Note: watch the timelapse video above in at least 720p.
This timelapse was taken inside two different libraries and at different locations within the library. I wanted to show the duality between busy and calm. Its so quiet inside the library. Everyone is doing their own stuff that they need to get done. But it also it has a lot of foot traffic. So many people pass by, use the computers, sit down and read, and even sleep sometimes. Hey, a little nap after a lot of studying can definitely help. Libraries are often associated with being quiet and calm. But I also wanted to show that they are actually quite busy. One photo wouldn’t do justice. So why not take 5000 photos and just do a timelapse?!
The library wouldn’t allow a tripod since it is a trip hazard. So I couldn’t use my dSLR and honestly the dSLR shutter is noisy in a calm environment, especially when it goes off every 5 seconds for 7 hours. Thus, I just used my very capable iPhone 4. It has an unlimited shutter life and makes no noise at all. It is sneaky too! No one would ever know. Keep on reading further to find out how I did this. In short, Gorillacam app -> Lightroom 3 -> Windows Live Movie Maker -> YouTube.
- Basically, I used the free Goriallacam app on iPhone 4 to take some 5000 shots at 5 second intervals (almost 7 hours).
- After done with each scene/segment, I transferred the photos to my laptop since my iPhone doesn’t have a whole of space free.
- Imported the photos in Adobe’s Lightroom 3 (LR3) and converted them to black and white.
- Before exporting them from LR3, I cropped them to 1920 x 1080 so I could make a full HD timelapse. This step took a serious amount of time considering I had 5000 photos to export and my computer constantly overheated and had to shutdown.
- Then I imported the 1920 x 1080 cropped photos into Windows Live Movie Maker (free software for Windows). Alternatively, you can also use iMovie (Mac or iOS only) or Quicktime Pro (for either Windows or Mac). I didn’t import all 5000 photos into one project. I made the timelapse clips out of individual segments/scenes first and then combined them all together in the end. Tip: You can import all the photos into the film strip at once by clicking CTRL+A for Windows or just by right clicking and clicking on Select All.
- In Windows Live Movie Maker, the default time each image is showed is 7 seconds. That is way too long for a timelapse, which happen to show 25 images per second (meaning 125 seconds is compressed down to 1 second in the video). So I changed the 7 seconds down to 0.04 seconds (25 frames per second) for all the photos in the film strip (Remember the previous tip: CTRL+A for selecting everything at once). Select all the photos in the film strip, and go to the Edit menu at the top to change the Duration of photos to suit your taste. 30 fps would be 0.033 seconds. 60 fps would be 0.0167 seconds. 24 fps would be 0.042 seconds.
- Once the time has been set, I exported each clip at 1080p setting in Windows Live Movie Maker. Exporting takes time. So be patient.
- As soon as all my 7 clips were ready, I imported the timelapse clips back into Windows Live Movie Maker. I messed around with some transitions and applied a title and an ending.
- Optional: At this stage, if you have some music, you can add it your project. There are lots of website that let you download and use creative commons music without a licensing fee. If you do that, be sure to credit the artist who composed the music/song.
- I exported the whole timelapse to my hard drive without music. Get a cup of coffee or do something else while this is happening.
- Now I uploaded the timelapse, without music, to YouTube.
- YouTube has an AudioSwap program that can swap out the original audio and add music/song in their AudioSwap library. In return, it shows a little ad on your video. They have tons of music for AudioSwap. Browse through it and apply the track you like. It takes a few minutes for the music to be applied to your video.
- Share the timelapse you have just created.
MOST IMPORTANT TIPS:
Note: These tips are for iOS devices and Gorillacam app. But they can be generalized to other iOS apps or Android devices and their respective apps.
- Remember iPhone is a phone. So you might get a phone call, while your phone is taking photos. It may even get emails and text messages. Phone may vibrate too (depending upon your settings). So make sure to put it in Airplane Mode so it disables wifi and cellular signal. Airplane Mode is absolutely necessary and very useful for this type of a project.
- Turn off alarms set on your iPhone. Because if your alarm goes off while Gorillacam is taking photos, it will stop taking photos and hence ruining your timelapse segment.
- Turn down the screen brightness to the lowest. You don’t want your phone to run out of batteries while doing this.
- Also, you need to make your the screen stays on and the phone doesn’t auto lock. Because if it auto locks, Gorillacam is going to stop taking photos. Keeping the brightness to the lowest helps because it uses less batteries and also the screen wouldn’t get hot.
- If you are shooting a timelapse straight at the sun, the sensor would get hot and that could turn off your iPhone to let it cool down. If I am shooting towards the sun or outside in direct sunlight, I had figure out a way and point a fan straight at the iPhone. I have done that before and it works very well.
- I like to keep the iPhone attached to an electrical outlet so it has power throughout the whole time. This is optional however. Some remote places you might not be able to get power. Or you could buy one of these Energizer battery packs.
- Make sure that in the Settings tab in Gorillacam app, under the Image Size section, the setting for Save to Album be at Full Size. Otherwise it will save photos at 1600 x 1200 or 800 x 600 pixels.
- Optionally, if you have a GorillaPod, it would be nice for stability. I don’t have one. But I have an iPhone 4 that has a very straight edge. So I just rest the iPhone 4 on a table and it will not topple over (unless it vibrates or someone bumps hard onto the table).
- When taking shots for a timelapse using Gorillacam, do not set the Interval to 1 sec. That would fill iPhone’s cache, and the app would pause while taking photos because there are some 30 photos in line that need to be saved to the Camera Roll first before it takes any more photos. That could ruin a timelapse segment.
OTHER TIPS:
- There are lots of dedicated iPhone apps specifically for timelapse, some paid and some free. I have several of them and really not impressed by any of them. All of them compress your photos and save may be only up to 720p resolution videos. Why did I use Gorillacam app? Well, it is free. Also, most importantly, it saves original full resolution photos straight to the Camera Roll. It doesn’t compress them or crop them.
- For using Quicktime Pro (not free software) to make the timelapse, you have to open it as an image sequence. If your timelapse has different scenes like mines, I would put together individual timelapse clips first and then put together the whole timelapse in Windows Live Movie Maker or iMovie (or other professional video editors from Apple and Adobe).
- iMovie for iPhone/iPad can only handle 720p videos. And it also costs $4.99 on the app store. There are other free video editing apps for both iOS and Android.
HAPPY TIMELAPSING! Feel free to share your latest timelapse creations with your smartphone on here.
Thanks for sharing your wonderful time lapse video & tips.
Maybe you could use the batch mode of http://www.irfanview.com/ to save all the time cropping in step 4. You could even convert to grayscale at the same time.