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Time Slice 1.0 has been a huge success! I created the Time Slice desktop app because I was frustrated with how difficult it was to create this relatively simple effect of slicing the individual frames of a time-lapse to make a single image. It’s been really fun to use on my own projects such as the example I shot above of the Salt Lake City skyline. It’s also been really fun to see examples other photographers have sent me that they have put together using the app.
I recently received a new camera, the Canon 5DS and I wanted to see how Time Slice handled the huge 50 megapixel images.
Turns out the app handles them just fine, although the processing may take a little longer than lower resolution source images. Here is a video walkthrough of the Time Slice 1.0 app. Take a look if you are curious how the app works:
Here are some other tips and tricks I’ve learned while shooting and working with images you intend to compile into a time slice:
- Shoot your time-lapse on manual mode, custom white balance. The most compelling images show a gradual transition from day to night or night to day. This is why city scenes work so well as there is still light after the sun goes down. If your camera is on auto white balance, the color of each frame may differ as the light changes. Also, shooting in aperture or shutter priority mode won’t work as the camera will try to get the same exposure for every frame.
- Use longer intervals between shots. Again, time slice images work best when they show a transition over time. If you are compiling a time-lapse for the purpose of making a video then you typically want shorter intervals (1-10 seconds) so that the motion in your video is smooth. For a time slice however, it’s nice to see a little more drastic change between each frame. The example at the top of this post was shot with intervals of 40 seconds between each shot. Even with this longer interval, I still ended up with more frames than I needed in the final time slice. The Time Slice 1.0 app does allow you to skip images, so you can always shoot shorter intervals than you think you’ll need and easily reduce the number of frames used while configuring your settings. Watch the video above for an overview of the settings available.
- Start early, shoot late. I’ve found that the most interesting results happen when you have a good balance of daylight shots and night shots. It’s ideal to start shooting before sunset when things are still bright and end when the sky is dark.
- Use Adobe Bridge or Lightroom to get a thumbnail overview of your batch. If you shoot in Raw (which I suggest) you can adjust single frames that stand out as being too bright or too dark. These programs are also great for batch converting your images to JPG, which is necessary before importing them into the Time Slice 1.0 app.
Did you purchase Time Slice 1.0? I’d love to see what you come up with using the program and I’d also love your feedback if you have found bugs or have feature suggestions. Let me know in the comments!