Time-Lapse Video Editing Guide—Fine-Tune Your Time-Lapse Video Effortlessly

Even if you’ve figured out how to make a time-lapse video, editing one is a completely different skill to have. There are many points to consider and editing tricks to have up your sleeve. You want to have a perfect result and knock your audience off their feet.

The reasons for editing a time-lapse video to the point of perfection can be numerous. You might want to add a neat time-lapse to your music video, a highlight reel, or even your YouTube intro videos.

Time-lapses are perfect for showing the passage of time, making them an ideal fit for a tutorial video too. What better way to show your viewers how to make something that takes time than by including a time-lapse of the process in the tutorial clip?

To get to a stunning-looking time-lapse you have in mind, you only need to learn a few video editing tricks. 

Editing a Time-Lapse Video 101

Every project you do will be unique and will fit your personal taste, topic, or type of video you are making. While this applies to time-lapses as well, there are several specific tips we can give you to get you started.

Which editing choices you make when perfecting your project in further detail later—such as adding music or captions to your video—is up to you. Let’s take a look at the essential steps you need to take during a time-lapse post-production process:

1. Remove object flickers from your footage by frame-blending
2. Adjust exposure of your footage
3. Apply vignette to your project
4. Export your footage in the original resolution

Frame-Blending

The first challenge of making a time-lapse video is unwanted objects creeping their way into your footage. In the time-lapse photography and film technique, these unwelcome intrusions are called flickers. They can range from enormous changes in lighting to people, vehicles, or any other object that finds its way into your footage.

Your first assignment when editing your time-lapse video is to remove these object flickers. Luckily, you don’t have to do it manually. You can use an editing technique called frame-blending. This does not necessarily remove intrusive objects—instead, it locates them and blends them to make a much smoother effect.

One program that allows you to frame-blend your time-lapse project is Adobe After Effects. When you import your scenes into the After Effects, you should choose the CC Wide Time option to have your frames blend.

Another software in which you can accomplish frame-blending effortlessly is LRTimelapse. As you are rendering your scenes, choose the LRT Motion Blur Plus feature, and the program will smooth out the object flickers for you. LRTimelapse offers multiple versions of motion blur, so you can play around with them until you decide which suits your style the best.  

If your time-lapse doesn’t cover an overly long passage of time, instead of frame-blending, you can get rid of object flicker while shooting. You only need to use a Neutral Density (ND) filter in your camera.

Adjusting Exposure

Aside from object flickers, there are also light flickers that you want to fine-tune in the editing stage. If you are working on a long time-lapse sequence, massive shifts in lighting are bound to ruin the flow of your video.

You can fix the jarring lighting variations in LRTimelapse, as well. You should shoot as many photos as possible so that you have enough material to make a neat time-lapse video even after you get rid of the bad bits.

LRTimelapse has several features that help you auto-filter your footage. For example, its deflicker tool and brightness filter help adjust the exposure of your footage so that it has more balanced lighting. You can also set the range of lighting you want your time-lapse project to have, and the brightness filter will remove the photos that are not within that range automatically.

Vignetting Your Photos

When you have adjusted the lighting exposure of your time-lapse and made the unwanted object filters blend to make a smoother flow, you might want to consider adding some vignette effects to your footage.

In video editing, vignetting refers to adding darkened edges to your footage, whether by using a special lens while shooting or by manually adding the effect in post-production. The reason for vignetting a time-lapse video is to ensure that the viewers will focus on the central object and the passage of time, rather than the unimportant stuff at the edges of your video.

Vignetting your time-lapse will help reduce the unwanted lighting variations and smaller object flickers as well.

Maintaining the Original Resolution

When you are working on the post-production of your time-lapse video, the chances are that you will be using more than one editing program. If so, you need to take care not to decrease the quality of your footage by changing its resolution accidentally.

Make sure that, as you are adjusting exposure or exporting your scenes, you are maintaining the resolution of your photos and clips you originally shot them in. Another reason for maintaining the original resolution are the various video effects you might want to add in the last stage of the editing process.

For example, you might wish to zoom in on a part of your time-lapse to give your viewers a better look at a specific object or process. Keeping the full resolution of your scenes means you have enough pixels for these types of close-ups.

Time-Lapse Video Editor—Use InVideo To Fine-Tune Your Time-Lapse to Perfection

InVideo Homepage

Perhaps you believe you are done with editing your time-lapse video once you have completed frame-blending and adjusted the exposure of your footage, but that’s just the beginning. A time-lapse sequence is usually only one part of a larger video project. In that case, there are many more details you can incorporate into your time-lapse video.

The best video editing software you can use to add these fine details to your time-lapse is InVideo. InVideo is our browser-based editing platform that helps you make a video effortlessly. You can incorporate your time-lapse into a larger video project easily and add elements such as:

• Music
• Text
• Graphics
• Stickers
• Clips
• Special effects

You don’t have to start from scratch. If you opt for InVideo, there are three types of templates we offer:

Time-Lapse Video Maker You Can Use Online for Free

Since InVideo is a browser-based editing platform, you don’t need to bother with downloading and installing any program on your computer. You can use any web browser of your choosing, but keep in mind that InVideo is optimized for Google Chrome. 

The best part of InVideo is that you can also use it for free for however long you want. You can have fun learning the ropes of video editing and export up to 60 videos a month without spending a dime!

