Get Started With Night Time-Lapses in the City Using These Tips

Shooting time-lapse video can be a slow start for many videographers. There’s a lot of time put into capturing every scene, and so when you’re just learning the ropes, mistakes in scene selection or camera setup can mean hours of shooting time thrown away. In this video, Moritz Janisch of Fenchel & Janisch gives newcomers some helpful tips on shooting better quality time-lapses in the city at night.

Night time-lapses in the city can be especially amazing because of the amount of visual stimulus that’s moving or changing in just a brief amount of time. From cars driving down streets and stopping and going to the changing of traffic lights, pedestrians walking about, the moving reflections on water, or how the clouds illuminate over taller buildings, there’s a lot of opportunity to find an interesting story to share in video.

A few tips shared by Janisch include how to decide exposure time, what time of year is preferred for city time-lapse, file formats, and the use of keyframes to animate your scenes in postproduction.

Share any of your recent city time-lapse work in the comments below. Do you have any additional tips to share with beginners?

[via Fenchel & Janisch]

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Ryan Mense is a wildlife cameraperson specializing in birds. Alongside gear reviews and news, Ryan heads selection for the Fstoppers Photo of the Day.

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1 Comment

Great tips, definitely needed to get the most out of these shots, it's not easy to figure out yourself that's for surs