NZPhotographer Issue 34, August 2020

TIME-LAPSE IN PROGRESS
F8, 1/160s, ISO100
camera do all the work. This is sometimes the best
part for me, knowing that I can chill out and be in the
moment but still have those 300ish images to show
to you with the 3000 images equating to about 6-10
seconds of finished footage.
A time-lapse taken during the day will generally take
around 30min to capture, give or take some extra
time with setting up, but an astro time-lapse extends
out to 2 hours or even the whole night, depending
on what you are wanting to capture. An interval
between images of around 3 seconds is long enough
for time-lapses taken during the day whilst for astro,
an interval of 20 seconds between each shot is
recommended.
Last but not least, is the enjoyment I get from putting
the time-lapse together when I’m home, selecting
the music, and marring up the sequences to create
a visual and audio story for people to feast their eyes
upon. It’s a complicated and time consuming process
(another challenge!) with one time-lapse video taking
me weeks to complete as I seek to understand the
song, identify the key parts of the song, and place the
sequences in the right place to have people saying
‘wow’.
I think of time-lapse as being an extension of my
photography – Having the skills and understanding of
what time-lapses photography creates has enhanced
my still photographs. It allows me to sit and wait to
see where everything is moving to, from the tides, the
clouds, the stars, and as well as watching streams
and how the water flows. It is such a good thing to
understand all the elements that create a scene in
your image, or in this case, your short time-lapse.
I encourage people to give time-lapse a go, to get
inspired see my 2 films!
Oh Starry Night www.facebook.com/
ESB23Photography/videos/1245874788845031
Earth Whispers II www.facebook.com/
ESB23Photography/videos/1527794640722566
TIPS FOR YOUR FIRST TIME-LAPSE
• Plan your location – Plan where the sun is going to
be and show up early so you can be on-site to set
your gear up.
• A tripod is needed, you will need this to get every
frame the same and is the key to getting perfect
shots with no shake. If it is windy put your camera
bag on the middle leg of the tripod to give it some
weight to hold it down.
• Turn off your auto focus, and focus with live view
instead. This will allow you to focus on what you
think should be the right element in the frame
rather than letting the camera take over. Leaving
auto focus on can lead to lost shots whilst the
camera tried to focus on something moving in the
frame.
• I would encourage you to get used to time-lapse
captured during the day before you start with the
astro time lapses as that’s when it gets a little more
complicated and time-consuming!
August 2020 9