Using RightBooth For Time Lapse Photography

Updated: Jan 2021

Time lapse photography is an interesting art form.  You set up a camera so that it is fixed in place and is pointing at the same object or scene. You then capture single photos of the scene periodically over a long period of time.
The photos can then be compiled into a video which shows how the view has changed over the time period.

Examples of this include watching how a building has been erected, how a flower has blossomed or how an untouched bowl of fruit has decayed.   The time between each photo capture depends on the rate of change of the subject.  So for example, a blossoming flower might take 1 day for the petals to open so you could take a photo every 60 seconds over the day, whereas a building might take 6 months, so perhaps you might take one photo every 30 minutes.

Here we explain how to set up a RightBooth event to allow you to capture your own time lapse photo sequences.

• In RightBooth, create a new event file
• In the Event Designer under the Event Structure tab, set the Event type to: Photo
• Set the photo count to 1.  (Make sure all other event types are un-ticked)
• In the Event Structure tab:
  • Untick: Include the Start screen
  • Untick: Include the 'Choose recording' screen
  • Untick all the Get ready options
  • Untick all the Countdown options
  • Untick all the Show and redo options
  • Untick the Thank you options

Next, in the Screen Editor, add a new screen to the Event, naming it: Photo Delay

• On this new screen, add a Countdown item and set its countdown property to your required photo time lapse capture interval, for example 5 seconds.
• Click on the Screen background and change the Screen Timeout property to: On countdown
• Save the event and start it playing.

RightBooth will now automatically capture a photo every 5 seconds (without any user interaction) and it will keep doing this until you stop playing the event.
Once you have finished capturing your photos it is then possible to use RightBooth to create a video from all your captured photos.

Here are a couple of simple time lapse video examples created from photo sequences captured by RightBooth using a Logitech C270 webcam...

Melting ice cubes
​Photos captured every 6 seconds for nearly two hours...

Slow moving clouds
​Photos captured every 2 seconds over 40 minutes...

​Click the file link opposite to download our Time Lapse event file which you can then open and play in RightBooth to create your own time lapse photo sets.  
​I'm sure you can create far more impressive time lapse videos than our examples !

timelapse.rbe
File Size:	62 kb
File Type:	rbe

Download File

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​This event file also includes a Countdown item on the first event screen together with a photo count indicator using the {TOTALPHOTOS} text variable.  For an explanation of how to use RightBooth text variables, please refer to the RightBooth User Manual.