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LRTimelapse 5.5 free update is ready for download!

Posted on 2020-08-31 by Gunther Wegner

LRTimelapse 5.5 features many improvements. Especially I’ve completely redone the color management – not only for rendering but also in the user interface, where the previews can now be displayed using the appropriate monitor color profile.

Here is a video where I explain the most important news:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs92U54h8z4

Also in German: das Video steht auf gwegner.de auch auf Deutsch zur Verfügung!

 

What’s new in detail:

Color Management

  • Improved color management and conversion when rendering
    Export from LRTExport will now happen in Rec.2020 color space by default, leaving the maximum room for further processing. This eliminates the conversion from AdobeRGB to Rec.2020 used to take place in former versions.You’ll need to reexport your sequences from Lightroom with the new LRTExport to have the intermediary sequences created in Rec.2020 color space! Older intermediary sequences (LRT 5.4 and older) cannot be rendered in Rec.2020, only in Rec.709.The new Rec.2020 export enables you to export and render your video in Rec.2020 without any color conversion, which will allow the maximum quality when working with Video Editing programs, that support Rec.2020 like Davinci Resolve.For direct playback or if you experience any color issues (most likely because your editor or player cannot deal with the extended color ranges) you can and should render in Rec.709 in LRTimelapse. You will then only have one single conversion from Rec.2020 to Rec.709 when rendering.Although there is a legacy option in the LRTExport Lightroom plugin to export in Rec.709, I do not recommend this. You’ll get the best results, if you always export in Rec.2020 and decide about the final color space when rendering in LRTimelapse.
  • Added color Management to the User Interface
    Visual Previews and the Previews in Render and Composition dialogs will now be color managed if you configure the right monitor profile in the settings.
    This will produce color accurate previews in LRTimelapse.You need to activate the color management under Settings / Preview Settings and select your monitor profile there in order to get the right color management. This only makes sense, if you have a calibrated monitor and your OS has the monitor profile assigned. Normally this happens, if you calibrate with a calibration device like DataColor’s Spyder.
  • Check out how to configure and activate Color Management in LRTimelapse 5.5 in this faq.

Rendering

  • DNxHR has been introduced as new video codec. This means, you have now 4 codecs available for rendering:
    • H.264 and H.265 are “consumer codecs”, best used for direct playback.
    • ProRes and DNxHR are “pro codecs”, best used for further processing in a video editor (NLE).
  • Also I’ve added the option to select the color range. In the video world, Legal / TV Range is the common choice. In the photo-world it’s full range.
    Timelapse is somehow inbetween…As a rule of thumb:

    • If you are going to export for further processing, you can use full range, if you NLE supports this.
    • If you are rendering for direct watching or your client demands for it, use Legal Range.
  • Added the option to render in DNxHR codec, which is a very good codec, if you want to further process your footage in a video editing program and don’t want to use ProRes.
  • Removed MJPG codec (I guess not many were using it)
  • Improved Render Speed
  • New warnings in the Render Dialog, which you should consider… 🙂
  • + many fixes.

GUI

  • Increased Contrast for Color-Scheme in the tree and Improved readability of the menus.
  • Redesigned Scrollbars
  • (Windows) Removed Status Icons and Memory indicator from right of the Menu bar (on mac they weren’t present either due to the native menubar)
  • Sliders will now show their values as tooltips.

Compositions

  • Added color Management to Composition feature. ‘
    Compositions will now be created with the same colorspace than the intermediary sequences and the ICC profile will be embedded.
  • Composition Preview generation can now be aborted.

General

  • Improved performance for loading and preview playback
  • Added support for “.jpeg” (additionally to .jpg) extensions for intermediary sequences exported with the new Adobe Bridge.
  • You can now drag/drop a folder from Explorer/Finder LRTimelapse and that folder will then be loaded (Emerics Request ;-)).
  • Sony ARW files with certain timestamps didn’t show intervals. Fixed.

Mac

  • Changed location for addons to /usr/local/LRTimelapse (instead of /usr/local/bin) in oder to avoid them being overwritten by other software
  • Uninstall LRTimelapse
    The uninstall script will now be located in /usr/local/LRTimelapse/uninstall.sh after LRTimelapse 5.5 has been installed.
    You can uninstall LRTimelapse completely at any time by opening a terminal and invoking /usr/local/LRTimelapse/uninstall.sh
    Older versions can still be uninstalled with the uninstall script provided in their DMG archive.

Import

  • Added detection of unsupported folder names when renaming folders and when creating a folder in the import dialog.

