How to Shoot a Time-Lapse With Your DSLR or Mirrorless Camera

Author: Harry Guinness / Source: How-To Geek

A time-lapse is the opposite of slow-mo: instead of slowing down fast-moving activities they speed up slow ones. They’re perfect for . You can even use them to show slow moving things like blooming flowers.

The great thing about time-lapses is that they’re very easy for photographers to shoot.

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Each frame is a single still image. Let’s have a look at the basics of shooting one yourself.

Before You Start

While it’s possible to shoot a time-lapse with your iPhone, for this article we’re going to look at using DSLRs or mirrorless cameras. They give you the most control.

As well as your camera, you need a tripod to keep everything locked in the same position. You also need an intervalometer so you can take photos at the same interval; some cameras have one built in, but if yours doesn’t, any decent remote shutter release will work.

The final thing you have to do before starting is to work out how many images you have to shoot. There are calculators that can help, but I find it’s worth doing the math yourself.

The three standard video playback rates are 24 frames-per-second (fps), 25 fps, and 30 fps. For online videos, I’d recommend going with 30 fps, but any will do; it just changes the math a little.

Let’s work with 30 fps for this article; it means that we need 30 still images for every second of final video. If we want to shoot a short 15 second time-lapse, that’s 450 photos (15×30=450).

Now that we know we have 450 frames to play with, it’s time to work out what the interval between each one has to be. Let’s assume that we’re trying to shoot the sun setting over 30 minutes. Thirty minutes is 1800 seconds, so if we take a photo every 4 seconds (1800/450=4), we’ll compress half an hour into 15 seconds at 30 frames-per-second. Simple!

For your time-lapse, work through the same process and calculate what interval you need. Most of the time, you’ll want something between about 1 and 20 seconds—anything longer will take ages to shoot, and everything will be sped up a huge amount.

Shooting the Time-Lapse

Frame your shot and lock the camera down on your tripod. Take a few test shots to get your exposure right. Once you’ve worked out what settings you want to use, set your camera to Manual mode and dial them in.