Using Movement as Subject When Shooting Time-lapse

No matter what you are shooting–people, landscapes, weather, machines–your subject is essentially the movement of these elements within the frame.  You really need to develop a talent for pre-visualizing how this movement will look in time-lapse mode.

This skill will guide you in determining that important interval setting. As you look up at the sky and watch the clouds barely moving, or try to imagine a stadium filling with people before its actually happened, you will (with experience, make increasingly educated decisions about that span between exposures.

We also want to remind you that postproduction is going to become your best friend. Sometimes its better to just shoot more frames and then speed up the action in post.  This will take some of the guesswork out of trying to constantly answer the “how long” question.  But, don’t get lazy… you still want to develop your time estimation skills!