Let’s share a timelapse I made last month and how I did it.

What I like about Time lapse

Time lapse is something that I am still experimenting with. What I like about it is that adds a touch of movement and ‘passage of time’ to an otherwise still scene. At least that it how I like to look at them and prefer them. Whereas a video is at normal speed of life and still is frozen, this one sits magically iin the middle and gives you the idea that you are a special, almst devine observer.

That and the fact that it can make the sky in a landscape photo - one of my favorite subjects at the moment - to life without it becoming a movie: jut passage of time... and clouds!

I used the following gear and settings for this simple 2x30 second stitched time lapse:

Fuji X-T1 camera with XF 18-135mm lens
A small table-top tripod (Matin MS220)
Circular Polariser filter (B+W)
Using time interval setting in the camera at 1 sec interval and just below 400 frames for each sequence. that means some 5 minutes per scene into a 15 second video, then slowed each video down by factor 2 and stitched them together in post.
RAW file format (!)
Framed at 38mm (25mm on my cropped XF lens). Exposure was manual at f/11, 1/180 sec, 200 ISO. IOS image stabilisation was off (tripod..).
Post in LRTimelapse program (deeloped by Gunther Wegner) to batch edit the sequence in Lightroom and render the video. Then I added music via iMovie.

The result

The good:

Mini tripod and single ‘travel’ lens make an ideal portable rig for time lapse anywhere.
RAW editing, exposure transitioning and deflickering in LRTimelapse / Lightroom is really good generating 'still-like quality' to the movie.
Hey, I got some movement in my frame with a sense of passage of time around this fixed landmark in my town.

The bad:

Total time lapsed was rather short, next time I want to extend it for more cloud movement, to say 30 - 60 mins.
Cloud movement not silk smooth, next time I will try to reduce the shutter speed to say 1/15 - 1 sec using my ND 10 stop filter.
This bloody dog on the beach (or should I say dog-owners)! It came from behind an ran right over my rig during time lapsing, throwing my camera/lens smack in the sand! Calm down Remco, and careful cleaning...:-( I got it clean in the end, but don’t wish this to happen to anyone so be warned.
So I still have miles to go in this genre, bt am already enoying it! Feel free to leave any comments and I hope to post one again soon (pssst: please give me an idea for subject in these darkest of winter days when there is no snow only rain...).

Useful links:

lrtimelapse.com