Time-Lapse Calculator — Intervals & Duration

Clouds: 3–5s. Sunset/sunrise: 5–10s. Stars: 20–30s. Traffic: 1–3s. Construction: 5–30min. Flowers blooming: 1–5min. The interval determines how smooth the motion appears and how much the scene is compressed — shorter intervals give smoother, slower motion but need more frames and storage.

Frames needed = 10s × 24fps = 240 frames. At 5-second intervals: 240 × 5 = 1,200s = 20 minutes of shooting. At 10-second intervals: 240 × 10 = 2,400s = 40 minutes. Longer intervals need longer shoot times for the same clip length.

RAW gives more flexibility for exposure correction and colour grading, especially for sunrise/sunset where light changes dramatically. JPEG saves storage but limits post-processing. For holy grail (day-to-night) time-lapses, RAW is essential for smooth exposure transitions.

Shoot in full manual exposure so ISO, shutter and aperture stay fixed between frames. Aperture flicker comes from the lens blades not closing to exactly the same size each shot, so lock the aperture: use a lens with a manual aperture ring, or apply the lens-twist trick to keep an electronic lens stopped down at a fixed setting. For changing light (sunrise/sunset) use bulb ramping, then clean up any residual flicker with deflicker software in post.