Timelapse

What is the most effective/best/easiest way of shooting timelapse images?
I’m keen to give it a go and would be greatful for any pointers.

I have attached my first time lapse I did recently.

To do it correctly on a DSLR you will need to buy yourself a remote timer control like the Canon TC-80N3.  With this gadget you can select the intervals between shots, how many shots over all and another function which I forget.  I don’t believe any of the DSLRs or compact cameras on the market have a built in interval timer in them, but I could be wrong.

Once you have your remote you need to set up your shot, select the intervals between shots (i.e. 1 shot every 3 seconds), select the shutter speed and then fire away.  Select a slower shutter speed for more blurred shots which gives the feeling of motion to your time lapse, or a quicker shutter speed so that the images are sharper which will give you more of a fast-forward looking time lapse.  I set my shutter speed to a slower setting in my time lapse.  You may want to look at buying a ND filter for taking time lapse shots in the day.  Think of the filter as a pair of sunglasses for your camera.  It will allow less light in so that you can slow down your shutter speed without over exposing the shots.

The intervals and shutter spped really depend on what type of time lapse you are after.  I recommend a setting of 1 shot per 1 second with a shutter speed of 1 second for night shots (this is the setting I used in the clip).  For day shots I used 1 shot per 2 seconds with a shutter speed of 0.5 second.  It’s just a matter of playing around with the settings until you are happy with them.  For long time lapses like the sun coming up or clouds passing by etc, you’d probably want to space out your shots at 10sec intervals otherwise your time lapse will be too long.

So how many individual shots should you take.  The way I figure this number out is to think of how long you want your timelapse clip to be (i.e. 5 seconds long) and then times the number of seconds by 24 (depending on the frame rate you are going to publish your timelapse in).  So for example if I want a 5 second long timelapse clip I would need approx 120 shots in total.  Think of it as 24 individual photos being played back per second.  I could be wrong about this but I found it a good place to start.  In the end you need a LOT of photos for a decent length time lapse.

Once you have taken all your photos, follow these instructions to create your timelapse clip in Quicktime (sorry I don’t know how to create them any other way but Quicktime):

1. Grab all the photos in the timelapse sequence and place them in a single folder (the photo files should be in order from top to bottom like 100001, 10002, 10003 etc)

2. Open Quicktime, go to ‘file’ and select ‘open image sequence’

3. Find the folder with all your timelapse photos in it and select the first photo in the folder (i.e the first photo in your time lapse sequence), Quicktime will then ask you what frame rate you want, choose 24fps

4. You will soon notice that the image does not fit the screen, simply go to ‘view’ and select ‘fit to screen’ and then review

5. Once you are happy go to ‘file’, select ‘export’, and choose to export the file as a Quicktime Movie file.  In this same menu click on ‘options’ to set the compression rate and size etc.  I went with H.264 and HD 1280x720 as it is the best for posting online.

6. Click save and you’ll end up with a movie clip of your time lapse which you can edit in various editing software if you desire.

NOTE: It is important that you manually programme your settings on your camera when you take time lapse shots.  If you leave it on ‘auto’ your photos may change from one to the other as the camera will automatically change the settings, say if the lighting in the shot changes etc. It is also important to turn off auto-focus as again the camera may automatically change focus which will really screw up your time lapse.  Also for long time lapses remember to have plenty of space on your memory card and plenty of battery power.  Mounting your camera on a tripod etc is also a must.

Alternatively you can ignore what I have written above ( I hope you don’t as I spent a while writing it up ha ha) and simply just record a movie clip on your camera and speed it up in your editing software.  Make sure you have your camera mounted on a tripod or something so the camera doesn’t shift when filming.  This will work ok for short time lapses like a busy street etc but unless you want to shoot video for over 30mins for longer time lapse shots, I would advise against it.  Your computer will probably crash due to the size of the video file and DSLRs only have a video recording length of 15min max per clip.  Shooting time lapse through photos is the only way for me.

Cool stuff, tomstott!!!!! And nice effort in the write up!!!!!

You often do see where people have left the camera in auto and can see where the picture changes too dramatically from that!!!!!

I have used my GoPro to make easy simple ones with an ok look to them!!!!! (Well, I think so anyways!!!!!)

There is a couple of examples in this edit that I made a while back!!!!

* One at 0:53 and others at 2:05 and 2:48

is that jervis bay area?

About 30-45mins drive away in the Conjola area!!!!!

haha I was closeish, getting a go pro soon, I will add some of my spearfishing videos in jervisbay/ cullburra beach. gotta mount it somehow first

I just hold mine in my hand, with it tied to a body board leash!!!!!

You could even mount it on ya spear!!!!! That would be pretty cool!!!!!

Where abouts are ya from, red?????

live near Parramatta in sydney