[tigershoot]

I have used Pentax dSLRs for 12 years but I have been tasked with getting a video of tomorrows sunrise - probably about 45 minutes starting when it's still dark through to sun bathing a building in morning light.
I understand that there is a 25 minute recording limitation. Seeing as it's going to be dark, how do I go about exposure, as I don't want the camera to make it too light only to ruin the effect of the dawn. If I start on manual I might have chosen the wrong setting for when it gets light etc etc.
Any tips on what you do?
Using a K3ii on a tripod with a 16-85 lens or may the DA35.

Thanks

[ProfessorBuzz]

Try recording tonight's sunset - that will give you some parameters to work with. Don't forget DOF - you may want to fix that at f/6.3 or slightly longer and adjust with ISO and exposure.

The sun is so intensely bright you will have to stop down as it rises; or use a graduated ND filter that you can lower in front of the lens.
Good luck.

[othar]

I think a timelapse video would be the better choice for your task.
That way the sunrise will be compressed in a few minutes (depending on the number of frames you use) instead of the whole 45 minutes (or is there a specific reason you need the sunrise in real time?) and you have more options in pp -> better IQ (and the option of a higher resolution)

[tigershoot]

I am in the UK so the sun set hours ago so no time to practice :-(
I am wanting it to be a timelapse. I didn't realise there is a mode for that. Does this open and close the shutter for each frame, or is it done electronically? The sun will be behind me. So the building will go from being dark to being illuminated by the rising sun.

[AstroDave]

I didn't realise there is a mode for that. Does this open and close the shutter for each frame, or is it done electronically? The sun will be behind me. So the building will go from being dark to being illuminated by the rising sun.

Yes, the time lapse takes a bunch of separate exposures. You can set the interval and number of shots. 5 to 10 second intervals will give you a lot to work with (and a fair number of frames in 45 minutes!).

You could set manual exposure, using perhaps a good guess for the normal exposure once the building is illuminated. Sunny 16, with perhaps a stop or two more exposure (since it will be early morning). Record as RAW and you can process the pre-sunrise/darker frames later to bring them up a bit if you need to (but you are getting into a lot of work).

[tigershoot]

Yes, the time lapse takes a bunch of separate exposures. You can set the interval and number of shots. 5 to 10 second intervals will give you a lot to work with (and a fair number of frames in 45 minutes!).

You could set manual exposure, using perhaps a good guess for the normal exposure once the building is illuminated. Sunny 16, with perhaps a stop or two more exposure (since it will be early morning). Record as RAW and you can process the pre-sunrise/darker frames later to bring them up a bit if you need to (but you are getting into a lot of work).

OK. I will see how it goes. It's probably going to end up as about 2 seconds of finished footage in a corporate video.

[AstroDave]

Good luck!!!

[tigershoot]

Woke up and it was raining! Might try tomorrow.

[othar]

Woke up and it was raining! Might try tomorrow.

Pity. At least you can play around with your settings at sundown that way to test your exposure settings.
I'd also suggest to use interval shooting to take the images -> post process them and then create the time-lapse video on your PC and not create the video in camera (that way you have more control in pp)

[MossyRocks]

I am in the UK so the sun set hours ago so no time to practice :-(I am wanting it to be a timelapse. I didn't realise there is a mode for that. Does this open and close the shutter for each frame, or is it done electronically? The sun will be behind me. So the building will go from being dark to being illuminated by the rising sun.

My method for time lapse shooting is to put the camera into continuous shooting mode (the fastest) and let it blast away with a release cable. Then it is just a simple matter of doing some basic editing on the raws , exporting to ~4k resolution for JPGS and using ffMpeg to turn them into a video. The last time lapse I did was a vain attempt to capture the northern lights that didn't show up but I did capture a bunch of people who had no idea of how to behave when doing night shooting. Here is the results and each second of video is I think 3 minutes of real time.:

You Tube

You Tube

[tigershoot]

Seeing as the weather never improved, my boss faked the whole thing in Adobe After Effects using one of my stills. Maybe another time, when it's spring I will get around to doing it properly.