Sunrise time-lapse
 

Shot some time-lapse this morning, first experience with it. I settled on 1 frame every two seconds. The cloud motion was nice and smooth but the trees I used for foreground were distracting because of the wind. As far as exposure I used ND2 at about an F8. (1080 30 P) Does this formula sound about right or would any of you steer me in another direction? Thanks for any help.

Dave

Hey, Dave-
sounds like a good formula, sometimes I use 1 frame every second for even smoother result if the clouds are moving pretty good on their own (visibly). you also can use the EX Slow shutter in combination with the interval to smooth things out further, (16 frames setting works well) but you'll have to add quite a bit of ND with a shutter that slow.... but it's a great look, and also might have helped smooth your trees a bit

Dave,

Those settings sound about right, except for the f/8 iris. I don't recommend ever using the EX1 or Ex3 below f/5.6 -- and using f/4 to f/2.8 is even better. There are technical resons why that have been discussed in other threads, but the the bottom-line is that the camera is not as sharp at small apertures.

Obviously, if you're already using ND2, then you're going to have add some glass ND filters to the front of the lens in order to open the iris up even further.

And, as Derek says, use a slow-shutter to smooth out the trees, or just keep them outside the frame next time. Either way, you're gonna need some extra ND filters and/or a polarizer for sure.