A time lapse video are a great way to capture and convey rapidly changing conditions. Whether you’re capturing clouds in the sky, a busy city, or the day turning into night, time lapse photography can offer an interesting way to capture a scene for anyone.
Table of Contents
- What is Time Lapse Video?
- What Gear is Used to Make a Time Lapse Video?
- How Do You Make a Time Lapse Video?
- What Accessories Make it Easier to Take Time Lapse Videos?
- Can You Take Time Lapse Videos on Your Mobile Phone?
- How Should You Edit a Time Lapse Video?
What is Time Lapse Video?
A time lapse video is a video of something over time. Imagine watching a flower grow, clouds pass through the sky, or car trails in a city — all in a matter of seconds. This is a time lapse video. Usually, these videos are created over time by taking consecutive images at the same intervals, or time between the images. Then, these photos can all be put together and played back quickly to create a video.
Time lapse video works on nearly anything in the world that is changing. You can use it to show off things like a construction project you’re working on, cars moving about the city in rush hour, a rainstorm passing through, or even plants beginning to sprout. Each kind of time lapse video may require different intervals, but the concepts you need to understand to create these videos are the same.
What Gear is Used to Make a Time Lapse Video?
There are a few pieces of gear that can make creating time lapse videos a breeze. The Enlaps Tikee 3 PRO is a video camera specifically designed to create time lapse videos. There are a few things that separate this device from a regular camera. The Enlaps Tikee 3 PRO shoots up to 6k videos. This means that you’ll have an incredibly high resolution time lapse. Also, it has the ability to be “always on.” This means you can set it somewhere and leave it for hours or days at a time. You can even remotely trigger the shutter at any point in time. Devices like this make shooting time lapse easy because they’ll automatically put all of the photos together into a video for you, so you can do minimal processing of the time lapse.
Another great piece of equipment to have in your bag is a motorized slider. Sliders come in all sizes, but what they do is the same. A motorized slider moves your camera slowly as the camera takes photos. In the end, this makes it appear like your time lapse is moving. This can help to create a more interesting and immersive time lapse.
Neutral density filters — or ND filters — can also come in handy when shooting a time lapse. There are many instances when a slower shutter speed will produce smoother results in a time lapse. Therefore, having some ND filters to help you slow the shutter speed down can help to produce the desired effect. ND filters come in all different strengths, but having a couple of the most common kinds of ND filters (1-stop, 3-stop, 10-stop) is all you need.
How Do You Make a Time Lapse Video?
Making a time lapse video starts in the field. The first thing you need to do is find an interesting location and set up your camera. Set the interval, and let the camera go to work. Most of these videos use 24 or 30 frames per second. This means that every 24 or 30 photos your camera takes will result in one second of video time. Decide how long you would like your time lapse video to be, and shoot for the proper amount of time to have enough photos for this time frame.
Here is more advice on how to make a time lapse video:
If you are using a device that combines the footage for you, you have saved yourself a lot of time that you would otherwise spend putting things together. However — for the maximum amount of control over your time lapse video — you’ll want to manually combine the photos themselves. There are many different kinds of time lapse software you can use to combine your photos. This is dependent on the kind of computer you are using and the amount of time you wish to spend combining the photos. The best kind of software allows you to edit the photos first before putting the video together. This way, you can give your time lapse a finished look. It is better to edit the RAW photos than it is to edit the processed video at the end.
What Accessories Make it Easier to Take Time Lapse Videos?
There are a few handy accessories for time lapse videos that you’ll want to pick up. First, you’ll want to get a sturdy tripod. More often than not, you’ll need somewhere to put your camera for a time lapse video. The tripod needs to be sturdy and strong enough to hold your camera and withstand any wind, because you don’t want your camera to move during the time lapse.
Check out our list of Best Travel Tripods for Any Budget.
You may also want to purchase an intervalometer. This is a small device that you can connect to your camera to control when the shutter is released. Most intervalometers allow you to affect the interval between the shutter, which is perfect for time lapses. This device will also make sure to keep your camera on every time it releases the shutter to take an image.
Can You Take Time Lapse Videos on Your Mobile Phone?
Many smartphones have downloadable, or even built-in, apps to take time lapse videos on your phone. This can be a great way to quickly take a time lapse without having to haul around a large camera with you. Also, most of these apps will automatically put the photos together to produce a video for you that can instantly be shared on social media or with friends and family.
If you plan to shoot time lapse videos on your phone, I recommend purchasing a small phone tripod, which allows you to prop up your phone at any time. Without a small phone tripod, it can be a challenge to set up your phone at the right angle to capture what you wish to time lapse.
How Should You Edit a Time Lapse Video?
When editing, there are a few things to keep in mind. As mentioned above, it is ideal if you can edit the photos in your time lapse before combining them together to make a video. When you’re editing the photos, don’t go overboard with your edits. If you over-edit your photos, you’ll experience a variety of problems with your time lapse and it won’t look realistic.
When you’re editing the photos and putting them together to make a video, look for an option to align or stabilize the footage. When shooting a time lapse, it is common to have the camera move slightly between images. Any slight movement from the camera will be extremely obvious in the video afterwards, so using some kind of alignment or stabilization setting will help to get rid of small camera movements during shooting.
For more interesting and immersive time lapse videos, play with slightly moving the view during the time lapse video. If you don’t purchase a motorized slider and you are editing still footage, consider slightly zooming in or panning left or right during the video for a more interesting look to the time lapse. This can be done very easily in most video editing programs.
Shooting a time lapse can seem like a lot of work, but the end result is well worth it. Using some of the tips in this guide, you should be equip to get ready to shoot your first time lapse!
