Category Archives: Time Lapse

Woicik Weather Sunset on September 14, 2017

After learning about LRTimelapse and figuring out how to connect it to an Android tablet to control the camera exposure using qDslrDashboard, I started trying to capture some images.

Here is first attempt.  It is converted to a movie using Panolapse just to see the overall exposure of the video and until I have time to properly learn LRTimelapse.  Panolapse also looks like a good program but liked the feature of LRTimelapse.

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Current configuration of Woicik Weather Video Blog

Periodically, the upload feature from Dropbox to Vimeo stops working.  I manually upload the time lapse videos using the Vimeo web page.  Recently, I noticed the Vimeo Videos WordPress plugin was outdated and my support contract had expired.  It is a great plugin and does exactly what I want but this is a hobby website and I didn’t want to play the cost to renewal.  So, I did some research found out that Zapier now offers a “zap” that will upload from Dropbox to YouTube.   You can create a free account which allows one “zap”.  I tested and it worked fine.  One added benefit was I could increase the time lapse video resolution back to HD quality since no limits on YouTube uploads compared to the weekly limits on the free account at Vimeo.

Time lapse e-book

I purchased the e-book about time lapses written by the developer on LRTimelapse.  Below are my notes from it plus another article I found related to one of the other time lapse software I reviewed.


Panolapse Field Guide (http://www.panolapse360.com/guide.php)

  • Aperture priority auto mode is unpredictable
  • Shoot in manual mode and adjust exposure every 10 minutes
  • Shutter speed
    • Half your interval time
    • So, for 5 second intervals, use 2.5 second exposure time
  • Interval time
    • 5 second interval for clouds and general scenes
    • 2 second for fast moving fog
    • 10 seconds for stars
  • Set manual focus
  • Disable auto-ISO

e-book (https://lrtimelapse.com/shop/ebook/)

  • Apps to calculate time lapsed
    • Android – Time Lapse Buddy
    • iOS – Time Lapse Helper
  • Print checklist from appendix
  • Aperture as wide as possible
  • Shutter 180-degree rule
    • 1/(frame rate * 2)
  • ISO as low as possible
  • Research neutral density filter ND 3.0 1000x
  • Turn off auto white balance
    • Manual to cloudy
  • RAW
  • Intervals
    • 3 to 5 seconds – common
    • 6 to 10 – sunsets
    • 15 to 30 – stars
  • Take a image of hand to split test and real images
  • Don’t use automatic modes
  • Holy Grail method
    • Alter settings when under or over exposed slightly
    • M mode
    • No neutral density filter
    • Check exposure using histogram
    • If too dark, increase ISO or shutter
    • If too light, decrease ISO or shutter
  • qDslrDashboard
    • Read on page 60
  • Editing and rendering
    • Read on page 79
  • Review checklist on page 161
  • Review cheat sheet on page 163

Time lapse software review

I have been posting on this website for years a daily time lapse of the weather conditions from my house. But recently, I wondered about doing a specific time lapse of a sunset. Since the current time lapse has images that are 1 minute apart, the sunset is usually very brief. Additionally, the subtle color changes in the sky are missed because the resolution of the web camera is low. I started doing some research and immediately learned I would need a timer. Interesting, I recently purchased an intervalometer. So, I setup the tripod one night and took some pictures.

The next step was to find some software to create the time lapse. The research below is the time lapse software I found.  This article helped on my initial research – http://www.learntimelapse.com/time-lapse-software/.  I categorized the software into three groups:  free, paid and expensive.  I will list them below.


Free Time Lapse Software

VideoMach (http://gromada.com/videomach/)

Though noted as free, VideoMach appeared to be shareware. Unfortunately, the last post on their news section was back in 2015 so didn’t research further since not sure if currently being developed.

VirtualDub (http://www.virtualdub.org/)

I didn’t research further also since it didn’t look like it was being actively developed since the last version was released in 2013.


Paid Time Lapse Software

Time-Lapse Tool (http://timelapsetool.com/)

Time-Lapse Tool looked very interesting. It had a free personal edition which would be good for testing. It seems to have all the necessary features to make time lapse movies.

Panolapse (http://www.panolapse360.com/)

Panolapse also looked interesting. It had features to help with flickering along with auto exposure controls to help with sunset time lapses with are called the “Holy Grail” of time lapses. It also had a feature to do virtual pans. The last version was released recently.

VideoVelocity (http://www.candylabs.com/videovelocity)

VideoVelocity does do time lapses but looked really focused on permanent installation like construction sites.


Expensive Time Lapse Software

LRTimelapse (https://lrtimelapse.com/)

LRTimelapse had all the features including flickering and auto exposure. The website also looked great on documentation and training along with continue development. The only negative was the requirement to use Adobe Lightroom.

GBTimelapse (http://www.granitebaysoftware.com/Default.aspx)

GBTimelapse required a Canon camera to be connected to a laptop via USB. Not technically a problem but seemed more restrictive than just using the camera itself.


I narrowed my research to Time-Lapse Tool, Panolapse and LRTimelapse. All three have a free mode with limitations. I took the first set of images and create a time lapse. Overall, all three work fine. The first two limit the resolution so can’t judge the output quality. But, they had good interfaces to work with. LRTimelapse had a more complicated workflow and the requirement to use Lightroom but I followed the tutorial and produced a time lapse. The quality was much better but again that is a demo limitation of the other two. LRTimelapse had a demo limitation of 400 images. But, I am continue researching LRTimelapse. With the integration of Lightroom, I know see the power of the editing capabilities once I learn how to use it all. Plus, there are many tutorials including an entire e-book.