How to make a time lapse?

Time lapse is increasingly used to show the course of a long period of time in a clear and visual way. It is a beautiful technique to picture the sunset, a sunrise or even the course of a whole day. But how do we manage to make a time lapse?

One form of time lapse is a sequence of photographs taken within an established time interval. Then, using a computer, these photographs are edited together to create a video that gives the impression of a movie recorded at a high speed.

Instructions

1. Be prepared.

First make sure you have everything you need to protect you and your photographic equipment. Check that the gear is in place, lenses and batteries charged so that you don’t have to interrupt the session

2. Length of the final video.

To get one second of footage you need around 25 photographs, so if you want approximately 30 seconds of video, you will need to take around 750 pictures. Keep in mind that the interval between each photo should be 10 seconds.

3. Compose your pictures.

Make sure that the camera is firmly mounted and that all the elements of the scene are well arranged. Be aware that any undesired movement can ruin hours of work.

4. Set the parameters for the shot.

Depending on the characteristics of the scene to be photographed, you will have to adjust the different parameters, such as:  shooting mode, format (RAW or JPG), time interval between each photograph, depth of field, etc. Depending on the speed the elements in the scene move, you will have to choose which time interval to use. The faster the speed, the shorter the interval, and the slower the speed, the longer the interval between shots.

5. Focus manually.

If you set the camera focus in automatic, you may find that in some shots, for example when a cloud passes closer to you, the focus changes.

In Crew in Motion we love to experiment and keep on creating, here you can see a time lapse demo we have done over time.

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