How to Make a Time-Lapse: Before start



Okei, what is a Time-Lapse? Well, a Time-Lapse is a sequence of photographs taken from time to time which then combines to mount a video camera and it appeared quickly.

Note that you must be patient and try many times to get something decent. The worst thing is how boring it is the recruitment process.

Preliminary considerations



.To begin, we need a camera that can shoot automatically at certain time intervals. There are some who have intervalometer built reflex and others which can be fitted through the remote trigger. In case you have a compact, there is no apparent solution, unless you decide to use the burst mode and keep your finger on the shutter for several hours.

.A tripod or point of support is also essential, without it it will be impossible to make a Time-Lapse acceptably good. If we want our Time-Lapse photography is moving to a larger scene, we will have no choice but to use a tripod or have a pulse motor unbelievable.

.The memory card is also another point to consider. We recommend you use a card capacity as possible, because if you run out of space, have to be replaced by a new one and lose a lot of frames in the scene and the original angle of the shot, which translates to destroy your Time-Lapse.

.Even if you have an SLR camera, in this case prevents shooting in RAW. With it you will lose speed burst and fill the card immediately. Therefore we recommend you shoot in JPEG to very low resolution. With a 3-megapixel resolution is more than enough to mount a full HD 1080p video and your camera will thank you.

.Do not forget to bring the battery 100% charged, or carry a spare. You never know how to end a session time-lapse.

Taking photographs



First, we recommend that you do not go alone because get bored like an oyster. If you can not go together, take a portable console or something that makes you pass the time, because it will be a very long session.

Well, now we're on the site we want to take pictures, we turn on our brand new camera and programmed it to automatically trigger every X seconds. The program goes way depending on the method you use (either by the camera's internal software or by an external intervalometer).

In case you want to photograph a sunset or sunrise, we have to put an interval of 30 seconds or less. But if we want to photograph the movement of a road or street with people, it is advisable to set an interval of 5 seconds or less.

Another thing you should keep in mind is to put the camera in Aperture priority mode, so that the shutter speed will automatically change depending on the amount of light available. In this case, we will still photos day and at night see the lights contrails due to a slower shutter speed.

If we put in Shutter priority, would maintain the speed of the photos, but lose the depth of field constant, as is the diaphragm which regulates the passage of light for correct exposure of the photo.



In the event that you have a SLR be aware that suffer a lot for this kind of practice. According to the official specifications of the manufacturers, the life of a mechanical shutter is between 100,000 and 250,000 shots depending on the brand of the camera.

There are cases where people would last well over 250,000, others that were broken before 100,000. That is why we must be very careful and appreciate the life of our camera, which is considerably reduced after a Time-Lapse session.

That is why in the event that your video camera to record, using this method you will be healthier for it. An ideal camera for this practice is the Panasonic Lumix GH1, which can record 1080p Full HD video at 60fps. Thanks to this, we can extract frames from video, then take out the "pictures" necessary for our Time-Lapse.



Another option is to use a compact or bridge to allow taking pictures in time intervals. The interesting thing about these is that they use an electronic shutter, which does not suffer and has a shelf life of many more shots without degradation.

A good example would be the Ricoh CX2, which carries the photo function time intervals in the software, which allows us to do Time-Lapse very good thanks to its high quality images without their shutter suffer.