Some Findings About Time-Lapse Movies

Hi friends!

In this post I was writing a few words about time lapses. At that time I had little knowledge about this interesting and challenging photographic and video-graphic technique as one of my statements was: “Creating time lapses is not difficult.” Now I realize it was my enthusiasm which was “speaking”. In reality as I would find out later creating quality lapse movies proves to be pretty challenging and good preparations, technique and even software are required.

At first glance it looks simple and straight-forward: you put the camera on a tripod, do the framing and composition, start the intervalometer and let the camera shoot for a specific amount of time and with a specific frame rate. Then you either assemble the shots into a movie by using specialised software or the camera does this for you if it has this feature. Is it so simple? Well … urghhh … not quite! There are more things that might need to be taken into consideration. Missing a single detail might ruin the whole movie and cost several hours of wasted time and resources!

I’ll elaborate on this but first let me provide you a free advice: use this technique sparingly. The time lapse is meant to show the viewer a phenomenon that can’t be easily spotted with a naked eye. Good examples might be: a flower that opens within a few days, melting snow or ice, a specific place from sunrise till midnight or a make-up session. Try to be as original and creative as possible, the moving clouds lapse is already too “mainstream” (and often boring!). Not every scene is meant to be converted into a lapse movie.

Sunset in Bran

This time lapse video was taken this year in Bran while I was on holiday. It is in fact the first time lapse I’m creating “end-to-end” so there is plenty of room for improvement;-)

Creating time lapses is not difficult. All you need is:

– a good tripod

– an intervalometer (either inbuilt in the camera or in the remote control). The frames should be taken at regular time intervals, otherwise the dynamic of the resulting movie might seem unnatural. Also the intervalometer will ensure you don’t need to sit near the camera while pictures are taken. You can do other stuff like reading a book, surfing the internet or … taking some photos (if you have a second camera).

– right settings (aperture priority with an exposure compensation will do just fine in most situations)

– a software that is able to create the movie out of the frames (e.g. Lightroom and some plugins).

– finding the right angle (I prefer wide angles especially because the frames need to be cropped at editing so the 1080p or 720p format is obtained).

So much with the theory. Now let’s enjoy it!

http://youtu.be/3on3rZyv-ZI (1080p)
http://youtu.be/70uMzqN6GJQ (720p)