[How-To] Create High Quality Timelapse on Mobile Phone
INTRODUCTION ^
The memories are still fresh in my mind the old ways of doing timelapse back in the days where I will take out my system camera and get it mounted on a tripod, hook it up to an intervalometer then compose the shot with the right setup on the ISO and Shutter Speed. Sit down there few hours and wait for all the shots to be completed. After which, goes back to my PC and process every single shots (as a batch) and create a video out of it.
Timelapse used to be a thing which only those who owns a system camera or interchangeable camera can do but now with smartphone and smart applications getting more and more developed, everyone gets easy access to timelapse creation with just 1 click on their smartphone.
If timelapse is so easy to create, what is this post about??? I am not here to show you which application does the best 1-click timelapse, I am here instead to show you how to do high quality timelapse the OG way. If you are keen to find out how to go beyond a 1-click timelapse and upgrade your timelapse quality, read on! Trust me when I say that the OG way of doing timelapse allows you access to techniques which not a single 1-click timelapse application can do.
APPLICATIONS ^
There are going to be 2 components for this exercise, 2 applications you will need from start to end. As mentioned earlier, there are totally free options you can choose to create a timelapse video from your mobile phone but this is not what I will be showing. From the 2 components, 1 of them is a paid application which you will need from Google Play.
1. Intervalometer by MobilePhoton on Google Play [Paid] - Mobile Phone
2. LRTimelapse [Limited Free] - PC
LRTimelapse by right is considered an advanced Timelapse application meant to work with Adobe Lightroom but if you ignore all the scary looking buttons and focus on the key features required for this demonstration, it will be enough to fulfill the task. The free version is available for use to anyone but comes with a limitation of processing of not more than 400 photos plus some other advanced features which again is not required here.
CAPTURE ON MOBILE ^
When I mentioned doing timelapse the OG way, I meant it. That means using an Intervalometer. But wait a second here??? There is no way we can connect an Intervalometer to a mobile phone, those devices are for the system cameras. Well, we do it using an application on your smartphone.
Unfortunately, there are no free applications available on the Android or IOS for the matter. The paid application that I will be using for demonstration is for Android only, you can use the same technique if you own an Iphone but I don't own an Iphone unfortunately to include that in the demonstration.
This Intervalometer can be found here. It is not very costly, just a few bucks and I definitely recommend it if you are keen to pursuit this.
Now that we got that out of the way, let the fun begins. Get the Intervalometer downloaded first and let's get started!
First of all, this method works best on the manual mode on your camera although it can also be used on the auto mode. I will demonstrate this on manual mode for the benefit of those who are keen to learn this the right way.
1. Enable Accessibility for Intervalometer.
2. Select default camera app the Intervalometer will work with.
3. Set Shutter Position to be overlaid over the camera app Shutter Button.
4. Go to your camera app and enable Manual Mode or Pro Mode. What I am about to say is very important, try to follow as closely as possible. Due to the limitation of the camera of the mobile phone, we can only play around with the ISO and Shutter Speed but not the Aperture. Please make sure to set the photo resolution to 16:9, this is very important. (Your camera Manual Mode may not look exactly the same as mine)
5. Fix an amount for the ISO to a suitable setting. You may use this as a guide: i: For a daytime setup with good lighting, set ISO to anything between 50 to 200 ii: For a daytime setup under shade, set ISO to anything between 200 to 400 iii: For an evening or night setup, you will need to go over 400 but try not to set it above 800 Due to a small sensor size, I won't encourage setting the ISO over 800. The higher the ISO you go, the higher the noise level it will give you. (Your camera Manual Mode may not look exactly the same as mine)
6. For the Shutter Speed, I will technically recommend doing Manual Shutter Speed adjustment. But if you are doing a jump from a 1-click timelapse app, I will suggest you use Auto Shutter Speed for now and maybe revisit the Manual Shutter Speed adjustment in future when you are more comfortable with manual setting on your camera.
7. Set the number of images you want to take in total. The rule of thumb here is to calculate it based on the FPS (frames per second). Example, if you are using the standard 30fps: i. 1 photo for each frame will give you 30 photos required for each second. ii. If you require a timelapse that has a duration of 10 seconds, the total number of photos you require will be 30 photos/second x 10 second (length of timelapse) = 300 photos.
8. Set the Interval according to what kind of scene you want to create. This value determines the time between each taken shot. You may use this as a guide: i. For a landscape setup, an Interval Amount of around 10 will be suitable. ii. For an action based fast paced setup, an Interval Amount between 1 to 3 will be suitable. Feel free to experiment with the setting but the rule of thumb here is to use long Interval for slow pace setup and short Interval for a fast pace setup.
9. Select the Start button on screen and that's it. Sit back, relax and wait. Just make sure you have your phone mounted on a tripod.
Believe me, that was the hardest part of this demonstration. Things should go easier after we copy all the photos that you have taken into your PC for processing.
EDITING ON PC ^
Before you create a timelapse video out of the photos, you will need to go through all the photos and ensure that there is no anomalies between all the photos and that meant the exposure and white balance are as equally matched as possible. If your composition includes having a gradually increasing exposure due to lighting of the shooting location, ensure at least that is consistently increasing.
This may seem a bit confusing for those of you who are not familiar with such photo editing before but if your camera settings are spot on and there is no sudden change in the lighting on the composition, it should not get any anomalies on the set of photos you have taken.
LRTimelapse is meant to work along side Adobe Lightroom for synchronous photo editing but for this demonstration, you can ignore most of the scary buttons. It may look intimidating if you have not use this application before but if you follow step by step what I will show you, you should be alright.
After you are done with that, open up LRTimelapse.
1. Open up LRTimelapse and locate and select the folder which you have placed your timelapse photos. Please make sure the folder only has the photos meant for the timelapse.
2. You can preview the potential output of the timelapse video.
3. As this demonstration is meant for a total beginner who is looking to pick up some basic of timelapse (not talking about those 1-click timelapse applications that you can use on your smartphone, those are not exactly timelapse), I am not going to go into how to use LRTimelapse in detail. After previewing the video, go straight to Rendering the Video.
4. Select Export & Render Current Sequence. At this time, it will most likely prompt an error about a missing Adobe DNG Converter. Ignore this as we are not using Adobe Lightroom and Raw Photos.
5. Choose where you want to export the video to.
6. Set the following: i. Codec - Set it to H264 (that's the only one available for free to use) ii. Output Size - I would suggest 1080p unless there is a good reason you want to use 720p iii. Quality - Set it to High iv. Speed (Frame Rate) - It depends on what timelapse you were taking. Honestly at this stage, either a 30 fps or 60fps should do fine. v. Leave the rest as default.
7. Export & Render! That's it!!!
CONCLUSION ^
What you just went through is seriously a very basic way of doing proper timelapse and when I said proper timelapse, I went meant that. Stay away from those 1-click timelapse that are available to you on your smartphone because what fun would that be plus those are just video that was speed up.
If there is a demand for more advanced timelapse, I can do that in future. For now, even auto camera mode or a semi-manual mode sure beats those 1-click timelapse application. I have mentioned 1-click timelapse so many times that I have lost count. While this is not to berate anyone or anything, it is just me trying to encourage more to learn timelapse the proper way. For now, I am signing out. If there are any question(s), feel free to comment below or even email me.
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