Time lapse photography – for beginners

We see these everyday online and on TV, but how are they made?  I am trying to learn. This is my first attempt, it flickers and the images are overexposed towards the end, but the morning fall sun is so beautiful coming into the space. This is about 60-80 minutes of photographs, shot at 1 every 5 seconds. I am using a Canon Rebel 2ti DSLR. To get a basic time lapse is surprisingly simple, but to get a good one I have a lot to learn. Other than the camera all you need is a tripod, timer and in this case Adobe After Effects. This timer is easy to use and seems to work fine.  Here are the basic facts as I understand: set camera to manual (set aperture and shutter speed) as well as manual focus. This may require some study. Shoot in RAWW, an absolute must for adjustments later.  Make sure the camera does not move during the shots. Use a Neutral Density filter if you have a lot of movement during the time lapse. This site goes into more detail about settings. The limiting factor as far as time seems to be my camera battery?  I am sure there is a simple fix for that.  Exposure length affects this battery life; you can get a lot more shots if they are quick as opposed to longer exposures. Once you have the shots this site gives a great description of the workflow from photos to time lapse. If you need to make adjustments to the RAWW pics or make transitions during your time lapse, this software will help. For a perfect, night to day, or the ‘Holy Grail’ of time lapse see this.