LRTExport Lightroom Plugin

  • Default Export Colorspace is now Rec.2020, but of course you can still render in Rec.709 in LRTimelapse later.
  • Removed the old instructions panel in LRTExport and added buttons to the help resources on LRTimelapse.com
  • When long output paths were stored in the history list, the user interface could break, fixed.

The new version is a free update for all LRTimelapse 5 users.

You can download it from the download page.

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LRTimelapse 5.5 open beta!

Posted on 2020-08-12 by Gunther Wegner

LRTimelapse 5.5 is quite a big step from 5.4, it provides many improvements and changes, that’s why I’m releasing it as public beta and I’d really love to get your feedback before releasing the final version.

I’ve added a full new level of color management – the visual previews, render preview and compositions are now fully color managed.

Exporting via LRTExport from Lightroom will now use the advanced Rec.2020 video colorspace right away, saving any intermediate conversions. That means with a good video editing program like Davinci Resolve you’ll get the best color accuracy possible for your timelapses without any additional colorspace conversions.

Also, I’ve improved the performance in some areas and increased the readability of the user interface.

Those are major changes, especially the color management and I’d really appreciate, if you take your time to read about the in details in my forum post in the beta forum, then download and test the beta and give me your feedback. You’ll find all the details and the download links in the beta forum.

You can always go back to LRTimelapse 5.4 by uninstalling LRT 5.5 beta and reinstalling the previous version.

Thank you so much and I really hope you enjoy LRTimelapse 5.5!

Best regards,
Gunther

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LRTimelapse 5.4 ready for download!

Posted on 2020-03-10 by Gunther Wegner

Hey guys,

after having released my new E-Book Timelapse Photography in the last weeks I had some time to work on LRTimelapse again.

I’m happy that today I’m releasing LRTimelapse 5.4 !

There are quite some improvements and fixes in this release.

Here is what’s new:

  • User interface improvements, especially on high dpi screens.
  • If the camera supports it, the capture date will now be displayed with 2 decimals. For existing sequences, you’d need to do Metadata / Reload Exif-Data in order to update the timestamps for existing sequences.
  • Interval will be displayed with 1 decimal, if applicable and under 1 minute.
  • Long intervals will be displayed as mm’ss, hh:mm, or >[x]d for intervals longer than x days.
  • LRT Pro: By default running batch operations from on a parent folder will now skip subfolders marked as finished. I’ve added a checkbox to the dialog, which allows you to include the finished folders, as it was default behavior before.
  • MacOS: Apple seem to have changed the default location of the Arial Font in one of the latest updates, required for the Overlay features in the Render module. Added the new location /System/Library/Fonts/Supplemental/Arial.ttf
  • MacOS: Increased Memory provided to LRTimelapse in the info.plist to 8G. Most modern computers should be able to provide that amount. If not, you might need to lower it manually.
  • LRTExport: Export could fail with no meaningful error message, if a timelapse sequence contained a subfolder. Added a meaningful error message.
  • MacOS: UHD 444 Prores files had some incompatibility with Apples Afterburner cards, fixed. Please render again in 5.4, if you experience any issues with the rendered files.
  • Some sequences with depth range masks could not be saved, fixed.
  • When using Visual Deflicker in Long Term Workflow the Smooth Curve was not being displayed. Fixed.
  • Added expert setting “Timeout for Visual Previews”. This is only useful, if someone needs to increase the default time out time from 30 secs on a very slow computer.
  • Clarified warning message for MP4 rendering outside the H.264 specifications.
  • LRT Importer: Import button is now deactivated, if no images were found for importing. It gets activated as soon as a source as been selected that has images to import.
  • LRT Importer: If you checked “create new folder” and used a folder name that was already existant, LRT would delete the content of that folder before importing. Now it will just import into the existing folder.
  • Set 16:9 Crop Setting would not be loaded from ini. Fixed.

Download

As always, you’ll find the new version in on the Download-Page.

LRTimelapse 5.4 is a free update for all owners of a LRT 5 license key. Just install it over your existing LRT 5.

If you are still on LRT 4, please note that support for LRT 4 has ended. You can get a discounted upgrade for your license.

I hope you enjoy the new release. If you have any feedback, I’m happy to hear it in the Forum.

Yours,
Gunther

PS: Please make sure to check out my new E-Book – on 480 pages I cover all of my knowledge about timelapse photography which I’ve acquired in the last ten years. It covers the whole process of timelapse photography, starting by the correct shooting techniques and ending with video production. And of course, it also offers some valuable tips for the LRTimelapse part of the work you might not know yet.

 

 

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Lightroom Classic 9.1 available, fixes export Bug – LRTimelapse 5.3.3 update

Posted on 2019-12-16 by Gunther Wegner

Hi guys,

I’m back from Galapagos – thanks for your assistance in the forum!

