How to create a Timelapse Video

I have been wanting to create a timelapse video during a photoshoot for some time now, and I finally decided to make it happen. People love to see what it is like behind the scenes of a photoshoot and see all the work that goes into one behind the camera lens. A timelapse video can offer a creative and fun way of doing such a thing. However, research how to do this because it does take some extra work and preperation.

Click the link below for the video, photos, and directions on how I set up the camera and pieced the timelapse video together.

The Camera Setup:

I used my backup camera, a Canon 20D, and 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 to shoot the photos that would be used for the timelapse video. I had it tethered via USB to my MacBook that was running Canon’s EOS Utility software for capturing the photos in five second increments. Tethering also allows you to have your images automatically saved to your computer’s hard drive, which saves transferring time after your shooting is complete. I placed the 20D on a tripod and elevated it as much as I could so that I could get as much in the frame as I could.

NOTE: If possible, shoot all the timelapse photos in JPG format instead of RAW format to save space and processing time.

I did not have enough available light to shoot the timelapse frames with so I also had to use my JTL 160 watt strobe that was triggered by the 20D and radio transmitter. The JTL strobe had a fast enough refresh rate to keep up with the 20D snapping a shot every five seconds.

Piecing it all together:
I’m sure that there are several programs out for creating these timelapse videos. For me, I used Quicktime Pro and iMovie HD.
Firstly, I resized all the photos in Canon’s Digital Photo Professional taken for the timelapse video to 800px x 533px 72dpi with a simple batch process. I did this because full resolution photos are too large for Quicktime Pro to work with. Doing this also speeds up the processing of all the image files into one video clip.
After resizing all the images, I then went into Quicktime Pro to import all the photos into one video clip. To do this, click on “File” and then “Open Image Sequence”. Browse to where you image files are and select the first photo of your timelapse sequence and click “Open”.

You will then be asked what your desired frame rate for the video is. For my video, I chose 12fps because 15fps was to quick and made my video rather short while 10fps was simply too slow for my liking.

Quicktime Pro will then load that image and all the others in the folder and create the video clip. After the clip loads, you are then able to save it to your computer. But wait, you’re not done yet.

Now that you have your timelapse video created, you still have to add some bells and whistles. With the video clip created, I took it into iMovie HD to add a video introduction, music, and edited images from the shoot. This is where you can get really creative and have fun with your creation as a whole.

Just remember to have fun with the whole process and learn from any mistakes along the way!