What Is Time-Lapse Photography?
You have probably seen examples of time-lapse photography in action without realising. Have you ever seen a sports stadium fill in a matter of seconds, on what looks like a video on fast-forward? Or clouds moving extremely fast during the course of a few minutes of video? These are examples of Time Lapse Video.
Putting it simply, Time-lapse photography is a series of photographs taken over a period of time. The period of time is usually defined by an event, such as a sunrise, the construction of a building or product or an event or concert.
When you watch a time-lapse video it is a series of still images that have been edited together to give the perception of a fast moving video. The images are put together in such a way that certain ‘gaps’ appear to make events look like they are happening faster than they did in real life. The timing and number of these ‘gaps’ usually depends on the environment that you are shooting. Time-lapse photography is that process of taking the pictures that can then be edited to product the time-lapse movie.
Time Lapse photography is usually carried out with a high resolution (better than HD) quality camera. The camera is usually connected to a PC or laptop that helps monitor and store the images. Again, depending on the environment the camera will usually take a picture every 3 or 5 minutes.
This also depends on the length of time that you will be taking the pictures for. If you are taking the pictures over the period of a day then you will take them more frequently, and for a larger project you might reduce the number of images taken. Of course, if you miss an event you have missed it for good, so perhaps it’s best to keep the clicks happening as often as possible so you can make best use of the images in the edit at the end.
Once the photography period has ended the images need to be edited together. This is usually done using specialist video editing software. You can then overlay the video if required, or simply supply it raw on DVD or Flash for the web.
About the Author
Hideaway Media provide Time Lapse Video solutions for the leisure, construction and security industries. We have experience in shooting both short and long term time lapse footage and editing for use on either DVD or the Web.
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