Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @45mm, f/11, 1/800s, ISO 400.

I’ve been shooting time-lapse sequences ever since the second day I owned a Nikon D700 and realized that it had a built intervalometer. That means I have thousands of pictures I’ve never done anything with at all. In the last year and half, however, I’ve attended some great classes from and our own Rich Harrington and they’ve shown me how simple it is to use Photoshop to finish a time-lapse sequence with a professional touch. Since Photoshop is familiar, learning a new tool is easy*.

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These two videos show two tips I use all the time now. The first demonstrates how you can zoom in or pan or both during your video. the key to remember is that even full HD video is only a two mega pixel image. That means my 20+ megapixel time-lapse contains enough picture to make multiple videos using different parts of the frame, or different moves through the frame. It can look like a Ken Burns effect, or even a slider/jib move. Watch the video and you’ll see what I mean.

The second shows how to add audio tracks, like music, to a time-lapse (or any video) as well as text and credit pages. You can even use the first video’s techniques to make text move across the screen. If you think a little bit about your favorite TV show I think you’ll see that most of the credit sequences could be done using our best friend, Photoshop.

*Quick correction to what I said in the videos: These techniques are for CS5 Extended, CS6 Extended, or CC. Unfortunately, CS4 extended won’t do video.