People seem to always love Time Lapse Videos. I came across this article, which is a few years old. It is still relevant today, so I hope you enjoy it.
How to Create Time Lapse Videos
By
Paul L Meszaros
Submitted On November 04, 2012
Most good quality cameras have an automatic shutter click
feature, if yours does not then you can use an intervalometer. The
intervalometer device joins to your camera's shutter and clicks it
instantly at durations you set. You will discover this useful when your
capture task take time and you can't wait sitting still pushing the
shutter all day. It also reduces the chance of moving the digital camera
because you never have to touch it during the capturing project.
You only need a digital camera to catch a time-lapse film, but several accessories can help make that task easier and help you produce expert looking film clips. A hefty tripod, which costs more than regular ones, allows your digital camera to remain stable even if someone jostles it. If your aim is to put together many time-lapse film clips, consider investing in a hefty tripod.
Catching trails behind stars as they move through the sky can look stunning. You cannot see the stars shift in normal time even though they are high through space at amazing velocities. However, you can surprise viewers by making them shift on-screen after capturing them at slow rates of frame and then running them in quick succession. If you get multiple short-exposure pictures of the night sky instead of the more traditional approach of leaving the digital camera shutter open and getting a lengthy, single visibility you will get a much greater effect. After getting individual pictures, layer them when mixing the pictures to create your film. This technique will prevent seeing things in your film that were not meant to be in there. Also, using layered pictures results in film clips that have fewer disturbances.
Protect your work in progress, by roping off the area that contains your equipment. This may seem obvious, but you may forget that people, creatures, passing vehicles and other items can walk into your digital camera's perspective eventually. Time-lapse photography can take time, days or longer to secure. Predict disruptions when preparing your capture location and duration.
Frame rate planning. Rate of frames represents the number of pictures you will take per second, minute or hour. When you use lower frame rates you create a faster motion of objects and higher frame rate causes them to appear to slow down. A time-lapse calculator can be used to help you determine the best possible frame rate. You can find these with a brief search of the web. To use a calculator, just program in the required film length and the calculator will estimate your capture time.
Check your battery power. If you plan on capturing four hours of raw footage and your battery goes flat in three hours time, you will ruin your capture because you can't move the camera to replace the battery. A more reliable way of ensuring that you have continuity in your capture is to run your digital camera from your car 12 volt adaptor or better yet an AC supply.
Use your laptop or computer. Modern digital cameras can store considerable amounts of data in flash drives or memory sticks. However, that storage is not unlimited. It may fill up fairly quickly if you are taking pictures at a high frame rate per second during your capture. Clean out all your old photographs that you no longer need before you start your capture to give you more space. Some cameras allow you to store the images directly onto your computer or laptop as they are taken, this is the best option for your capture as it will eliminate the problem of running out of storage space.
Artists and expert designers understand structure. Great works of art often involve forefront things that appear in front of the main subject matter. If you are capturing boats moving slowly down the river, for example, position your digital camera so that a forefront item, such as a shrub or building,appears somewhere in the landscape. When you play your completed time-lapse film, it will merge the motion of the forefront item and background boats for example to create an attractive three-dimensional landscape. Remember the basic rules of digital photography and apply them to your time-lapse digital photography products. A little knowledge, preparing and having a little creativeness, can stun your friends with amazing time-lapse pictures that does seem to speed up reality.
You only need a digital camera to catch a time-lapse film, but several accessories can help make that task easier and help you produce expert looking film clips. A hefty tripod, which costs more than regular ones, allows your digital camera to remain stable even if someone jostles it. If your aim is to put together many time-lapse film clips, consider investing in a hefty tripod.
Catching trails behind stars as they move through the sky can look stunning. You cannot see the stars shift in normal time even though they are high through space at amazing velocities. However, you can surprise viewers by making them shift on-screen after capturing them at slow rates of frame and then running them in quick succession. If you get multiple short-exposure pictures of the night sky instead of the more traditional approach of leaving the digital camera shutter open and getting a lengthy, single visibility you will get a much greater effect. After getting individual pictures, layer them when mixing the pictures to create your film. This technique will prevent seeing things in your film that were not meant to be in there. Also, using layered pictures results in film clips that have fewer disturbances.
Protect your work in progress, by roping off the area that contains your equipment. This may seem obvious, but you may forget that people, creatures, passing vehicles and other items can walk into your digital camera's perspective eventually. Time-lapse photography can take time, days or longer to secure. Predict disruptions when preparing your capture location and duration.
Frame rate planning. Rate of frames represents the number of pictures you will take per second, minute or hour. When you use lower frame rates you create a faster motion of objects and higher frame rate causes them to appear to slow down. A time-lapse calculator can be used to help you determine the best possible frame rate. You can find these with a brief search of the web. To use a calculator, just program in the required film length and the calculator will estimate your capture time.
Check your battery power. If you plan on capturing four hours of raw footage and your battery goes flat in three hours time, you will ruin your capture because you can't move the camera to replace the battery. A more reliable way of ensuring that you have continuity in your capture is to run your digital camera from your car 12 volt adaptor or better yet an AC supply.
Use your laptop or computer. Modern digital cameras can store considerable amounts of data in flash drives or memory sticks. However, that storage is not unlimited. It may fill up fairly quickly if you are taking pictures at a high frame rate per second during your capture. Clean out all your old photographs that you no longer need before you start your capture to give you more space. Some cameras allow you to store the images directly onto your computer or laptop as they are taken, this is the best option for your capture as it will eliminate the problem of running out of storage space.
Artists and expert designers understand structure. Great works of art often involve forefront things that appear in front of the main subject matter. If you are capturing boats moving slowly down the river, for example, position your digital camera so that a forefront item, such as a shrub or building,appears somewhere in the landscape. When you play your completed time-lapse film, it will merge the motion of the forefront item and background boats for example to create an attractive three-dimensional landscape. Remember the basic rules of digital photography and apply them to your time-lapse digital photography products. A little knowledge, preparing and having a little creativeness, can stun your friends with amazing time-lapse pictures that does seem to speed up reality.