How to Choose a Time-lapse Interval

1 second Moving traffic Fast moving clouds Drivelapses

1- 3 seconds Sunsets Sunrises Slower moving clouds Crowds Moon and sun near horizon (or telephoto) Things photographed with a telephoto[/one_fourth]

15 – 30 seconds Moving shadows Sun across sky (no clouds) (wide) Stars (15 – 60 seconds)

Longer Fast growing plants (ex vines) (90 – 120 seconds) Construction projects (5min – 15min)[/one_fourth_last]

2 seconds

People walking down the street

3 seconds Clouds moving very fast

5 seconds

Clouds moving normally

10 seconds

Clouds moving very slowly

20 to 30 seconds Night landscapes, stars, moon, etc.

30 seconds

Path of the sun on a clear day

Knowing how long your “time-lapse” takes. This is the second major variable that we have to calculate. In many cases we know it, as in a football game or a sunset. We’ll set an interval and clip duration that gives us an adequate number of frames. On the contrary, if we are shooting a scene without beginning or an end, like a flowing of a river, the exposure and interval will determine the length of the shot.

Some quick math: Knowing that we need 25 frames to create one second of video (in the European PAL system, in the United States it would be 30) a standard length of 10 seconds of footage will need 250 frames. Therefore, we only have to multiply 250 by our lapse to know how much time we need to invest in doing the “time-lapse”.

It can happen that you do not know the duration of the event or you want to capture a long scene, like a thunderstorm formation. In these cases, the interval is the premium: choose the right one for the scene and select “infinity” or “zero” in the number of frames of your remote. Now you just have to be patient.

Interval Example: Fast clouds and a compilation length goal

It’s an awesome sky and fast moving clouds are being painted a warm orange from the evening sun. You have decided that you would like to create a 10 second cloud time-lapse compilation with an extra 2 seconds to fade in and out. Here’s what you calculated:

You want 12 seconds of compiled cloud footage to be shown at 30 frames per second. This will require [ 12 x 30 = 360 ] 360 frames to captured.

You can see that the clouds are moving moderately fast and you want a nice smooth video. You decide to shoot at a 2 second interval. At a 2 second interval and with the goal of 360 frames, you need to snap images for [ 2 x 360 = 720 ] 720 seconds or [ 720 / 60 = 12 ] 12 minutes (not including exposure time but that is minimal).

“Outstanding!” You think to yourself as you grab your copy of Atlas Shrugged and begin to setup for the shot. You can either program your intervalometer to shoot 360 frames at a 2 second interval, or you can set it to infinite frames and just watch the time. I usually do the latter (if I don’t need to save the card space for something else) incase something interesting comes into view I can just let it roll.