CREATE A TIME-SLICE

Mike Harris shows you how to shoot and edit a ‘time-slice’ composite to convey the passage of time in a single image

- Mike Harris

2 HOURS Timelapse photography is used for all kinds of media productions, from YouTube videos to Hollywood blockbusters to documentaries, as a way to concisely convey the passage of time.

We’re going to use a technique that’s similar to timelapse, but combine the images to create a single still. This is called a time slice because you slice your images up and stitch them together to reveal gradual changes in lighting as time passes. We photographed Happisburgh Lighthouse in Norfolk, UK, starting at sunset and going all the way through to the blue hour and then astronomical twilight. This allowed us to capture warm golden tones fading into blues, pinks, purples and finally the night sky.

As with a timelapse, you’ll need to take pictures at regular intervals to capture a variety of tones and lighting, but while a timelapse requires roughly 24 shots for one second of video, a time slice only requires around 10 images to get good results. However, feel free to use more photos if you’d prefer.

To make the shooting process easier you can use your camera’s built-in intervalometer if it has one to automatically fire the shutter after a predetermined amount of time and for a predetermined number of shots. If your camera doesn’t have this feature, some remote shutter releases have built-in intervalometers.