Time-lapse Photography
H O P P E R P E D I A ©
-Brian Hammons
June 14, 2010: 2,370 hits
Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby normal film frames are played back at a higher speed. Time-lapse lets you see the natural progression of time, while not having to wait through the actual length of it. Processes that would normally appear subtle to the human eye, such as the motion of the sun and stars in the sky, become very pronounced.
Basic steps to take in creating a time-lapse film:
1.Choose your subject.
2.Figure out the intervals.
3.Shoot your still photographs.
4.Edit your photos.
5.Assemble your photos together into an edited video.
Step #1: Choose Your Subject
Examples:
•Fruit rotting/ice melting
•Grass growing
•A cross-country drive from LA to NY in 5 days
•Sunrises or sunsets
•A busy city street over a day’s time
•Opening of flower buds (basically any form of nature)
•A baby growing in mommy’s tummy (throughout the whole pregnancy)
•A construction site
•A self-portrait as you age over a number of years
•Life cycle of a tree over a year’s period
•Cookies baking in the oven
Step #2: Figuring Out Intervals
You’ll want to know how long your actual event or subject will last (or at least, how long you’re willing to shoot for), whether you want your final movie to be blocky or smooth, how long you want your final movie to be, and based on all of that, how often (at what interval) you’ll want to take photos of the event. For longer-term projects, you might only need to take one still shot each day. Short-term projects, may need a photograph taken every few seconds.
Appearance
Your final movie can end up two ways: blocky or smooth & seamless. Blocky shots will seem to abruptly change.The alternative is blending the interval shots together, so that it appears smooth and seamless.
Seamless results can occur in two ways:
1.Drag your shutter speed when you’re shooting
2.Shoot your subject more often (at shorter intervals).
Frame Rate Formula
Most movies screens project between 20-30 frames per second. The more frames per second, generally the smoother the movie will play back.
24 fps times 30 seconds = 720 frames
Here is an example: Flower Decay
-Decay time is: 4 hours, or 14,400 seconds (length of actual event)
-14,400 Divided by 720 frames (frames needed for final movie)
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= 20 second intervals between shots/frames
STEP #3: Shoot your Still Photographs
It really doesn’t matter what you shoot your time-lapse photos with, as long as you shoot them – we’ve seen people use SLRs, point-and-shoot cameras, and webcams. Whatever camera you use, make sure you mount your camera on a tripod for stability. Purchasing a timer remote (intervalometer) for your camera can make your project much easiar. With an intervalometer you can program your camera to shoot at certain times and at certain intervals – such as 1 frame every 5 seconds, 1 frame every minute, and so on.
•Set your camera to record JPG, to save on space.
•Set your camera’s white balance to manual – auto-white balance can change and fluctuate.
•Set your camera’s exposure manually to also maintain consistent exposure.
Smooth and Seamless Appearance
You’ll want to adjust your exposure (how long the shutter stays open to capture light while taking a photo) to be as long as possible. When you force your shutter to stay open a longer time (often called “dragging your shutter”), moving objects, like cars and people, will then appear more as a blur, and will “smear” across your scene. Your final movie will have much smoother action this way. The side-effect of long exposures is a lot more light coming at your camera – often too much light. If you are going to drag your shutter, purchase a neutral density filter to help control the extra light.
Computer Software for Webcams
For Mac, there’s a freeware program called Gawker. It immediately recognizes any iSight or web-cam hooked up to your computer and after specifying an interval for it to take new shots, it gives you a one-button time-lapse recording from that iSight. You can also combine views from multiple iSights or web-cams into a single, split-screen time-lapse video Gawker can also record your desktop.
For PCs, Webcam Timershot – part of Microsoft’s PowerToys package of free add-on software – does much the same as Gawker (minus the split-screen ability and having the option to record your desktop): specify an interval, and Webcam Timershot will take pictures from your web-cam and save them to a location you choose.
Step #4: Edit your Photos
It isn’t necessary every time, but sometimes you’ll have a batch of photos that need just a little tweaking.(Exposure and Saturation)
Software Automation (Batch Editing)
In Photoshop, practice on one photo from the bunch, adjusting it to how you like it – then create an Action in Photoshop to do exactly what you just did. Close your photo without saving, then use Photoshop’s Automate Batch command. Select the folder of all your photos – your source – and create a new folder for where the edited photos are gonna go – the destination. Then select your newly created Action, and Ok – off they go.
Step #5: Assemble your photos together into an edited video
Assemble Your Movie with iMovie, Premiere, Flash, Keynote, Final Cut or other application. Import your photos and set the duration for each photo to a small number like “0:03″ – this will play each photo for 3 frames.You can then add effects like panning and zooming, titles, and music.
