World’s First ‘Layer-Lapse’ Combines Different Times into Each Shot of Boston

A few days ago we featured the work of a photographer who layered different times of day into single photos. Photographer Julian Tryba‘s recent project is similar, except it’s a timelapse.

Tryba has created what he says is the world’s first “layer-lapse” video, or a time-lapse video that shows different times of the day in different parts of each frame. The video is called “Boston Layer-Lapse“.

Traditional time-lapses are constrained by the idea that there is a single universal clock. In the spirit of Einstein’s relativity theory, layer-lapses assign distinct clocks to any number of objects or regions in a scene. Each of these clocks may start at any point in time, and tick at any rate. The result is a visual time dilation effect known as layer-lapse.

The project took 100 hours to shoot 150,000 photos weighing 6 terabytes and 350 hours to edit through 800 drafts and iterations. Each of the clips has an average of 35 different layers toggling in and out.

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Equipment used include a Canon 6D, 7D, 16-35mm, 24-205mm, and Tokina 11-16mm.

Tryba works full time as an engineer at GE Aviation and shoots time-lapses in his spare time. He came up with the idea for this layer-lapse project after learning coming across Fong Qi Wei’s “Time in Motion” project here on PetaPixel, which uses a similar layering idea in animated GIFs.

You can find a behind-the-scenes look at how this project was shot over on Kessler, which sponsored Tryba after coming across this video.


Update: This video of Chicago by photographer Geoff Tompkinson was released a year earlier than the video above. Although a bit different, it may actually be the first layer-lapse:

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