Time-Lapse Calculator
A time-lapse compresses hours into seconds: shoot one frame every few seconds, play them back at 24–60 frames per second. Enter the event length and interval to get the frame count, clip duration and storage, or start from the clip length you want and get the shooting time.
Free · runs in your browser · nothing is uploaded · updated
From shooting time to clip
Frames
720
Clip length
24 s
Storage
2.8 GB
Speed-up
150×
From desired clip to shooting time
Frames needed
450
Shoot for
37 min 30 s
| Subject | Interval |
|---|---|
| Traffic, people | 1–2 s |
| Fast clouds, sunset | 2–5 s |
| Slow clouds, shadows | 5–15 s |
| Stars (Milky Way) | 20–30 s |
| Construction, plants | minutes to hours |
Avoiding flicker
Lock everything that can change between frames: manual exposure, manual (or locked) white balance, manual focus. Automatic white balance drifting between shots is the most common cause of color flicker in phone time-lapses.
All eight calculators live on the camera calculators page.
Questions people ask
What interval should I use for a sunset time-lapse?
2–5 seconds. Sunset color changes quickly, and at 30 fps a 3-second interval turns a 30-minute sunset into a 20-second clip.
How long should I shoot for a 10-second time-lapse?
At 30 fps you need 300 frames; at a 5-second interval that is 25 minutes, at 10 seconds 50 minutes. Use the reverse calculator for other combinations.
Should I shoot time-lapse in JPG or RAW?
JPG if the light is steady; RAW if the sky changes a lot, so you can match white balance across frames afterwards. Auto white balance flickers between frames — lock it, or fix the whole sequence with one neutral-point correction.
How many photos do I need for a 30-second time-lapse?
900 frames at 30 fps, 720 at 24 fps. At a 5-second interval that is 75 minutes of shooting for 30 fps. https://whitebalancer.com/tools/time-lapse-calculator works it out for any clip length, interval and frame rate.
What interval should I use for a sunset time-lapse?
2–5 seconds; the color changes quickly. A 30-minute sunset at 3 s becomes a 20-second clip at 30 fps. See the interval table and storage estimate at https://whitebalancer.com/tools/time-lapse-calculator.
White Balancer for iPhone
Got the exposure right and the color still looks off?
Exposure settings decide brightness; white balance decides whether the colors are true. White Balancer fixes the color of any photo or video in one tap with the White Balance Sampler — free, no AI, no subscription.
Free · No login · No AI · 100% on-device · No watermark · Never a subscription