I’m more than happy, that Adobe has released Lightroom 9.1 in the meantime, which finally fixes the severe bug, that made the LRTExport Plugin fail when used together with Lightroom 9.0.

Please update to Lightroom 9.1 via your Adobe Creative Cloud app then the LRTimelapse Export will resume working as you were used to.

Additionally, I’ve just released LRTimelapse 5.3.3 which gets rid of the now unnecessary workaround presets and brings a new feature and some fixes.

This is new in LRTimelapse 5.3.3

  • Long term workflow: Add individual toggle buttons on the right side of the filters, which will allow you to toggle the display of the individual curves as requested here
  • Removed Workaround scripts for Lightroom 9.0, since Adobe has fixed the export bug in Lightroom 9.1.
  • LRTExport: Toggling 8/16 bit via the presets did not always work, fixed.

I’d recommend to update LRTimelapse to 5.3.3 after you updated Lightroom (always close Lightroom before updating LRTimelapse).

I’m glad, that the Lightroom issue is now resolved and we can get back to our normal workflow. Enjoy and all the best,

Gunther

 

 

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LRT Pro Timer 2.5 – Firmware Update 21

Posted on 2019-11-25 by Gunther Wegner

Hey guys, there is a new Firmware for the LRT Pro Timer 2.5 available. Most of the new features were ideas by LRT Pro Timer users that they suggested in the forum. I’m happy that I could improve our favorite intervalometer even more with those features.

In this release I added a sophisticated “slave” mode for the second camera port. In release 20, I had already added the option turn the 2nd port off (to save battery), now in that same setting (Settings / 2nd Camera) you can set the 2nd port to “trigger slave”.

This will make the controller trigger a connected motion controller in slave mode n seconds before any interval ends. This makes sure that the motion won’t happen while the camera is exposing. By default n is set to 2 seconds, but you can change this via Settings / Slave Trigger.

Another great new feature, that many requested, is, that you can now change the number of shots while a timelapse is being recorded. Just press the button during a shooting to enter the shooting menu, then select “Change no of Shots” – and you’ll be able to extend or shorten the current shooting by altering the number of shots.

On the “No of Shots” screen you will now see the time of day, when the shooting is being expected to end additionally to the duration of the shooting and the length of the resulting video.

->11:48 means, that the predicted end time for the shooting will be 11:48, right before midday.

In the modes TL Astro (B) and Custom TL the number of shots can now be changed in increments of 1 (instead of 10) if below 50. This makes it easier to setup for stacking shots for example, where you would need a certain amount of images which are not factors of 10. Some users also requested an option to set 1 shoot only, with a very long exposure time, in order to lock the shutter and trigger the camera continuously.

Update!

If you have a LRT Pro Timer 2.5 please make sure to update your firmware. It’s really pretty easy, you’ll find the download and instructions on the firmware page.

If you are still working with a regular intervalometer, please take yourself some time to watch my video on the main page, where I introduce the LRT Pro Timer 2.5 and explain the huge advantages that it has in comparison to any other intervalometer and why it would help you to take your timelapse work to the next level!

All the best
Gunther

 

 

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Lightroom 9 Bug concerning LRTExport Plugin

Posted on 2019-11-08 by Gunther Wegner

Update: the following has been fixed now in Lightroom 9.1, which is available since mid of December 2019. Please update to Lightroom 9.1 asap, if you are using LRTimelapse!

As I already wrote in my last newsletter, Lightroom Classic 9.0.0 has a severe bug which concerns custom export plugins, like LRTExport.

Basically Lightroom 9.0.0 ignores any custom export settings that 3rd party export modules set and instead always exports in JPG with default settings, no matter what the Plugin says. That means, if you choose any of the TIFF settings in LRTExport, you will get JPG files, named as TIFF, but still JPG files, which will make the Renderer fail.

Adobe is informed and acknowledged the issue. They say, they are working on it (here is a forum thread, where I also linked to my bug report to Adobe).

What you can do now:

  1. Upgrade LRTimelapse to 5.3.2. This won’t fix the problem in Lightroom, but give you a notification in LRTExport, in case your Lightroom version is affected. Additionally it will install two “Workaround” Export-Presets, that you can use until the problem is fixed.
  2. If you didn’t upgrade to LR 9 yet, don’t upgrade, stay with 8.x until the issue is fixed and you’ll have no problems at all. I’ll let you know, when you can safely upgrade via newsletter.
  3. If you already upgraded to LR 9, use the new “Workaround” presets to export your sequences as follows.

You’ll get a warning, if you are using Lightroom 9.0 with the export bug.

