Time-Lapse Photography Art and Techniques by Mark Higgins

The establishing shot is a useful start for a story when making a video. For this type of shot a wideangle
lens is usually used. Many time-lapse photographers use this shot frequently without realizing it.
This is one of the most important shots to have in your video because this gives us all the information
we need to follow the story. This shot is generally filmed with a wide-angle lens and is normally at or
near the beginning of the video. We can establish aspects such as time of day, location, subject matter
and character.
If you are filming a time-lapse video and you do not plan to do multiple camera angles, it is
usually preferable to approach the one angle you will be showing as an establishing shot. This kind of
shot is occasionally found at the end of the video as the climax: sometimes film-makers show small
details of the story to keep the suspense throughout the film and then at the end they will show an
establishing shot to finally give the whole story away. Whatever approach you take, it is more than
likely that this shot will become familiar to you.
Long shot