

This Stunning Timelapse Space Video Will Astonish You - PaulMcCartney
http://mashable.com/2012/07/21/stunning-space-station-video/

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crazygringo
Amazing video.

Technical question: is it possible to do low-light time-lapse filming that
produces realistic "motion blur"?

At the beginning, there are a lot of shots where lights occupy long lines, as
the earth turned during the exposure. Then jump to next frame, and the line
has abruptly jumped forwards. Which is what must happen with sequential frames
in low-light. So the total effect looks jerky.

Now let's suppose these were 30-second exposures. What if the camera instead
took 30 1-second exposures, each of which were severely underexposed. But then
software would add frames 1-30 to generate a well-exposed "final frame 1",
then frames 2-31 to generate "final frame 2", frames 3-32 to generate "final
frame 3", and so on. Each final frame would have full exposure, but the final
output would be beautifully smooth, with "natural"-feeling motion blur.

This probably requires on-the-fly computation far beyond any kind of consumer
camera. But does anyone know of software that does this? It would be fairly
straightforward to write.

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allardschip
Yes that's possible. It would not be able to capture as much detail but you
would get surpisingly far. The technique is called stacking in
astrophotography. There is special software for it. Searching on
astrophotography+software will get you some ideas of what is available.
Stacking has revolutionized astro imaging and decent amateur pictures with
moderate equipment + stacking can outdo professional work from a few decades
ago.

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crazygringo
Thanks!

