Yesterday evening I drove to Sandy Hook, NJ to take a sunset timelapse of the Twin Peaks Lighthouses. The lighthouses overlook the Sandy Hook area and the sun was setting behind the lighthouse so I thought it was a good chance to get a pretty cool timelapse.
The sun was covered by high clouds so I was optimistic of some good sunset colors. I got there about 345 pm (for a 4:41 PM sunset). I set my interval at 10 seconds and used my 55-300 mm lens. I was debating how close to get to the lighthouse, I decided for some perspective for the light since I was hoping the lighthouse would be more apparent as it darkened outside. My final focal length was 72 mm. My first shots were at f/22 and ISO 100 with a shutter speed of 1/100 seconds.
The sun set behind the light house which was pretty cool and then the light was going off and on. I was hoping it would be more of a rotating light but it was still pretty cool to see it turn on and become lighter.
The sunset didn’t really turn out that great but I still stayed through for the day to night timelapse. My last shot was at 4 second shutter speed, with ISO 500 and f/11. I usually ramp up the ISO to 400 and aperture to f/11 to keep everything sharp at the end of the shot. If apertures get below f/10 it may become apparent that depth of field sharpness is becoming shallower. I ended up staying until 530 pm, about 40-45 minutes after sunset so that it gets dark.
Overall the video turned out really nice, I would like to go back another day for a closer shot too since this is a pretty nice and quiet area for timelapses!