For photographers, by photographers, our weekly video show covers all topics of photography

To view a larger HD version, go to Vimeo to view.

Time lapse, we’ve all seen them, we’ve all enjoyed them.  So with my recent trip to Las Vegas, I thought I’d try one out as I’d never done one before.  I learned a lot and I’d like to share that with you today!

Items needed:
Camera – I used the Canon 7D
Tripod  - something to hold the camera in place, if out a window, in a car, in the field.  Different mounting methods are fine as long as it’s all secure and not going to move.
Large Memory Card – I used a 32GB CF Card.  You’re going to sometimes be taking 4000 photos possibly, so might as well start with a large one in case you ever decide to do a session over 10 hours.
Timer Remote Trigger (Intervalometer)-  Not cheap, but worth it for things like this.  Also great for lightning photos or other timed photography techniques.
Quicktime 7 – This is what I used to compile the images.
Fully Charged Battery – This is going to take some juice over a long period of time, make sure it’s charged.  If you have a double battery pack, even better.

Process:

For my time lapse, I mounted the tripod in the backseat, tied it all down so it wouldn’t move much, and then locked the camera in with a 15mm Fisheye.  Because it was on my 7D, it wasn’t truly a 15mm, which helped.  I then connected the remote trigger and set the timer to take a photo ever 20 seconds.  Now leaving LA, I was going to be in traffic, I didn’t need hundreds of photos of the back of cars.  So I changed it to 30 seconds at one point.  Then once out on the road, I found I was moving quickly and could have it take photos more often to show more of the scenery that was passing by.  This is all trial and error, so feel free to experiment with that timing.  I then also had the remote trigger dangling over my shoulder, so if I ever came up to a location that needed more frames, like the bikers, or the Primm Casinos in Nevada, I could press it a few times more and get a slower effect.

Over the next 4 hours, it accumulated only around 1700 photos.  I used Automatic settings and ISO, cause I figured the light would be changing over the day and I couldn’t be changing settings while driving.  During a sunset or outside time lapse, I might be more particular and do manual settings and change those over time to fit my mood.  Again, this is all your own preference.

Once downloaded to my computer, if needed I would adjust any of the photos that didn’t work.  There were a few inside tunnels or overpasses that were too dark and didn’t need to be in there.  I then exported them as JPG in sequence to a folder.  In Quicktime 7 you have the option to “open image sequence.”  With that you select only the first filename.  It asks how many frames a second you would like, typical is 30, but you can choose less if you want to make it longer or slower.  I choose 15 frames a second for these and it worked out perfectly.  Then it compiled the entire photo sequence and all you have to do is press Save As movie.  Simple and done!

Now I bet you thought it was much harder then that.

Variations:

So you think you wanna try it.  Well here are a few things I noticed.  First, when shooting out a hotel window, the dirtiness of the window is going to show sometimes, especially if it goes into night.  The reflections, the glare, everything will come out more in longer exposures, so if you’re doing it out a hotel window at night, beware.  Second, the battery was eaten up pretty quickly as it was taking photos very often.  Have backups if you plan on doing more then 1 a day.  And thirdly, be creative, I was pretty simple with mine, so I’ll be trying some even crazier ones later.  I even heard one person put their system on rails and did time lapse while rotating around an object.

I even found a Vimeo Channel dedicated to HD Time Lapse projects.  http://vimeo.com/channels/timelapseinhd

Please comment below if you have any questions on this process or have any additional tips to provide!

Good luck and Happy Shooting!!
-Nathan