Instagram has recently released a new camera app called Hyperlapse that adds a dose of steroids to your videos and lets you record stylish videos to create an effect that would otherwise only be possible with professional equipment.
Hyperlapse is a free download. Available on the iTunes App Store, and if you’re wondering what it does, it’s all in the name. If you don’t know what hyper-jump is, it’s actually an animated time-lapse video. If you’ve watched time-lapse videos before, you’ll notice that the camera is usually still and doesn’t move. However, with a hyper jump, the camera’s position constantly moves, adding a new perspective and dimension to time-lapse videos.
Creating professional-looking hyperlapse videos takes a lot of time and patience and often requires professional photography or video equipment, but Instagram’s new Hyperlapse app claims you can easily do it with just your iPhone or iPad.
The app uses your iPhone’s gyroscope while shooting and then flattens the images, similar to stabilization techniques used in many cameras and video editing software. From there, the app speeds up the video (or you can drop it in real time) to create the time-lapse portion. And then it combines the two to create a hyperlapse.
If you’re interested in creating truly epic hyperlapse videos with the Hyperlapse app, here are some tips and tricks you can try to take your Hyperlapse recording to the next level.
Have Good Lighting
This is a very fundamental principle in all types of photography and videography, and even amateur photography enthusiasts know it, but it’s important to reiterate. Make sure you have good lighting when recording your hyperlapse video.
What exactly does this mean? All you have to do is make sure you have a light source pointing at your subject and try not to have any light source behind it. This will create a silhouette and you won’t be able to see your subject as the light overwhelms it.
Fortunately, getting good lighting isn’t too difficult because all you have to do is go outside and use the sun. But if you’re determined to stay indoors, it helps to open windows to let the light in or turn on the lights to keep the room well lit.
Keep Your iPhone Steady
Ok, Hyperlapse already includes a built-in image stabilizer to get rid of any instability in the video, but the more stable the video is already, the better the app can stabilize it and make it as smooth as possible.
The image stabilization technology in the app is not 100% perfect, so due to the instability of your video, the app may not be able to stabilize it completely and make it look smooth. That’s why it’s important that you don’t be smug with features and try to manually balance your best.
Know Which Accelerated Speed to Use
You can choose different playback speeds to have a slow accelerated or fast speed. You can choose speeds up to “12x”; this results in a fast time-lapse video that makes time pass extremely fast in the video. However, you can keep the video at “1x” and keep the image stabilization intact, so you’ll have a normal video, but still and without camera shake.
You can also choose 2x and 4x up to 12x, so it’s important to make sure you choose the right speed depending on the video you’re recording based on the length of the video. If you only recorded a 15-second video, you don’t want to choose 12x because the video will only be a second or two long.
However, if your video is a few minutes long, you don’t want it to be 1x or 2x because then the video will be too long and viewers will start to get bored, so make sure you time your video – skip the speed wisely.
Be creative
The most important tip to remember when recording great videos with the Hyperlapse app is just to be creative. Think of fun things to record and play back in time-lapse.
Obviously, the more things move in the frame, the more interesting your video will be. Go to a busy place and record all the people walking around, or set up your iPhone in your car like a dash cam and record your commute and play it back in time-lapse.
Things like this can add some serious color to your Hyperlapse videos, and the more motion to record, the better your videos will be.
Support our work ❤️
If you enjoyed this article, consider leaving a tip to help us keep publishing great content.
