Time lapse videography presents an opportunity for businesses to impress customers by showing them something from a fresh and interesting perspective. For example, while you might not be interested in viewing the full transition from sunrise to sunset in a video that lasts 12 hours, you would probably take the time to watch the entire process if it was condensed to 10 seconds. Like an effective executive summary in a long report, time lapse videos enable you to be “short and sweet” with your video presentations. This post provides an introduction to this useful video strategy.
What Is Time Lapse Videography?
The basic concept of time lapse photography involves recording an entire scene with slow rates of change and then playing back the result in a condensed video by using high speeds. You can start the process by placing a stationary camera that takes a series of photos for hours or days. The final result is an abbreviated version that takes only a few seconds or minutes to watch.
How to Create the Time Lapsing Effect
If you want to know the basics of how to make a time lapse video, here is an overview. The first step is to determine the “final” duration of your time lapse video — perhaps 10 seconds. In step 2, calculate the frame rate you will use — most videos are between 20 and 30 frames per second (fps), and smoother transitions are more likely with a higher fps.
With step 3, calculate the number of shots needed with a formula — FPS times the projected duration. For example, 240 shots for 24 fps times 10 seconds.
Watching a 2-minute video at 24 fps involves 2,880 photos or frames. If you take one photo every minute when recording the sun gradually setting over 12 hours, you will end up with 720 photos. With a 24 fps compression, your time-lapse video will be 30-seconds long.
Editing a Time Lapse Video
In most cases, the most difficult and time-consuming part of time lapse videography is the editing process. After all, you are dealing with hundreds or thousands of images that you might want to tweak — for example, cropping, brightness, special effects and white balance adjustments. Then you will finally be ready to merge all of your photos into the final version of your time-lapse video. If this is new to you or you simply want some help in getting the editing and merging phases done more quickly, consider using experts.
Examples of Applying Time Lapse Effects to Business Videos
Here are three examples of time lapse videos for businesses:
- Real Estate Companies — Photograph a building site to record the transition from new construction to completion of a home or commercial property. In addition to showing your potential customers what the process looks like along the way, you can document productivity and progress for internal business monitoring purposes.
- Trade Show Activity — You can demonstrate the popularity of your product or service by documenting the attention received at fairs or trade shows.
- Store or Manufacturing Activity — Show customers what your retail store or manufacturing site looks like over an extended period.
To Time Lapse or Not?
Increasing sales and winning new customers in a competitive business environment means opening new doors wherever you can find them. If you want to experience rapid popularity on social media, “cool time lapse videos” should be an integral part of your strategy. Time lapse videos also represent a superb way to tell your story in less time — this benefit is especially valuable when potential customers have a limited attention span. Video Caddy would be pleased to give you ideas, add eye-catching special effects and help you at every step of your exciting time lapse video journey.
Have you used time lapse videos in your business? What were the results? Please share your experiences below and via social media buttons.
– VideoCaddy
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