscribe to Adobe CC instead?

Thanks again for everyone's help and patience.

[PaulJBis:]

PaulJBis:  You said in your post above that you "just finished another sunset timelapse using AutoETTR, and at the end (when it was dark), it blew my highlights to the point that now I can't recover them in post. Thus, I'd like to know if there's a way to ramp EV so that, at the end of the timelapse, the software aims for a different value than at the beginning."

When you say "ramp EV exposure," are you talking about the "Exposure target" parameter in AutoETTR? How have your sunset/sunrise timelapses come along so far with AutoETTR? I'm trying to learn all that I can so any help or tips would be appreciated.

[exposure]

dmilligan:  I just got home and re-read your reply a few times to make sure I really understand what you're saying. 

So the "E" displayed on the RAW histogram in Live-View is a "hint" that basically suggests how much EV I need to add to get a "correct" ETTR exposure.  Is this what you were saying in #2 and #3 of your reply?  Also, I think you were saying that ML's Auto-ETTR will automatically apply that "E" amount displayed on the RAW histogram to the next shot in order to get the "correct" ETTR exposure, right? 

Regarding #4 and #5 of your reply, the number in the circles represents the number of overexposed pixels of a particular channel, right?  You also said that I would need to reduce the exposure to make sure that these pixels are not clipped.  But doesn't AutoETTR do this for me, since it automatically changes the ISO and shutter speed based on the amount of light that is changing in the scene?

About shooting timelapses.  You said that the interval length that I initially set for a timelapse has to be constant throughout the duration of taking the timelapse, right? Can you elaborate on this a little more?  When I first started out shooting timelapses, I read somewhere that a long interval will result in information being lost between each frame, causing a staccato effect.  For example, if there are fast moving clouds in a sunset timelapse, setting the interval to 30 seconds will cause a staccato effect in the clouds. 

For "Highlight Ignore," there is no way we can not clip the sun, since doing so will make everything else dark.  I live in NYC and plan on shooting regular and sunset timelapses.  There are tons of street lights and other bright lights in NYC.  I think these are "specular" highlights right?  In order to make sure that these "specular" highlights are ignored, I need to increase the percentage, or else Auto-ETTR will try to expose these "specular" highlights, which will cause the rest of the scene to be dark.

My goal is to make a timelapse similar to this guy (https://vimeo.com/98262776)  using only ML.  But I have some questions about his settings.  He said he started with a 1/8000 second exposure? I'm not really sure what he means by a 1/8000 second exposure. Is he talking about his shutter speed, interval length, or something else?  And how did he get the clouds to be so smooth if the length of his interval is long.  Like you said, the interval should be constant, so he must have set a long interval at the beginning of his timelapse in order to capture the stars at night.

Thanks again, dmilligan.  I'll be doing more research and then probably try out what I learned this coming weekend.

Milligan, thank you SO much. That made some sense to me. Wow, that felt good to learn a little more and have some questions answered.

I'm going to read your reply a few more times, and then go back and read those threads again to see if they make more sense to me now.

Do you mind teaching me more after I re-read everything?

Thanks again for the help, it's really appreciated.

[not]

Thanks milligan for responding to my PM.  Audionut, thank you for responding to my questions and trying to dumb it down so that I could understand, although I am still confused.  Please bear with my ignorance, I'm really trying my best to understand the camera's sensor, the ML modules, and how to use these modules to create a sunset/sunrise holy grail timelapse.

To answer milligan's PM question, yes I read the thread:   http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5705.0.  I also read this thread:  http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=5693.0, as well as a number of other threads about ETTR.  But after reading these threads, I was even more confused.  I think it's because of my lack of understanding of how the camera's sensor works and the technical details of photography.  I really want to learn and strive to be an expert in timelapse photography, so please help me achieve this goal.

Just to give you an idea of how I shoot my regular timelapses (i.e., not sunset/sunrise timelapses).  First, I set my ISO to 100 for daytime timelapses.  Then I set my shutter speed to what I believe will give me the right amount of motion blur so that the final timelapse is not too choppy or have a staccato effect.  I take a test picture and see how much motion blur is in the picture.  If I'm happy with the amount of motion blur, I set the ML intervalometer to a certain interval based on how fast the subject(s) are moving in the frame.  For fast moving clouds, cars, or people, I typically set the intervalometer to 2-3 seconds.  For slower moving subjects, I set the intervalometer to 4-6 seconds.  The outcome of my timelapse is typically a smooth clip, with little to no staccato effect.

