how to make a timelapse video

[cadman70454]

I purchased Premiere Elements and Photoshop Elements to make timelapse videos.  I see nothing in the pdf manuals about making a timelapse. Did I buy the wrong software?

Lowell McCormick

[LariosoDog]

In PRE15 you can use time remapping tool to make a fast motion of a clip, but have not tried it myself.

But I prefer to do in like making stills, in intervals that I put on timeline, and set duration to 2-3 frames or so.

I do this in camera, or if camera does not have interval setting I use external remote that do it for me.

I like doing AEB seqyences even, to make HDR of some of it - but then only use normal exposure ones for time-lapse.

Unless camera allow to make time-lapse video in camera.

Excuse me if kicking in open doors and you know this already.

[Steve Grisetti]

LDog is right. How you do it depends on what you're using as your source media.

If you're working from still photos, you do it one way. If you're working from video, Time Remapping or even Time Stretch will work.

[cadman70454]

Thanks for the replies guys.  I have an intervalometer hooked to my Canon 50D.  I took a photo every 5 seconds of the setting Moon & Venus and have 1700 images, numbered sequentially.  The image size needs to be reduced to make a timelapse from the photos and I figured out how to do that in a couple of steps.  Now I'm trying to figure out how to put them in a timelapse.  I can do this with my Gopro Studio software but wanted to try it with more robust software like the Photoshop/Elements package.

Lowell McCormick

[Bill Sprague]

cadman70454 wrote:

.... Now I'm trying to figure out how to put them in a timelapse. ....

Lowell McCormick

Lowell,

It has been a long while since I tried this so I may have forgotten some details.  Now I have a newer camera that does the time lapse processing in the camera.  The needed trick is to set the "Still Image Default Duration" in the Edit > Preferences > General tab.

You start by opening a new project and setting the "Project Settings" where you want and checking the Force Settings box.  You probably want "AVCHD 1080p60".

Then you set the Default Duration.   Math and memory get me in trouble here.  But, you have to figure out how long you want your time lapse to play and how many shots you have.  The you figure out the duration. 

Once the project and default duration are set, you bring all your images in at once.  Hopefully the file names are numerical so that the order remains.  If not, bring them in in batches or rename them somehow. 

Unfortunately there is no way to change the Default Duration after the project is started.  If you don't like what you see, abandon the project and start a new one with a different duration.

One warning is that the computer has to do a lot of processing for this to work.  You need a strong one!

Good luck, I hope this helps.

Bill

[cadman70454]

Thanks Bill.  That's a good breadcrumb trail you left for me to follow.  I do CAD work so I have a couple of mid-level workstations that should work ok.

Lowell McCormick

[Bill Sprague]

cadman70454 wrote:

Thanks Bill. That's a good breadcrumb trail you left for me to follow. I do CAD work so I have a couple of mid-level workstations that should work ok.

Lowell McCormick

When you can, would you reply with how well it works for you? 

Bill

[cadman70454]

I will.  I will do another series of photos (Venus setting in the evening sky) but set the camera to 1080 rather than 4k so I can skip the step of reducing the photos and make the process easier to learn.  Baby steps.

Here are links to the short timelapse videos I made with a Gopro.  I'm trying to do the same thing with a DSLR's and a variety of lenses.

Venus at Sunset - YouTube

Orion, Taurus & The Pleiades - YouTube

Thanks again Bill,

Lowell McCormick

[Bill Sprague]

cadman70454 wrote:

.... but set the camera to 1080 rather than 4k so I can skip the step of reducing the photos and make the process easier to learn.....

Lowell McCormick

Lowell,

My experience with Premiere Elements is that resizing and pre-processing are not needed.  It does make it easier if the 16x9 ratio is maintained by the camera.  On my camera, RAW will not maintain the ratio, but it will with JPEG.

My bet is that you can bring as many 16x9 JPEGs directly into Premier Elements, without any preprocessing, as you want.   Apparently it didn't used to work very well on earlier versions running on weaker computers.  It does now. 

I've imported RAW files for slideshows, or inclusion with videos, with no problems.  Premier Elements keeps a hidden version of ACR somewhere!

Bill

[LariosoDog]

I use the software Digital Photo Professional that comes with Canon cameras.

If not set by camera already, you can easily set 16:9 on all images, raw too - and on export it will be cropped.

Then export as 8-bit TIF.

If using DPP 3.x or 4.x is a bit different, so don't know what OP might run with Canon 50D.

Version 3.x do it all inside editing selected images - but 4.x can do it in main window.

I am still experimenting, if to downsize to 1080p before import into video editor or not - if there is a noticable difference using higher quality downsizers or if video editor is good enough doing that job.

As I understand Photoshop has Bicubic algo for downsizing as option, so using that and then decide is my plan.

I import both at the moment making two time-lapses of each set of images, original size cropped to 16:9 - and downsized to 1080p - and will look closely if difference can be noticed.

Only way to learn I think, experiment a lot.

[cadman70454]

I got it to work but I've got to do a few more to do a good job.  I didn't have to resize the images, Premiere must have done that automatically.  In Premiere, I dropped 1800 sequenced photos into Project Assets with Get Media, then dropped all photos onto Video 1 Timeline.  In preferences, I changed duration to 1.  At 30 frames per second, that makes each frame display for  1/30 second.  Every step was hours to figure out because of poor documentation (my opinion).  After I added titles and music, I had some glitches because of my inexperience.  However, I see how the work flow should occur and where everything should go.  After I was done I found this youtube video that I started watching.  One thing I learned from the first video is that some commands are grayed out depending on if the Expert mode, Guided mode, etc is highlighted.  Now I have to make more videos for practice.

Here is a link to the first in the series of 8 videos of Photoshop Elements:

Photoshop Elements 15, Basic Training Part 1 of 8 - YouTube

And 1 of 8 tutorials for Premiere Elements:

Premiere Elements 15, Basic Training Part 1 - YouTube

Thanks for getting me on track guys,

Lowell

[Bill Sprague]

Lowell,

I'm pleased you got timelapse to work well enough.  I'm not sure the creators in India ever made timelapse an intended goal.  Yet, the program is flexible enough to make it work.

Your linked training video is done by the same Steve Grisetti that posts here so frequently.  His more thorough course is at Lynda.com, a subsidiary of Microsoft.  Access to Lynda.com can cost $25 for a month's time, but may also be available through your local library, company or organization.  The course is very good.  I've completed it a couple of times when I've upgraded versions. 

https://www.lynda.com/Photoshop-Elements-tutorials/Learning-Premiere-Elements-15/490861-2.html

Steve also is the author of the only book I know of about Premier Elements.  He keeps it current with each version release and it is very good. 

https://smile.amazon.com/Muvipix-com-Guide-Adobe-Premiere-Elements/dp/1537369318/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&...

Adobe does provide a detailed 275 page manual even though they don't make it easy to find!

https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/premiere-elements_reference.pdf

If you can, I would like to see the result of your time lapse effort.  Could you put a copy on YouTube or Vimeo?

Good luck with your projects!

Bill

[cadman70454]

Venus & Moonset HD 2 - YouTube

The other 2 timelapse videos on my channel were shot on a Gopro Hero 4 Silver and edited on Gopro Studio.

Lowell

[Bill Sprague]

Nice!  Thanks. 

Your videos inspire me to do more timelapse.  I have three different Panasonic cameras that all do it easily inside the camera. 

[Ann Bens]

It much easier to make a timelaps when importing the stills as an image sequence (less strain on the cpu)

Your stills need to be sequenctial.

Select first image,

Check Image sequence at the bottom of the window and hit Open.

Your timelaps will now be a movie instead of single 1 frame images.

Now its very simple to add effects if needed.

[Bill Sprague]

Ann,

Due respect, but could you be thinking of Premier Pro?   I don't think that Elements works with "sequences".

That said, you pointed me to trying to find your suggestion.  I could not find "image sequence" anywhere. 

To my pleasant surprise, you can select all the images in the Project Assets box, right click on any of them and select Create Slide Show.   The key advantage may be that you can change the duration here.  If you don't like the first result, you can do it over without starting a new project. 

Best...

Bill

[Ann Bens]

Sorry Elements calls it Numbered Stills. (note that the sceendump does not show consecutive stills.)

[minater247]

Thank you whsprague! I have been thinking about this for a while confuesed, and that was the only answer I've found concerning videos. Best thing ever! thank you!

[Bill Sprague]

Wow!  Thanks.  This is a topic over a year old!