Time lapse

What is Time-Lapse Photography?

This is well known technique that is used in cinematography. This captures a specific scene or object that has a slow state of change, this then is played back in high speed as a video.

How is it created?

Time lapse photography is created by capturing film frames at a lower speed that what it will be played back in the sequence as. Film is mainly shown at 24 frames/s, this is where 24 images will appear on the screen in one single second. The projection speed and recording speed are usually set to the same, the images will then look like they are moving at normal speed. If a film is recorded ar 12 frames/s then the images will appear to move twice as fast as what they would if they were captured at 24 frames/s.

History of Timelapse

Georges Melies was the first person to use time-lapse in a feature film, the feature film was called 'Carrefour De L'Opera it was filmed in 1897. It wasn't until 1909 when Jean Comandon established time-lapse photography of biological phenomena, she established this whils't in partnership with Pathe Freres. It was further established in the 1920s through a sequence of feaure films by Arnold Flack called 'Bergfilms'. 

Examples of Time-Lapse: