User's Manual

Detailed User Guide 27

the exposure to 2", and will arrive there in 1 hour 30 minutes from now, so the exposure ramping

changes will take 30 minutes. It will then continue taking 2" exposures until 2 hours from current moment

elapse.

Usage

Bulb ramping may greatly benefit from additional preparation work before you start. If you can, get

exposure metering of a scene at a time of day when you bulb ramping is planned to be finished. For

example, if you plan a sunset session, get an exposure of the same scene the night before. Do NOT use

ND filters when metering, and set your camera ISO setting to a fixed value. Remember the final exposure

time and the ISO value used.

Use the following workflow to prepare for bulb ramping:

1. Switch your Promote Control to the "Bulb Ramping" mode.

2. Setup your camera on a tripod and connect the Promote Control as described in the Connections

section. Make sure Bulb Ramping Assistant Cable is also connected.

3. Disable automatic focusing on your camera, choose a fixed aperture and set ISO to the same fixed

value you used when measuring your end exposure as described above. If you did not pre-meter

your end exposure, use any ISO setting such as 200. Do NOT use automatic ISO feature, if available

in your camera.

4. Set your camera flash synchronization mode to default setting. Any other setting, such as "rear

curtain" sync, will interfere with the Bulb Ramping mode.

5. Disable Mirror Lock-Up mode on your camera. Promote Control cannot ensure correct exposure

timing in Bulb Ramping mode with Mirror Lock-Up enabled.

6. Perform "Shutter close delay" calibration as described in Promote Control Setup section. You may

skip this step if you have previously calibrated it for this particular camera.

7. Take ND filters off if you plan on using them in Advanced Bulb Ramping .

8. Set your camera to Manual exposure mode, take a few test pictures and and pick a shutter speed

that yields an acceptable picture. IMPORTANT: if you plan on using ND filter handling in Advanced

Bulb Ramping, make sure to meter without ND filters. Otherwise ND filters will be taken into account

twice and this will result in an incorrect exposure.

9. Specify the current shutter speed as "Start".

10. Use interval of 10 seconds for general bulb ramping. Lower interval values will result in slower time-

lapse videos. Note that too short of an interval may limit your exposure range. Higher interval values

will result in faster time-lapse videos.

11. Specify a delay to start the exposure ramping using "Begin Ramp in" setting. If you work on a sunset,

this delay would be the time from now to when the sunset starts, plus 5 minutes to allow yourself to

complete this setup. You can obtain sunset start times using various tables and/or weather reports.