π¬ Time-Lapse Interval Calculator
Exact shooting interval, frame count, and storage for your time-lapse plan.
Shooting interval between frames
Set the interval on your camera or intervalometer to the nearest supported value at or below the calculated interval.
How to Use This Calculator
A time-lapse is a simple trade: real time in, compressed time out, and the exchange rate is the shooting interval. This calculator finds the exact rate for your plan. Enter how long you will shoot, how long you want the finished clip to be, your frame rate, the file size per frame, and a buffer for trimming. The result is the interval to dial into your intervalometer, the total frames you will shoot, and the storage the sequence needs.
Enter your shoot duration in hours and minutes: how long the camera will actually sit there shooting. Be realistic about battery and card limits.
Enter the target clip length in seconds and pick the frame rate. Ten seconds at 30 fps is the classic shareable clip.
Enter the file size per frame: about 5 to 10 MB for JPEG, 25 to 90 MB for RAW depending on megapixels. Keep the 15 percent buffer for trimming head and tail.
Read the interval, round it down to the nearest value your intervalometer supports, and check the storage figure against your card before you leave.
The Time-Lapse Formula, in Plain English
The core relationship is division: your shooting time gets sliced into one frame per interval, and those frames play back at the frame rate. A 2-hour shoot is 7,200 seconds; for a 10-second clip at 30 fps you need 300 frames; 7,200 / 300 = a 24-second interval. Every frame represents 24 seconds of real time, so the clip plays reality 720 times faster than life.
Two constraints shape every plan. First, the interval must exceed your exposure time: a 24-second interval cannot hold a 30-second exposure, so night-sky shooters with long exposures need shorter clips or longer shoots. Second, faster-changing subjects need shorter intervals to look smooth; the same 24-second interval that makes clouds glide will make people vanish between frames. The calculator shows the speed-up factor so you can sanity-check the motion before committing hours to it.
Worked Example
Sunset shoot: 2 hours of shooting, 10-second final clip, 30 fps, 7 MB JPEGs, 15 percent buffer. Frames needed = 10 x 30 = 300, plus 15 percent = 345 frames. Interval = 7,200 / 345 = 20.9 seconds, so set 20 seconds on the intervalometer. Storage = 345 x 7 = 2,415 MB, about 2.4 GB. The clip compresses 2 hours into 10 seconds, a 720x speed-up, and each frame covers about 21 seconds of the sunset\'s color change.
Night-sky variant: 4 hours shooting the Milky Way, 12-second clip at 24 fps, 25-second exposures, 45 MB RAW files. Frames = 12 x 24 = 288 plus buffer = 332. Interval = 14,400 / 332 = 43.4 seconds, comfortably above the 25-second exposure plus write time. Storage = 332 x 45 = about 14.9 GB. The plan fits on a 32 GB card with room to spare, and one battery usually survives 4 hours in mild weather.
Practical Tips
Shoot everything manual: exposure, white balance, and focus. Tape the focus ring once it is set, because a bumped ring ruins an entire sequence. Turn off long-exposure noise reduction for time-lapses; it doubles each frame\'s cycle time and halves your effective shooting window. For day-to-night transitions, use aperture-priority with auto ISO capped sensibly, or learn the bulb-ramping technique for perfectly smooth holy-grail sequences.
Stabilize ruthlessly: weigh down the tripod, shield it from wind, and keep people and pets away from the legs. Shoot slightly wider than the final framing so you can stabilize and reframe in post without losing the edges. And always shoot a few extra minutes past your planned end time; the best light often arrives right after you were going to pack up, and the buffer frames you planned make the extension painless.
Frequently Asked Questions
What interval should I use for a time-lapse?
Match the interval to how fast the scene changes: 1 to 3 seconds for fast clouds and crowds, 5 to 10 seconds for slow clouds and sunsets, 15 to 30 seconds for stars and the Milky Way, and 1 to 5 minutes for construction or plants growing. The calculator derives the exact interval from your shooting time and target clip length, then you round to the nearest interval your camera or intervalometer supports.
How many photos do I need for a 10-second time-lapse?
Multiply the clip length by the frame rate: 10 seconds at 30 fps needs 300 frames, at 24 fps needs 240 frames, at 60 fps needs 600 frames. Add 10 to 20 percent extra frames so you can trim the start and end in editing. The calculator includes this headroom as an optional buffer.
Should I shoot time-lapse in RAW or JPEG?
JPEG is the practical choice for most time-lapses: the files are small, the camera writes them fast, and minor exposure flicker is easier to manage. RAW makes sense when the light changes dramatically, like a day-to-night transition, because you can smooth exposure across frames in post. For very long sequences, consider your camera's built-in time-lapse movie mode, which assembles the video in-camera.
Why does my time-lapse flicker?
Flicker usually comes from the aperture blades not closing to exactly the same position every shot, or from auto exposure making slightly different decisions frame to frame. Fix it by shooting full manual (exposure, white balance, focus), and for critical work use a lens with a manual aperture ring or the lens-twist trick to hold the aperture wide open. Software deflicker in Lightroom or LRTimelapse cleans up whatever remains.
How much storage does a time-lapse need?
Multiply frames by file size per frame. A 300-frame sunset at 7 MB per JPEG needs about 2.1 GB; the same sequence in 45 MB RAW files needs about 13.5 GB. The final rendered video is far smaller, often under 200 MB, but you need the card space for the source frames first. The calculator shows both the source storage and a rough rendered size.
What frame rate should I export at?
24 fps gives the classic cinematic feel and needs the fewest frames, 30 fps looks smooth on most screens and is the safe default for online video, and 60 fps suits fast action but doubles your frame count and storage. Higher frame rates also let you slow the clip down later without stuttering. Pick the rate before you shoot, because it sets the interval math.