time lapse exposure for building project
 

I am currently working on a project where a building will be built in 3 days( from an already poured foundation to final paint and landscaping). We plan on shooting a time lapse for the entire 72 hrs with my Gl2, wide angle lense,a laptop that will run scenalyzer and a battery backup. My question involves shooting the right exposure. I dont want to use auto exposure because when it is played back you can see when the camera changes the exposure(amateurish). Should I set the exposure for the brightest part of the day and just let it be dark in the morning slowly get the right exposure and gradually get darker as the day turns into night? This is something they might do on extreme makeover home edition. Since this is a one shot deal I dont want to screw it up with a bad looking or ever changing exposure through out the day. anybody else do this before? Thanks for the input-----Trev

Do you care about getting activity at night? Or around sunrise to sunset?

I did a time lapse at sunset one time. With the exposure fixed, it went from properly exposed to darkness in around forty minutes. These DV cams (and it varies cam to cam) don't have enough exposure latitude to go for very long in a changing light situation like sunrise or sunset.

If you need 24-hours, I would try it with auto exposure. In real time, you'll notice the exposure changes, but it will probably look OK sped up.

If you only need the daylight hours, you might get away with a single locked exposure for the brightest parts, but it might still be better on auto exposure.