Creative Couple Documents Pregnancy with Stop Motion Photography

Photography Tips

Looking for an innovative way to document your family over time? You can spend many days and weeks scouring Pinterest for original photo shoot ideas to try, or you can look beyond a one-day photography session and capture changes that occur over days, weeks, months, or years. The couple in this video took their creativity to the next level by making an entertaining video of their entire pregnancy:

Though it’s not unusual for the terms timelapse and stop motion to be used somewhat interchangeably, the video above actually features stop motion, or at least a hybrid including both stop motion and timelapse sequences.

What sets stop motion apart from timelapse photography is the intervals between shots. Timelapse usually refers to photos taken at consistent intervals and played back at a speed fast enough to create the appearance of flowing motion. However, the photographer could also take photos at longer intervals and play the consistently timed frames back more slowly, which makes the finished video look like stop motion.

Stop motion technique does not require consistent intervals between frames. The subjects can move or be moved and photographed whenever the photographer sees fit. Stop motion movies are often played back at a slower frame rate, such as 10-20 frames per second, which makes for a more jolting, rather than smooth, transition from frame to frame.

Both methods of making movies that record the passage of time allow photographers to record their lives in engaging ways. Whether you’re recording your pregnancy, your child’s advancement through elementary school, or your puppy’s growth, stop motion and timelapse photography give you many creative options.