Day to Night Timelapse Editing Tips

I am far from a professional photographer but spend a lot of time researching the basics of timelapse photography. As I watch youtube creators, read blog posts, or spend my nights lost 20 pages deep into a random website I have learned a lot about different styles photographers use to capture the best timelapse videos.

There are so many unique and creative ways to accomplish a timelapse that makes it difficult to have just one best answer to the question, “how do I edit day to night timelpase” but I hope some of my recent findings can help lead you in a good starting direction.

The key to editing a perfect day to night timelapse relies on a smooth transition between day and night. This is referred to often as “The Holy Grail” technique. 

My first day to night timelapse. Location: Palatine, IL

After countless hours of video tips of creating multiple video clips and merging with opacity masks or people just brute forcing smooth transitions from day to night by editing 2,000+ pictures one by one I decided to scout for software that can reduce the time it takes without sacrificing quality.

The Holy Grail takes thousands upon thousands of perfect edits to your photos to compensate for the changes in your camera settings during that shift from day to night. In the technology world we live in today I knew there had to be something out there to give us the best of both worlds.

The answer to my problem was a combination of 2 different software that works easily together.

One of the most popular editing software for any kind of photography, Lightroom brings basic and advanced tools to an easy to learn UI and is a must for anyone wanting the ability to edit multiple pictures fast. Adobe Lightroom allows for edits to be synced over to multiple shots from the same event with just a few clicks.

This software is the hidden gem that takes Lightroom to the next level for that Holy Grail effect in your timelapse photography. With advanced features placed in a very simple step by step menu LRTimelapse will take your Lightroom edits and create the perfect transition between key changes in your timelapse.

Where some take hours of editing each and every picture to create a transition between camera setting changes LRTimelapse will choose a few major key photos for you to edit to your liking. Then it will use an advanced algorithm to apply the perfect settings in all between pictures creating the smooth visual change without chance of human error in a matter of seconds.

For a step by step on how LRTimelapse works with Lightroom to create the Holy Grail visit the official LRTimelapse Tutorial.