photography

How to Make A Time-Lapse Movie with Camera or iPhone

Making a time-lapse video is a heck of a lot easier than you think. All it takes is a digital still camera—or even your Mac laptop or iPhone—and some $30 software. Here’s a step by step guide, all the way from turning your camera on to pushing “play” to start the time-lapse movie.

Let’s start with a little disclaimer, though. The sample time-lapse videos here are still pretty rough. I’ve only made a dozen or so in the last couple of years and I’m nowhere near as dialed on video as I am with still photography or even writing about powder skiing. Some flicker because the exposures change from frame to frame (I explain how to avoid that below), others are a little jumpy cause I did them by hand. But hey—learn from my mistakes.

Note: Except for the Maui sunset video, all time-lapse movies were shot during the production of National Geographic Adventure’s fall 2008 apparel guide.

CAMERAS
You can use any camera in the world to make a time lapse, so long as you feel like triggering the shutter at regular intervals. Trust me, you won’t. That means you either get a camera with a built-in timer, known as an intervalometer, or buy an external timer. You can also make an external timer–there are plenty of instructables on the net–but is your time worth so little that you’d rather make it than spend $140?

Point and shoots
I know only one point and shoot camera that allows easy time lapse and that’s Canon’s G9. The G9 has time lapse built into the video function in one- or two-second intervals. There’s no post-production combining of still images–you don’t have to do anything but push the button and the Canon creates the video. Unfortunately, Canon eliminated the time-lapse function from the newest version of this terrific shooter, the G10. You can still find the G9 for sale online but before long it’s going to be Ebay only.

DSLRs
Some digital SLRs have timers built in. My Nikon D3, for example. Unfortunately, the D3 limits the number of exposures to 1,000 (near as I can tell), which is fine for short periods of time but not so good if you want to let the camera run all day. The Nikon D200 also offers this function, called Interval Timer Photography, as do some other Nikons.

An external intervalometer is easier to use, though costly, and can be attached to an extension cord, allowing you to control the camera from inside a tent or vehicle, for example. Here are two…

For Canon
Canon Remote Timer TC-80N3, $137. Works with: EOS-3, 1V HS/1V, 1D, 1Ds, 1D Mark II, 1D/1Ds Mark III, 5D, 5D-Mark II, 10D, 20D, 30D, 40D, 50D, D30, D60 and D2000

For Nikon
Nikon MC-36 remote with intervalometer, $140.
Works with: D2 series, D1 series, D100, D200, D300, D700, D3, F6, F5, F100, and MC-26 Adapter Cord.

Do You Have a Macbook?
If you have a Macbook with iMovie HD and the built-in iSight camera, you can use your laptop to make time lapses. Start iMovie. Switch to Camera mode–there’s a button on the home screen. Slide it left. At the icon of the camera, there’s a pulldown menu. Click on “Time Lapse” and add your settings. Then click “Record with iSight”. You’re good to go.

The Maui sunset time lapse that appears next was shot with a Macbook Pro.

Do You Have an iPhone?
Download TimeLapse for $.99. It allows you to set the shooting interval and photo size. Just be aware of slow processing times–if your image size is too big and the interval too short, the iPhone can’t keep up.

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SETTING UP
Turn everything on your camera to manual, including white balance. If you leave exposure or white balance on auto, the camera will attempt to compensate for changes in light conditions, which will make your video flicker.

Set your focus manually, too.

Set f-stop and shutter speed manually.

You probably want to set your camera on a tripod. If you’re shooting a landscape–clouds moving overheard, for instance–a tripod is critical. But don’t be afraid to experiment without one. This lovely night time lapse by James Leng was essentially handheld, and my similar time lapse of Taupo, New Zealand, was definitely handheld.

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CALCULATING SHOOTING INTERVALS
A little planning goes a long way. You can just start blasting, but it’s better to think ahead. QuickTime allows you to set the number of frames it uses per second of video–30 is typical, but you can experiment. For now, let’s stick to 30. To create a one-minute video, then, you’d need 1,800 individual pictures (60 seconds X video rate of 30 frames per second).

Here are common intervals and how many pictures they give you an hour.

1-second interval = 6,000 frames per hour
2-second interval = 3,000 frames per hour
3-second interval = 2,000 frames per hour
4-second interval = 1,500 frames per hour
5-second interval = 1,200 frames per hour
10-second interval = 600 frames per hour
20-second interval = 300 frames per hour

Let’s say we want to turn 90 minutes of shooting into 60 seconds of video. A 5-second interval gives you 1,200 pictures an hour, which is 1,800 in an hour and a half. Now just make sure your memory card is empty, the battery’s full charged, and the file size is small enough to hold 1,800 pictures.

Don’t let the math stop you! Yes, planning helps. But don’t be afraid to just start shooting and see what you get.

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POST-PRODUCTION
Once you’ve shot 300, 500, 5,000 still images, you need to stitch them together to create the video. The easiest way by far is to use QuickTime Pro. Don’t waste your time with freeware, shareware, or any other software. QuickTime Pro is foolproof and cheap–just $30.

Make sure all your time lapse still images are in a single folder with no other pictures or files. The files will automatically be named and numbered sequentially by the camera–for example, DSC-0001, DSC-0002, etc. Don’t change any or QuickTime won’t be able to build the video.

Fire up QuickTime and go to File:Open Image Sequence. Navigate to the first image in the sequence and doubleclick on it. Set your frame rate somewhere between 15 and 30 frames per second (experiment to see what works best). When the movie has been compiled, go to File:Save As and voila, you’re done.

© 2009 the adventure life.