Timelapses are often some of the most rewarding photo projects. Many people just don't know how to shoot them properly. In the following instruction set, I will outline how to create a day-to-night timelapse from start to finish. This instruction set is for those who already have a basic knowledge of how to expose a camera properly and have an hour or two of free time. The basic setup only takes a couple of minutes!
Here's a nightlapse that I shot in the Domincan Republic!
Find your location.
Choose an angle that has a foreground. In the timelapse above, I used the trees as my foreground.
Place your camera on a sturdy tripod. If your tripod is light, put weight on it to stabilize it. You may be able to use rocks or your camera bag. If it is windy outside, your camera could shake.
Choose either landscape or portrait orientation. Portrait orientation may be better for applications such as Tiktok or Instagram Reels.
Choose your lens. Longer focal lengths compress your image and make the sun appear bigger on the horizon.
Set your camera to aperture priority mode. This will allow for the camera to change the shutter speed automatically to adjust for the change in light.
Set your exposure to 15-25 seconds. These exposures will reduce star trailing and retain a sharper image.
Set up your camera's internal interval shooting mode. If your camera does not have an interval shooting mode, use an intervalometer.
Choose a timeframe. If you are shooting a day-to-night timelapse you will want to make sure that you are shooting for at least 3 hours or 1.5 hours before sunrise to 1.5 hours after.
Choose the number of photos you would like to shoot. For a 3 hour day-to-night timelapse that converts to a 10-second timelapse, I would recommend shooting 20-second exposures with 29-second intervals. This would render a 10-second video at 30 frames-per-second.
Set your focus to manual and shoot a couple of sample shots to make sure your focus is correct.
Make sure your batteries are charged and your memory cards are empty before starting.
Start your timelapse.
Periodically check your camera to make sure it hasn't been bumped or your batteries or memory hasn't run out. You often don't get a second chance to shoot it correctly.
Compile your timelapse in your program of choice. LR Timelapse is my personal favorite.
That's it! Thanks for reading!
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