I’ve decided to start a time-lapse photography project where I hope to capture a whole bunch of cool time-lapse segments and then compile them into one video. I’ve got a bunch of ideas in mind and it will probably take a few months to finish, but I did start shooting my first time-lapse segment tonight–12 hours on a clock whizzing by in 20 seconds. I decided to put together a little tutorial to explain the process of creating a time-lapse video if anyone else wants to give it a try. Enjoy!

What is time-lapse photography?

In case you aren’t familiar with time-lapse photography, think of the discovery channel when they show flowers blooming in fast motion–time-lapse is when you take photographs of an event over a long period of time and then squish them together and flip through them really fast to create motion (like a flip book). By doing this, you can create some cool effects by turning something that would normally take hours or days to occur into a video that lasts a matter of seconds.

How do I make my own time-lapse?

So, how do you go about creating a time-lapse video? Well, the easiest way is to set your camera on a tripod or desk and face it at the object you want to record. Then, set the camera to take a picture of that object every X seconds. Depending on how long you want your video to be and how long it takes for your event to occur, the number of seconds between shots will vary.

How do I calculate how many pictures I need and how often I need to take them?

Let’s use my clock time-lapse as an example. I want to show 12 hours going by in 20 seconds. Since most videos are about 20-30 frames per second, I chose 30fps. That means my video will show 30 pictures per second to create the illusion of motion. Ok, so now that I know my video will play at 30fps for 20 seconds, I can figure that I need 600 pictures (20 seconds x 30 frames per second). With this in mind, it’s time to find out my shooting interval, or how often I need to take a picture. I know that my event lasts 12 hours; to turn that into seconds I go like this: 12hrs x 60mins/hr x 60s/min = 43,200. Alright, so in 12 hours there are 43,200 seconds. Now, I just divide that by 600 and I find out that I need to take a picture every 72 seconds. Confused? Maybe this will clear it up:

• Equation to find out how often you need to take a picture
  • event length in seconds divided by (video length x fps)
  • = 43,200 / (20 x 30)
  • = 43,200 / 600
  • = 72

Ok, I’ve figured that out; now what?

Ok, I hope you’re still with me because the hard part is over. Now you’re set up with your camera pointing at your object knowing that you need to take a picture every 72 seconds for 12 hours. Do you really want to sit there and press the shutter button every 72 seconds for the next 12 hours? I don’t think so. What is one to do? Well, some cameras have a nice time-lapse feature built into them where you can tell the camera what to do, walk away, and then come back 12 hours later and start making your video. If you aren’t so fortunate as to have this ability, join the rest of us. Most cameras don’t have this feature built in, so there are other options:

1. Create a time-lapse of something that doesn’t take 12 hours! Something like a melting ice cube could be done manually (pressing the shutter button on your own) since it doesn’t take too long for the event to finish.
2. Use your webcam: Gawker (for Mac) and Webcam Timershot (PC) are great programs that turn your webcam into a simple time-lapse tool. Just tell the program how often to take pictures and for how long then let it do all the work
3. Get an intervolometer: this, a more pricey option, is a device that connects to your camera and acts in much the same way as the above programs do. PClix is the most affordable option I’ve come across.
4. Connect your camera to your computer. Some camera manufacturers have software that will let you control your camera from your computer via a USB cable. For example, I use Nikon’s Camera Control Pro for my time-lapse shots (click image –>).

Phew, I’ve taken my pictures, now how do I make my video?

For this part, either iMovie or Window’s Movie Maker (both of which come pre-installed on the respective operating systems) will work. Just import all of your images, set the interval and away you go. In my case, I would import my images and then use an interval of 0.0333s (1/30) since I want to flip through 30 pictures every second. Good Luck!

End Result

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