Timelapse tips - what you need

We've all probably seen a time-lapse video, at first we were excited and amazed how it works. For those who don't know what timelapse video is, it is a video or a group of photos that when played, it is played at faster speed.  That is that you see things moving faster than what our eyes normally see. If you seen my youtube channel, you will find few timelapse videos. I'll talk more about it, in details, in the future.

To properly make a timelapse videos you will need few items.

• Camera. Of course this does not need mentioning as it is an essential part of every photo or video.
• Intervalometer. This is a device that automatically takes a photo every preset interval of time. You don't want to stand there for hours taking a photo every 5 seconds, because first of all the video, when played, might look sort of weird, the video will not be consistent. Some part of the video might be a bit slow while the other a bit fast, no one is perfect and you can't guarantee you take a photo at exactly the interval you want. Another reason is that you dont want to stay hours just taking a photo of the same seen, you will get tired and bored. Other options: if you dont have intervalometer you can use the software that came with the camera (must be connected to a computer). Most of them include a software which allows you to control the camera and there is an option of taking a photo every predetermined interval of time. For Canon it is EOS utilities, for Nikon it is Nikon SDK. If you have different make check your owners manual or the supplied softwares. Also most modern cameras, even DSLR's, come with built-in intervalometer. This is good because you dont need extra accessories hanging from your camera, or you dont need the camera to be connected to a computer.
• Tripod. You need a tripod to make timelapse videos. If you dont have one with you, then you need to find a good and safe way to make sure the camera doesn't move when taking the photo. You don't want your video to look shaky. Make sure that each picture taken is the same as the previous one not pointing to a different position. There is an exception for that. If you have automated tripod head then you can use it to create a panning timelapse video. This create a cool effect, but you need to make sure that the tripod is moving really slowly and consistently (so dont use your hand to rotate it around). There are also many DIY's that explain how to convert simple rotating object to act like an automated tripod mount, but these usually work with small, light cameras. (an example of a DIY is an egg timer, just set the time for like an hour and fix the camera to it, depending on the model the camera will rotate a certain angle).

Optional

• AC power adapter. This highly recommended if you want to shoot for long hours. You will get frustrated from removing the battery, throw them in the charger and then switch turns with the other battery and repeating again and again and again. AC power adapter will allow you to plug the camera to the wall socket and never worry about keep on charging the batteries or batteries dying and losing all your progress.
• Neutral Density filters. These types of lenses dont effect your quality or color of your photo, it just darkens the photo so you can get slower shutter speeds during the day. Slower shutter speed means more motion blur which will make the moving objects in the video look smoother. Another method is to use some softwares that allow you to add motion blur. This requires you to speed up the video by certain amount, example 2x, or triple. 
• High capacity memory cards. You dont want to see that your memory ran out of space when you though that all this time the camera was taking photos.
• Calculation. Do your calculations about what time interval you want, how long you are going to shoot, what is the fps of the video... All these help you by not wasting a lot of battery juice, space on memory, also when doing the video, less photos mean that the video will be small in size and it is faster to render.