How to Record Time-Lapse Videos on iPhone

One of the newest features of the iPhone camera is the ability to record time-lapse video. Here’s how to save time-lapse videos on your iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.

If you’re not familiar with time-lapse videography, it’s essentially the process of recording a long video and speeding it up as you play it. It’s an incredibly popular and highly addictive video to watch, so it’s almost guaranteed you’ve seen a time-lapse video before.

Time-lapse videos are great for many different purposes, but they’re often more interesting when watching something spectacular like a skyscraper being built or something as simple as watching the sun go down over the ocean.

As long as it’s an iPhone 5s or newer, you can record time-lapse videos yourself using your iPhone. The Camera app in iOS 8 includes a time-lapse feature that you can access by swiping left or right on the screen depending on which direction you’re in (Time-lapse mode if you’re in Photo mode).

How to Record Time-Lapse Videos on iPhone

Recording a time-lapse video on your iPhone is surprisingly easy, and all it takes is two taps to get the job done: one tap to start recording and the other to stop.

The time-lapse video feature can be found in the Camera app and is located all the way to the left, so swipe right three times from Photo mode and you’ll be there.

At this point, there are no settings to change and nothing to deal with first. All you have to do is tap the red circle to start recording and then tap it again to stop recording. iOS 8 will automatically speed up the capture and provide you with a shortened video ready to view and share.

use a tripod

Perhaps one of the most important things to know when recording time-lapse video is that mounting your iPhone on a tripod, or at least supporting it in some way, is pretty much a requirement. A time-lapse video really only works that way because it needs to hold steady for a long time—just holding it in your hand won’t cut it.

Fortunately, you can get a tripod for pretty cheap. This only 12 dollars and it will get the job done. It may not be anything special, and we wouldn’t recommend it as a heavy-duty tripod by any means, but it will do the trick for iPhone videography.

Of course, you need to mount your iPhone on a tripod, and the only way to do that is to get an iPhone tripod mount. Fortunately, there are a handful of great iPhone tripod mounts you can get. this Joby GripTight It’s a great option and really easy to use with almost any smartphone, not just iPhone.

Content is King

While you can record a time-lapse video of just about anything, it boils down to what you’re recording that can make or break a time-lapse video. How great your time-lapse video turns out depends on exactly what you’re recording, so don’t be afraid to get creative with it.

In the video above, I recorded a time-lapse video example on my iPhone 6. This is by no means anything special, as this is just a lapse of time mowing my lawn, but I used an Olloclip lens kit to get the wide angle. angle effect that makes the video a little more interesting.

There’s also something oddly satisfying about watching the lawn mow at extreme speed as you descend from a slightly overgrown lawn to a freshly cut lawn in about 30 seconds. I wish it could be like that in real life.

To do this, I took my iPhone and tripod to the second floor window in my house and pressed record. I signed up for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. When I tapped the red button to stop recording, I later found a 39-second video that I had downloaded to less than 30 seconds, which brought me one minor gripe.

iOS 8 does not allow you to adjust the speed of time-lapse video in-app. The speed it uses is the speed you will get. Sure, you can bring the video into iMovie and make some changes there (which gives you the opportunity to add some music and other effects), but users will undoubtedly have more control directly in the Camera app.