To get started with editing your time-lapse video, you should:

1. Make an account on InVideo
2. Choose the Text-to-Video or Blank Template option
3. Select the video format you want your project to have
4. Pick a template for your video based on your topic if you choose the text-to-video option
5. Click on Use this template

If you are wondering what the difference between the two templates is, in the Text-to-Video one, any number of media files you upload will be rendered into a scene automatically. If you opt for a blank template, though, you can add multiple files at once as well, but you will need to create and edit each scene individually.

How To Upload Your Footage to the InVideo Editor

Uploading Media to the Text-to-Video Template

If you opt for the Text-to-Video template, you will be taken to the page where you can add your media to the project. You can see how the page looks in the example picture above. There are three options:

• Add your script here—if you are making a video from text, InVideo helps you get to the result faster by allowing you to copy-paste your text. You can add Headline and Story and let InVideo auto-suggest images or videos for your project
• Add your URL here—the second option makes for an even faster video making experience. If your article is already uploaded on your website or any page with an URL, you can copy and paste the link to it, and InVideo will do the rest for you
• Add your media files here—the third option is the way to go if you are using the Text-to-Video template to render your time-lapse sequence into a longer project or edit it to the point of perfection. You can upload your files manually or use the quick drag-and-drop approach

InVideo supports these file formats:

• MP4
• MOV
• JPG
• GIF
• PNG

Uploading Media to a Blank Template

If you choose the Blank Template option, you will be taken to the InVideo editor page immediately. You can then upload your media by clicking on Uploads in the Asset Library and selecting the Upload feature that pops up.

How To Edit Your Time-Lapse Video in InVideo

Once you have uploaded your footage to the InVideo editor, there is nothing you can’t do to make your time-lapse project as perfect as possible. For example, adding captions or effective background music can make all the difference when it comes to how engaging your video ends up being.

We’ll show you how you can use InVideo to:

1. Add text
2. Include music
3. Add a voice-over

Adding Text

Adding Text in InVideo

If you are editing your time-lapse project with the help of our Text-to-Video template, next to the Storyboard option, click on the Advanced Editor to fine-tune your video in any way you want.

Here’s how adding text works:

1. Click on the Text option in your Asset Library on the left side of your screen
2. Choose the text box you want
3. Type your text in the editor panel on the right side of your screen
4. Edit your text’s font, colors, or animation in the editor panel

As you can see in the example photo, InVideo gives you many options to optimize your text boxes to fit your vision. You have three ready-made text box formats:

• Horizontal
• Vertical
• Headline (rectangular)

You also have plenty of options to pick from when it comes to your text box styles:

• Classic
• Modern
• Social Media Credits
• Location Boxes
• Halloween

Adding Music

Adding Music in InVideo

The right choice of background music is just what your time-lapse needs. If you used a template for the Text-to-Video, you already have a music element in your project. If you don’t like tune in the template, here’s how you can change it:

1. Click on the Edit option in the layer representing the music
2. Select Delete
3. Browse through our extensive library of royalty-free music to find the piece you want in your project or click on Upload your own

You can trim, loop, and duplicate your music element in your project’s timeline.

Adding Voice-Overs 

Adding Voice-Overs in InVideo

If you feel your time-lapse project needs a voice-over, adding one in InVideo could not be easier to accomplish.

You only need to click on the Add VO button in your project’s timeline, and you can:

• Upload an existing recording
• Record your voice on the spot
• Choose an Automated Text-to-Speech feature

Bonus Time-Lapse Editing Tips

If you still feel like something is missing from your time-lapse project to make it perfect, perhaps you need some additional editing tips.

Here’s what you can do to your time-lapse to make it stand out:

• Have dynamic changes in speed—your time-lapse sequence doesn’t need to have the same speed all throughout the video. If you are making a longer video, you have to include changes in speed here and there to make it interesting to the viewer. In InVideo, you can choose the Playback Speed option in your editor panel to change the speed of certain elements in your video
• Include motion graphics—if you need a story-telling element in your time-lapse sequence, using motion graphics will do the trick. You can include various information about the project your time-lapse shows or the place and passage of time in it using motion graphics
• Add engaging camera movements—maintaining the full resolution of your footage in the first stages of editing a time-lapse video allows you to play with different camera movements in the later stages of post-production. See which parts of your time-lapse sequence can benefit from panning, zooming in, or tilting, and incorporate these movements to create a better experience for the viewer

How To Get Complete Functionality in InVideo

InVideo does not limit your creativity by imposing a free trial period on you. You can enjoy feature-rich video editing with our free plan for as long as you want. If you are serious about making and editing videos, we offer two paid plans you can choose from to have complete functionality of our easy-to-use video editing software.

Here are your budget-friendly options:

InVideo’s Presets Save You a Ton of Time

InVideo was created with one goal in mind—to help you have stunning videos for any use case in fewer than ten minutes. We are aware that the majority of video editing software solutions are difficult to grasp and make it hard for you to create videos quickly. It’s why we’ve made sure that our video editor is easy to master and incorporated many features in our platform that help you reach the wanted results effortlessly.

Our account settings options prove this. You can upload your brand’s logo and information in your settings so that you don’t need to include these elements each time you start making a new video.

You can also add as many team members to your account as you wish. Work with your colleagues on the same project, or have them create different videos for your company as you are working on your time-lapse video.

Efficacy in videography is guaranteed when you use InVideo.

Sign up today to make professional-looking videos in a heartbeat!