Timelapse photos as gift--ideas?

December 10, 2014 1:46 AM

For more than two months I've been taking one photo of the view overlooking the river and trees outside the kitchen window. Is there a visually creative way yet somewhat quick way I can print this into a wall sized poster?

Hi!
For the past few months I've been living in a shared flat while my friend was abroad. I've thoroughly enjoyed my time there and sadly will be leaving soon.

For more than two months I've been taking one photo of the view overlooking the river and trees outside the kitchen window (with a 3.2 megapixel iPhone 3gs camera). Most of these were taken around the same time each day, and one can see the seasonal changes (too bad there isn't snow yet) gradually.

Here's my question: I'd like to best represent the changes from summer to winter (landscape orientation)--but I've never done anything like this before. Could you recommend website based tools that give me some tinkering options+printing? One major caveat: can it all be done within a week?

Thanks in advance!

posted by wallawallasweet to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

A time lapse photo series just begs to be printed as a flip book.
posted by rada at 5:53 AM on December 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Vertically slicing the photos tends to be a thing these days. Not sure how easy it would be if the photos aren't well-matched, though.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:09 AM on December 10, 2014

Best answer: How many photos do you have?

Was the camera mounted in the same position pointed in the same direction for each photo? (Or did you do it by hand?)

I don't know of anything online. I'd use Photoshop, as I'm guessing the pics aren't well-aligned, and you may have to apply some arbitrary fixes to the pics.

Just tossing this out: instead of a poster, get a video picture frame and load up all of your pictures in a sequenced slideshow. You can probably set up slow cross fades that might look nice, even if the pics aren't aligned. Put it on (say) a 60 minute loop.
posted by doctor tough love at 7:30 AM on December 10, 2014 [1 favorite]

get a video picture frame and load up all of your pictures in a sequenced slideshow

That was my thought as well.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:36 AM on December 10, 2014

Response by poster: There are about 70 photos in total, all taken by hand from more or less the same perspective.
I just happen to have an unused digital photo frame from 3 years ago, perhaps you guys are onto something!
posted by wallawallasweet at 8:42 AM on December 10, 2014

If you really wanted it to be a poster instead of digital, it makes things more difficult that it's not a precisely aligned shot. You'd have to do a lot of fiddling in photoshop to get the kind of vertical slicing composite imagery linked above. You might stand a chance at doing a messier collage, cutting out regions from each photo and stacking them up in a way that doesn't perfectly line up but gives the overall look of the scene, but still obviously from many images. Start the year in upper left corner and let time progress to the lower right.

(Since your files are fairly small, though, I'd go with the digital frame)
posted by aimedwander at 1:54 PM on December 10, 2014

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions, looks like I'll choose the digital frame option due to availability and maddening time constraints!
posted by wallawallasweet at 4:15 AM on December 11, 2014