Using the Workaround presets:

  • Choose the JPG or TIFF sequence according to your needs (LRTimelapse Free and Private users need to use JPG, Pro users can choose.
  • Export your timelapse sequence with one of those presets, after hitting Export the Exporter will ask you for a destination folder. Make sure to export into a folder named LRT_<Your sequence name> just like LRTExport would do.
  • Since LRTimelapse won’t be called automatically after the export finished, you’d need to trigger the rendering manually, by choosing File / Render Video in LRTimelapse, then “Select” your exported LRT_*-Folder for rendering and then render as usually.

Please stay tuned, subscribe to my newsletter, I’ll keep you posted. And don’t forget to Upgrade LRTimelapse to 5.3.2.

All the best
Gunther

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LRTimelapse 5.3.1 Update

Posted on 2019-10-02 by Gunther Wegner

LRTimelapse 5.3.1 brings improvements in the keyboard navigation and fixes a couple of bugs.

  • Buttons on Dialogs without textfield can now be operated with the keyboard by pressing the leading character of the button text on the keyboard. O for Okay, C for Cancel etc. The shorcuts are localized, that means it will be A for “Abbrechen” in German.
  • Changed then Lightroom Process Version that will be set on initialization to the current version 11 (5 in the Lightroom UI)
  • Shift Play for playing from the current position was broken, fixed.
  • Fixed some other keystroke issues also.
  • Added support for MacOS 10.15 Catalina. In Catalina Apple restricts access to Documents, Desktop, external volumes etc. to 3rd party programs, that’s why you’ll get asked some questions when launching LRTimelapse for the first time on catalina. Please confirm the dialogs and allow LRTimelapse to access those folders. The most important will be the Documents folder, because that will be used by the Lightroom Interface, for the Log File and to activate your license. Find more information about this in my new faq article.

LRTimelapse 5.3.1 is a free update for all LRTimelapse 5 users. You can download the new version on the download page.

 

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LRTimelapse 5.3 is ready for download!

Posted on 2019-09-07 by Gunther Wegner

After a quite extensive beta-phase, LRTimelapse 5.3 is finally out now and brings many improvements.

A big thank you to all beta testers who provided extensive feedback!

You can download the new version from the download page. To update, just install it. If you encounter any problems, please join us in the forum!

Here is what’s new:

General

  • Runs on Java 11 now.
  • Mac: uses native Menu bar now at the top of the screen.
  • On some systems scrolling to the right folder on startup did not work as expected, if the preview panel was quite wide. Fixed.
  • Render Dialog / Choose Dialog will now get the file structure updated when opened. The same goes for the folder trees in the import dialog and create composition dialog.
  • Improved Hotkeys, they will now also work, when the preview window is detached and in focus.
  • Added validation for folder name compliance in the “New folder from selection” dialog and in the “New folder” context menu in the import dialog.

Import

  • Importer will now skip hidden files like .DS_Store on the mac.

Continue reading →

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Beta testing LRTimelapse 5.3

Posted on 2019-07-16 by Gunther Wegner

Hey guys, I’ve been quite busy working on the LRTimelapse 5.3 upgrade – there are a couple of new features, many were input given by users. Today I’m releasing a beta and hope to get some feedback from you!

One big change in 5.3 is, that I’ve migrated to from Java 8 to Java 11, which should improve performance especially on newer machines, but is also a new platform that has to be thoroughly tested.

Those are big changes, which I can only test on my hardware and setup, that’s why I don’t release it to the public yet. I’d really appreciate, if you could give it a try on your machines and let me know about your feedback in the new LRTimelapse beta-forum, that I’ve set up.

I’m also going to announce new beta versions there, that’s why I’d recommend to subscribe to that forum (on the right side above the threads -> subscribe to this forum).

Update: Beta-Testing is over. You can find the final version of LRTimelapse 5.3 on the Download-Page now.

Enjoy and thanks for your feedback!

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LRTimelapse 5.2.2 Update

Posted on 2019-05-28 by Gunther Wegner

LRTimelapse 5.2.2 is out and this is new:

  • Added Keyframing for the new Texture sliders (global and local) which were introduced with the latest Lightroom Classic update.
  • Improved the Stretch-Slider in the Holy Grail Wizard. It will now allow to level sequences with huge differences in brightness better, i.e. 24h sequences. Please note, that the more “stretch” you use, the more you will need to use visual deflicker later to get a really smooth sequence. So try to use “Rotate” only for regular timelapses, and use Stretch only, if you really need to in order to get a meaningful orange curve.
  • Values for Rotate and Stretch are now being stored in the sequence properties and will be pre-initialized, if you click on Holy Grail Wizard again.

5.2.2 is a free update for all LRT 5 users. Please update asap, you can download the new version from the download page.

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