Olympus Live Composite mode
introduction
Olympus were the 1st to introduce this Live Composite mode which is really an automated extension of their multiple exposure mode
it allows you to take a sequence of exposures to build up an image by only adding in brightest areas from each exposure to create a final RAW image
it is ideal for:
star trails
set the base exposure for the scene without over-exposing it (but ensure the scene is not too bright compared to the stars) - preferably a wide aperture, ISO 800-1600 and and exposure of a few seconds
set number for as long as you wish (if you have the battery power)
cloud trails at sunset
car light trails
airplanes taking off at night
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lightning
shooting flowing water with long exposure appearance but with shorter exposures
aurorae
doing creative imagery with light painting
it is available on all Olympus OM-D cameras except for the original E-M5
up to 3hrs shooting is possible but may require 2nd battery or AC power
currently only allows lighten blend mode
this equates to shooting a lot of images then “stacking” them in an image editor setting the blend mode to lighten, but in this case it is all done in the camera for you.
usage
put camera on a tripod and compose scene
lock your focus
set monitor brightness to lower (under Exp/ISO menu screen) to save battery
set exposure mode to manual
set aperture, ISO (usually to 200)
set shutter speed to Live Comp
press Menu button, and in Composite Settings, set:
press shutter release to take 1st base exposure
press shutter release again to start the sequence of subsequent exposures
press shutter release again to stop the sequence
the tricky part is working out the exposure as this will be used for the base photo AND each subsequent image, and, thus although it is easy to get the exposure correct for the base scene, you then have to factor in the brightness of what will happen in the subsequent images such as fireworks, as you do not want each firework to be overexposed, whereas with star trails, you are more likely to run into the problem of underexposing the stars or over-exposing the scene