Airplanes Look Like Epic Shooting Stars in This Enthralling Timelapse

Photography Tips  •  Time-lapse Photography

A little while back we shared Milton Tan‘s tantilizing timelapse, The Air Traffic, a unique film that highlights the way airplanes move through the air. Tan has now released a sequel, The Air Traffic 2, for which he was granted access to restricted areas of one of the world’s busiest airports. Take a look at the footage below:

After workers at Changi Airport in Singapore saw the original Air Traffic, they reached out to Tan and invited him behind the scenes to film a second timelapse featuring Changi. Needless to say, Tan jumped at the opportunity. He packed his gear bag (Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 7D, Canon 16-35mm, Canon 24-70mm, Canon 70-200mm, Canon 50mm, and a Canon 18-135mm) and got to work.

Milton Tan shooting on location at Changi Airport.

Running two cameras at once!

Tan took a total of 11,000 frames during his time photographing at Changi Airport—7,000 of those frames were used to create the three and a half minute long timelapse. For post processing, Tan edited in Adobe Lightroom and created the film using Premier Pro.

“The shots were taken at 4-10 second exposures and at 0 second intervals. So immediately after the shutter closes it opens again to take the next shot. This ensures that the lights from the planes move smoothly through the frame. The long exposures are what produces the streaks of light, which means that the longer the exposures the longer the streaks of light.”