Time-lapse photography: compressing hours into seconds
Time-lapses reveal motion invisible to the eye: clouds, crowds, sunsets and stars. Learn intervals, settings and how to assemble the video.
A time-lapse is a sequence of photos taken at regular intervals and played back as video. A sunset that takes an hour becomes 10 seconds of flowing color.
Planning
At 24 or 30 frames per second, 10 seconds of video needs 240 to 300 photos. Choose an interval that matches the speed of the subject:
- Fast clouds and traffic: 1 to 2 seconds
- Sunsets and slow clouds: 3 to 5 seconds
- Stars: 15 to 30 seconds, matching the exposure
Settings
- Manual exposure, manual focus and fixed white balance to avoid flicker
- Shutter speed around half the interval for smooth motion blur, using an ND filter in daylight
- Sony cameras have a built-in interval shooting function
Day-to-night transitions
Light changes dramatically at sunset. Use aperture priority with smoothing, or adjust exposure gradually and fix flicker later with software like LRTimelapse.
Power and heat
Long sequences drain batteries; use external power from a USB-C power bank. In the heat, a cooling fan helps prevent shutdowns.
Assemble
Edit one frame, sync settings to all, export, and combine into video in Premiere, DaVinci Resolve or Lightroom presets.
