Getting Started
Welcome! This tutorial will explain the steps I take when using my iPhone to create time-lapse movies shot from commercial airliners, as seen above. I will be explaining how I use iTimeLapse Pro, my app of choice in this post which is a companion to another post I wrote on Digital Photography School that explains the process of setting up the shoot to ensure best results from the app. I suggest you check out that post in addition to this one to gather the whole picture (pun intended, always).
iTimeLapse Pro is a very useful app as it will shoot and create the video for you. No need to download the images and compile them in a computer. That does create some limitations in regard to exposure smoothing between images, but for what it is, this app is a great tool. Here then are my suggestions for using the app to gain the most of airborne time-lapse shoots.
Turn Off Auto Lock
Auto Lock is your enemy here. Turn it off. It can be found by going to your iPhone’s Settings menu, then General then Auto-Lock. When your phone locks, image capture stops.
Name Your Video Before You Start
Speaking from experience, naming videos before you start is the way to go. In the excitement of creating these short movies, I have often become confused about which video is which. They all start to look the same when the sample image is of the horizon and ground.
Bigger Is Not Always Better
The app has a number of settings for the camera resolution. I choose the Good settings of 1920×1440. This allows for longer videos without making them too huge. For instance, at this setting I shot the SEA-LAX video with 690 frames on this setting (which, the app tells me, is about 2.6MB/image). The final size on disk of that video’s still images is 1.1GB, while the final video is only 39MB (at 720p HD). If I had shot this at the Best setting, it would have taken up 2GB on disk and this can be problematic at times.
Use The Start Delay
The start delay will be your friend and stop you from becoming too frantic while setting up your shoot.
Turn The Flash Off, Mostly
There is a flash feature on this app and for shooting video out plane windows, it is all but useless. Turn it off so it doesn’t accidentally (in auto mode) decide to come on. This feature will becomign available when you start capturing your images. Leaving a long Start Delay will help you turn this feature off without messing up your shots.
Judge Your Timing
Timing for time-lapse is greatly influenced by speed and distance. If objects are further away, you will need a longer interval between shots to show movement (or risk a super long video that no one will watch). If objects are very close, shorter timing is needed. For a typical flight, I prefer every 4 seconds when at altitude. This allows for a smooth enough movement and a decent video length.
Turn The Volume Off
By default iTimeLapse Pro makes a shutter sound with each shot. In a plane, this is not that big of a deal as the ambient noise will likely cover it up. Still, I notice the noise once in a while, even with my bad hearing, and wonder where it’s coming from. It’s best to not have to listen to it (and this is helpful advice for other shooting situations as well). Don’t do this if you are still listening to music on your iPhone.
Record Ample Shots
Most video plays back at 24 frames a second or 30 frames a second. I have found, with shooting at a frame every four seconds, I can get decent video down to 16 frames a second on a plane. This means, if I want to capture 10 seconds of film (just about a minimum for most viewers) I need to capture 160 frames. That will take about 11 minutes when all is said and done. Do this calculation first so you are not tempted to stop early just to see what you got.
Now all you need to do is hit Start Time Lapse, align the camera and shoot away! TIP: Use the window shade to hold the camera in place, or grab a GorillaMobile to help keep the camera in the best location.
When you are finished recording, press Exit to be brought back to the main menu.
Edit Out The Bad Frames
Maybe setting up the iPhone didn’t go as smoothly as you hoped and you captured a few extra frames. Or perhaps the last 20 frames weren’t needed. Click on the Details tab and then click Edit Frames. On this screen you can remove any frame, anywhere, the doesn’t work for you.
Rendering Options
On the Render screen you have a number of options. The first is frames per second. As I mentioned, I suggest 16 frame a second for plane flights otherwise the video can be quite fast. Play with this and see what works best for you. There is also the option to create a video to a particular length.
Change the file name to something intelligent so you can find it later.
Video resolution is up to you. I suggest choosing 1080p video and pick the 1440×1080 option, unless you shot your video with the idea of cropping out the top and bottom. If you make your video 16:9 ratio, it will not compress the proportions, it will simply crop off the top and bottom.
A Music Soundtrack can be added as well on this screen so you can pick a song from your library.
Video Quality? 100%, unless space on your phone is an issue.
After clicking Render Now, your phone will create the video for you to watch. For the example here with 690 frames, it took 7 minutes. You can leave it to run in the background but you can’t create another time-lapse while it runs. So it might be a good idea to capture your videos while the time is right then render them when the capturing moments have passed.
Share!
When your video is finished, it’s time to share with the world. There are three online options here; YouTube, Facebook and Vimeo. As expected, each will require a one time authentication with the service in order to share, but after that, you’re set.
There are options to save the movie to your Camera Roll so it can be used with other apps. You can also email the video if it is small. USB is an option to copy the file to your computer when connected via USB and with iTunes running. Instructions for all of these methods popup when selected. Lastly, Local Wifi Sharing is available if your cable is not available.
Conclusion
Oh! One more note. You can listen to music while the images are being captured. Just make sure to start it before the action begins.
iTimeLapse is a fun app with even more features than mentioned here. It is a useful tool that does just want I need it to do when creating fun time-lapse videos from a plane.
Suggested Equipment:
- iPhone 4s
- iTimeFrame Pro app
- Laptop for extended battery life
- GorillaMobile for iPhone
- Patience
- A good window seat
