Timelapse Step-By-Step Tutorial

This is a short step-by-step how-to on the production workflow of timelapse videos using a free software toolchain presented in the comprehensive article.

Prepare Your Equipment

• Camera: Charge battery, bring replacement battery or battery pack
• Memory card or built-in memory: Check for sufficient free memory
• Intervalometer: Check battery
• Tripod: Bring also tripod adapters or clamps if required

Choose Scene

It is a good option to choose very slow, continuous or recurring movements, examples:

• Clouds, sun, moon, stars, people
• Cars, trains, ships
• Floating water
• Moving objects or light sources reflecting in standing water

Capture Pictures

• Mount camera on tripod
• Adjust camera settings:
  • Set file format to RAW (if possible)
  • Set white balance to manual or static preset
  • Set focus to manual, adjust focus properly on scene
  • Set fixed sensitivity (Example: ISO 100)
  • Set fixed aperture value (Example: f/8)
  • Set fixed exposure time (Example: 1/200 seconds)
• Adjust intervalometer settings:
  • Temporal distance between two shots (Example: 4 seconds)
  • Number of pictures (Example: 100 pictures = 4 seconds video at 25 fps)
• Start recording using the intervalometer
• Take care of the tripod and the camera (wobbling handrails, wind, people, animals)
• Wait for all shots to be taken

Process RAW Files with RawTherapee

• Copy pictures from your camera or memory card to your computer
• Load first picture for processing in RawTherapee (GPLv3):
  • Adjust settings depending on scene
  • Crop and resize to target video dimensions (Example: 1920 × 1080 for HD videos)
  • Save settings as a profile
• Select all pictures of the timelapse scene and apply your profile
• Adjust compression level for output of JPEG files (Example: 90 Percent)
• Append all pictures to the processing queue
• Start processing (if not starting automatically)
• Wait for all pictures to be processed

Assemble Pictures to a Video File

• Assure continuous numbering of the pictures' file names, consider renaming
• Load the first picture in VirtualDub (GPLv2) or Avidemux (GPLv2)
• Select compression algorithm (Example: x264 aka. MPEG-4 AVC)
• Save as AVI
• Watch video in VLC media player (GPLv2)

Optional: Further Post-Processing

• Get an audio track (Example: Music from Soundcloud, filter by suitable license)
• Processing in Blender (GPLv2):
  • Example: Compose multiple timelapse scenes
  • Example: Add overlays and text