Shanghai sunrise
This video is made up of 480 individual frames over a period of two hours. These were then stitched together to create a one minute time-lapse movie using free software. Watch each movie a few times so you can take in all the different things happening across the frame.

Shanghai storm
This time-lapse movie shows a storm over the Shanghai skyline as night falls. With extreme cloud, a few bolts of lightning and rain pouring down the window it’s a very different scene to our main time-lapse movie.

Shanghai sunset
No set of time-lapse movies would be complete without one showing darkness falling on a clear night. This movie was made with only 216 shots and set to half the frame rate of the other two films for a less fluid, but equally impressive result.

To find out more about what we did and learn how to make your own time-lapse movies take a look at the ‘Extend your photo time’ feature on page 8 in the January issue of Practical Photography. On sale in the UK from 30th November 2011.