How To Shoot A Time Lapse

Top Tips

Stabilize Your Shots 

You will need an old heavy tripod that nobody wants to carry. Keep in mind that your camera will remain in the same position perhaps for an hour or two. The slightest shake or rolling caused by the wind during the shots, will end up in a shaken take. If your tripod is not sturdy enough, you can hang your camera bag on it, or use
stones to give it greater stability
and rigidity. This is essential in
long exposures.

Manual All The Way

Both manual mode and RAW files will give you greater control over your camera and during postproduction. Remember that the camera is shooting for a long time, so if you use any automatism, the camera will try to correct every change of light and the
colour temperature. So if you shot
it in JPEG, there will be
​no turning back.

Perfect The Focus

It is very important to select the manual mode in both the camera and lens, if applicable. Focus to infinity while using wide angle lenses. In other cases, however, having elements of interest in the first or middle term, you must ensure that this is where
the focus will be. Knowing the hyper
focal of your lens is always important,
since many of your shots are of
landscape and in this case
you'll want the longest
​depth of field.

 Choose The Right Lapse

The interval between shots is what will determine the speed of our final video. The longer the interval, the quicker will be the movement of the elements of our shot, and vice versa.

Clouds moving very slowly, interval of 10 seconds.
Clouds moving normally: interval of 5 seconds.
Clouds moving very fast: interval of 3 seconds.
People walking down the street: interval of 2 seconds.
Path of the sun on a clear day, interval of 30 seconds.
Night landscapes, stars, moon, etc.: interval of 20 to 30 seconds.