Velbon Sherpa 6430D Aluminum Combo Tripod with QHD-63D Ball Head

Velbon Sherpa 6430D Aluminum Combo Tripod with QHD-63D Ball HeadTime-lapse videos have invaded nearly every form of media in recent years, even breaking into our social media apps with the recent development of the hyper-lapse. These types of videos can be quite difficult to make, especially with the time requirements inherent in capturing and transforming a lengthy event into a few seconds of footage. They can also be some of the most stunning and interesting videos to watch. To capture even better photos and videos for time-lapses, here are some tips that will help elevate your imagery.

Work in Manual Mode with a Tripod

A first step for high-quality time-lapse video is to shoot in manual mode. By doing this, you not only gain control over how the final image looks, but also avoid issues with things like flicker, which appears when the camera adjusts the exposure in the middle of the shoot. One other helpful tip here involves the shutter speed: while time-lapse videos don’t necessarily need to follow the 180° shutter rule of standard filmmaking, it is still a good rule to follow, if you can. It will help smooth out motion by keeping the exposure time to at least half of your interval time. There are always exceptions to the rule here, and if you prefer sharper more staccato movement or want to show even more motion blur, then feel free to ignore it. A great example would be starscapes—if you want to capture trails, you will need to leave the shutter open longer, or if you want to see the points of light crossing the sky, you may need to shorten the exposure.

Moving to Basic Camera Settings

Now that you can get everything set up and running, it might be helpful to know some basic settings for your camera to make sure you get the best picture. For the most part, you will just choose the settings that are best for the scene as if you were taking a photograph, and you could be good. However, there are many variables you will need to consider. A video will use about 24 frames each second, so if you don’t want your time-lapse to be woefully short, you will want to make sure you are capturing enough frames over time to make at least 10-12 seconds, especially if you want room to play with when you are editing multiple shots together. This makes the primary variable your interval. If you are only shooting for an hour, an interval of five minutes doesn’t really make any sense; likewise, if you are letting the camera sit overnight then a one-second interval won’t be fun to work with later.

One of the easiest ways to choose an interval is with simple math. If you want to capture some clouds moving over a mountain for three hours, and know you want a 15-second final video of the event, then you can calculate it this way: First find out how many frames you will need (24 x 15 = 360 frames). Then calculate the number of minutes you will be shooting (3 x 60 = 180 minutes) and divide the minutes by the number of frames you need (360/180 = 0.5 minutes = 30 seconds). This means you set your interval to be 30 seconds.

However, you do have to take into consideration your subject matter; if you are photographing a busy city street with people walking by, a couple of seconds is about where you should stay—longer, and you end up with completely blurred people (if that is what you are going for, then that is fine, too). And on the other end of things, if you are shooting slow-moving clouds above a field, then a longer interval of 30 seconds is going to be better to condense the slow movement into something more thrilling to watch. If you shoot this way, then you can work the math backwards to find out how long you will be shooting to get the desired effect. Be careful here, though; you don’t want your shutter speed to equal your interval. Many cameras have a limited buffer and if the shutter speed and interval are the same you might hit this buffer and ruin the shot




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