Time-Lapse Photography Art and Techniques by Mark Higgins

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You may well end up with a number of test or first draft time-lapse videos when you start finding your feet with the subject. You might not think that they fit together, but these test videos are important to review in order to see what has worked and what hasn’t. It is a good exercise to watch all of your test videos together, rather than playing them individually. Gather some of these together and make a montage. This will be good practice with video editing and also ensure that you review your work. Reviewing your work in a montage format will help with creative direction and technical practice. This image taken for a time-lapse video uses a slightly different approach. The movement in this video is provided by the people right at the bottom of the shot, behind the boats. Despite being a very small part of the frame, our eyes are drawn to the movement. Camera settings: 1/1600s, ƒ/5.3, ISO 160. Creative areas that are related to time-lapse photography There are many areas, old and new, that are related to shooting stills and video, and also some that combine the two. If you are getting more creative with your photography and/or video-making it is rewarding to look at other areas. Some of these areas are: slow motion, time stacking, stop frame animation and hyperlapse. Always keep your mind open to different ways of communicating with your image-making. Here are some of these examples explained in more detail. Stop frame animation
An area that is very close to time-lapse photography is stop frame animation. These are movies that are created by shooting separate still photographs just like time-lapse. To create the illusion of movement a model or figure with moving parts, usually of a fictional animal or person, is posed in a scene and a still photograph is taken. The model is then moved slightly and another frame is taken. This process is repeated resulting in many still photographs that are then played back quickly. In the final movie the models are animated and appear to move by themselves. This technique is generally used for children’s programmes and is often used for feature films. This is a painstaking process, requiring a lot of patience. It is likely that if someone is interested in time-lapse they have a healthy curiosity about animation. Watch some animated films and get inspiration; it may not seem like the most obvious place to look but you could be surprised.
Page 2: Time-Lapse Photography Art and Tech
Page 5 and 6: First published in 2016 by The Crow
Page 7 and 8: This image is an example of what ca
Page 9 and 10: Getting started At the beginning yo
Page 11 and 12: This diagram represents the passing
Page 13 and 14: These individual still photographs
Page 15 and 16: COMMUNICATING WITH TIME-LAPSE One o
Page 17 and 18: Scenes like this will give subtle m
Page 19 and 20: • What inspires you about your su
Page 21 and 22: ALWAYS LOOK AROUND BEFORE SHOOTING
Page 23: When capturing fast-moving subject
Page 27 and 28: These are still images taken from a
Page 29 and 30: Chapter 2 Time-lapse basics In this
Page 31 and 32: This example shows how the pixel di
Page 33 and 34: This example shows Full HD video re
Page 35 and 36: The format for video is more of a l
Page 37 and 38: DIFFERENT WAYS TO CAPTURE TIME-LAPS
Page 39 and 40: when looking at these options to ch
Page 42 and 43: This sequence of images is from a t
Page 44 and 45: This comparison shows how you can e
Page 46 and 47: TIME-LAPSE TO VIDEO IN CAMERA If yo
Page 48 and 49: Advantages Phones and tablets are g
Page 50 and 51: Compact cameras are very advanced a
Page 52 and 53: This camera is a fully fledged top-
Page 54 and 55: Remote triggers When we take an ima
Page 56 and 57: drive and not a memory card in the
Page 58 and 59: software that comes free with the c
Page 60 and 61: 24mm.
Page 62 and 63: 80mm.
Page 64 and 65: 500mm. Focal lengths between around
Page 66 and 67: This time lapse sequence was shot w
Page 68 and 69: Using harsh shadows in your frame w
Page 70 and 71: LEARN FROM YOUR SHOOTING DATA Look
Page 72 and 73: uying one. Manuals for any lens or
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Using a fisheye lens will always be
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Here we see a tilt and shift lens b
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This is the same view but the persp
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concentrating on the technical side
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where the sun is going to be at any
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when in a rush this is easy to forg
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Chapter 4 Light and exposure In thi
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This frame from a time-lapse shows
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camera’s settings. If we use man-
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During the day we tend to get natur
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The exposure triangle is the most i
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This scene is overexposed. This ima
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the decision based on the light tha
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This image was captured at 1/200th
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This chart shows that changing the
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Taken at ƒ/8 this image shows the
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A very wide aperture of ƒ/1.4 has
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• Distance between the camera and
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In conditions where there are low l
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This section of the image shows how
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This neutral density filter screws
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These stills are from a video clip
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Your camera’s metering system Und
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of middle greys, and in theory the
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Here the histogram is seen next to
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Always check your manual to find th
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These images are taken at two stops
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To capture the separate images when
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Chapter 5 Setting up your camera fo
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This image shows a much better appr
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Live-view focusing can be much more
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Most DSLR cameras have a button to
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If you want a different point of vi
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Chapter 6 Colour and composition In
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change between settings whilst in l
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A fluorescent white balance produce
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values to choose from, such as 3000
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The ‘correct’ white balance can
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during the day we usually have a ne
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The ‘golden hour’ is a time of
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This time-lapse shows how the colou
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When you have the choice of colour
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This image has high contrast and sa
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Your box of compositional tools Eve
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When the horizon is at the bottom i
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Strong verticals can be quite a sta
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In this image we have different lay
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When using reflections in your imag
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Depth of field can be used to simpl
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This image is strong because of the
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subject. This can take away from th
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A different look that also uses bok
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Chapter 7 Planning and shooting tim
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emember that photography is about l
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This time-lapse video was taken fro
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so, the camera did a great job. The
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photography. Larger motorways tend
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A DSLR camera mounted on a pocket t
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Aperture To get a wide depth of fie
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Time-lapse settings The camera was
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had a 24mm ƒ/1.8 prime lens attach
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Shutter speed A shutter speed of 1/
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Always revisit locations on a diffe
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Chapter 8 Film-making and editing f
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Overshot Undershot Point of view Ca
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The long shot can be very similar t
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A half shot is usually framed from
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An extreme close-up enables you to
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This approach is more of a wild car
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The point of view shot is not often
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lens in and out might mean that you
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This image has the contrast turned
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This image has the saturation turne
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This image shows the same frame wit
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If you record audio for your time-l
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This directional microphone has a v
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you want. MUSIC Making your own mus
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Credits are easy to create even wit
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Chapter 9 Sharing and storing your
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page dedicated to showing their wor
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Sometimes, even with all the enthus
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cleaning your equipment 53-55 colou
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L length of your video 128 lenses 5
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T taking yourself out of ‘auto’
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