Now I'm trying to learn how to shoot sunset/sunrise timelapses; the holy grail of all timelapses.  I have some options to achieve this.  I can follow Gunther's instructions from LRTimelapse by manually increasing my ISO or decreasing my shutter speed (for sunset) when the light meter shows that the picture is underexposed.  Conversely, I can decrease the ISO or increase the shutter speed (for sunrise) when the light meter shows that the picture is becoming overexposed.  I can do this manually via the buttons on the camera, which is not preferable since it might cause camera shake; or I can do this wirelessly through DSLRDashboard.  Post-processing for deflickering and stitching the pictures together would be done through LRTimelapse.  By this method, it requires that I buy the full version of LRTimelapse and a wireless router for my camera.  I'm trying to avoid increasing my expenses for this hobby.  As an aside, is my method of creating regular timelapses the correct way or the incorrect way?

Also, someone told me about the 180 degree rule, where the shutter speed is half the interval time.  So for example, if I set my interval to 2 seconds for fast moving clouds, that means (based on this 180 degree method) I have to set my shutter speed to 1 second.  Wouldn't this cause too much motion blur?  And wouldn't this cause a lot of information to be lost between each frame?  Some clarification on this would be awesome.

The second option for me is to use Magic Lantern (ML), and I prefer this option because (apparently) all of the above can be done using the AutoETTR, deflicker, XMP, ramping, etc., modules from ML, not to mention I don't need to spend additional money on software and gadgets to make a holy grail timelapse.  I want to start my studies on holy grail timelapses by learning AutoETTR.  So, the following is my understanding of AutoETTR and its parameter after reading the threads suggested by others.

Trigger Mode: 
I know that I need to set my "Trigger Mode" to "Always on" for timelapses.  From my understanding, this allows the camera to analyze what's happening in the frame and to automatically adjust the ISO and shutter speed accordingly to compensate the light during a sunset or sunrise.  When I enable Live-View, I see the RAW histogram and what is being overexposed.  The RAW histogram has an "E" number and three color-coded circles (i.e., R, G, B circles with numbers inside of them).

Here are my questions for "Trigger Mode" and the "RAW Histogram":
1) Do I need to take test shots in Live-View so that AutoETTR works correctly?  I read somewhere that I have to take 2-3 test shots so that AutoETTR can perform it's analysis.
2) What does the "E" number mean on the RAW histogram? 
3) Is there anything I need to adjust or re-adjust after seeing the "E" number?  If so, what parameters do I need to adjust or re-adjust?
4) I know that the R, G, B circles are the red, green, and blue channels, respectively.  But what does the number inside the circles mean?
5) Is there anything I need to adjust or re-adjust after seeing the number inside the R, G, B, circles?  If so, what parameters do I need to adjust or re-adjust?

Slowest Shutter:
I understand that during a sunset or sunrise timelapse, AutoETTR will change the ISO and shutter speed to compensate for the transition.  In order to ensure that AutoETTR works correctly, I have to set the "Slowest Shutter" to be 2-3 seconds shorter than the interval time. 

Here are my questions for "Slowest Shutter":
1) When the sun is setting, the interval should be fast, maybe around 3-5 seconds?  The interval needs to be longer as it becomes darker, maybe 10 seconds during twilight, and maybe 15-30 seconds to properly expose the stars?  In this respect, is there a way to automatically increase the length of the interval?
2) Also, I assume that the "Slowest Shutter" in AutoETTR would also need to be adjusted, or else AutoETTR won't work.  Is there a way to automatically adjust the "Slowest Shutter"?

Highlight Ignore:
I think this parameter ignores the amount of highlight that is being clipped in the frame.  So, for example, "Highlight Ignore" can be set to a certain percentage to ignore the clipping that occurs in a sunrise or sunset timelapse.

Here are my questions for "Highlight Ignore":
1) "Highlight Ignore" is sent based on percentage.  In sunset timelapses, how do I know how many percentage, or the approximate percentage, to set "Highlight Ignore" so that AutoETTR ignores the clipping in the sun without making everything else dark?
2) Do I adjust the percentage of "Highlight Ignore" based on the RAW historgram?  If so, what do I look at in the RAW histogram to know how many percentage to set "Highlight Ignore"?

That's all the questions I have for now.  I apologize if I sound stupid or simply clueless, but I am so determined to learn how to shoot sunset/sunrise timelapses that not knowing how to is driving me nuts.  I hope someone can answer my questions as if they were explaining it to a 10 year old.  Once I have a good grip on how to shoot a holy grail timelapse using ML, I promise to create a thread that explains everything in the simplest terms possible.

Thank you everyone for your patience.