… for Visual Effects

Tip #171: 7 Tips To Better Timelapse Shots

Larry Jordan – https://LarryJordan.com

The best timelapse requires practice and planning.

This tip first appeared in Digital Photography School.

Timelapse photography is a great way to capture motion, plus, it’s eye-catching! Here are seven tips that can help improve your next shoot.

1. Don’t use auto settings. To avoid constant changes in your images or exposure, set your camera to Manual mode.
2. Focus manually. Auto-focus will have the lens chasing whatever moves. Worse, auto-focus eats batteries.
3. Shoot in lower resolution so you don’t fill storage too quickly. Videos don’t demand 24 megapixel images.
4. Anticipate the changes in the landscape and compose accordingly.
5. Don’t press the shutter with your finger. While an intervalometer is indispensable, if you don’t have one, use a remote shutter release to fire shots manually at the specified time interval.
6. Music is as important to the final video as the images themselves.
7. Practice shooting a simple timelapse, say in your backyard, before committing the time and gear to the real thing. Problems are easier to fix when all the gear is local.