** Note **  I've had many questions asking if this would work in newer versions, so I revisited this tutorial and updated instructions for Lightroom Classic CC as of version 8.0.  Where I've had to update, I'll indicate with BLACK text. As these changes required a few new screen shots, you'll see the updated UI in both Lightroom and Windows. I hope this isn't too distracting. In an effort to get this out, I did not want to spend a ton of time rebuilding ALL the screenshots. 

I am going to take a quick break from showing our photography.  This post is for my photographer friends who wish to create a slideshow in Adobe Lightroom 5.2 that has slide transitions under 1.0 seconds.  For example, to create a time lapse video or a stop motion video.

In LR 5.2 we’ve lost the ability to set slide transitions for under 1.0 second.  The work around for this is to create and edit a slideshow template that will include the appropriate value you wish to use.  This is nowhere near as easy as moving a slider, but honestly, it isn’t all that hard to do either.

We’ll need to start in the Slideshow Module in LR 5.2.  You can see by using the default template, the slide transition is set to 4.0 seconds and the Fades are set to 2.5 seconds.

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Next we’ll create a new user template by clicking on the plus(+) symbol in the template browser.

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Name the template with something that makes sense to you.  I named mine "Slides"  Click on the Create button.

New Template

Once the template is created, you need to edit the actual template file.  So, you need to be able to find the actual file. With a PC you can right click on the user template and then select "Show in Explorer"  (Mac, I believe you command click and then "Show in Finder".

Explorer view initial file

Once you've located the file, you will need to open it with a text editor.  On the PC, I'll use Notepad.  When you open the file, you will see it is a rather long file.  You are searching near the end of the file for a line that starts with "Speed".

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Text File Edits

You will need to edit the speed to the amount of time you wish to use for the transitions.  In my case, I've changed mine to 0.3 seconds.  You'll need to also change the line for transitionSpeed (this is the time for the fade setting back in Lightroom).  In my case, I didn't want any fade, so I changed mine to 0. For more recent versions of LR CC Classic, you must also rename the user template or you will NOT be able to import. In my example, I changed the title to "Slides under 1 Second" - tested version 8.0.

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Save and RENAME the text file. Make sure the extension is *.lrtemplate. IF THE EXTENSION IS TXT, it will NOT IMPORT.  Note where it is saved, you'll need this in a moment.

Renaming Text File

Back in Lightroom, delete the user template as we are going to import the new/improved template.  For updated LR CC Classic versions, do NOT delete your old template at this point. You have to keep it until after you import the new.

Back in Lightroom, right click on the User Templates label and import your new template.

Next right click (Mac, command click) on the label for User Template and select "Import"

Import FINAL template

If necessary, navigate to where you saved the template file (remember, I told you that you'd need to know!) and then click on Open.

Import File Selection

You can now delete the Original User Template "Slides"

Delete original user template

Notice now that in Lightroom, the time between slides and the fade amounts match the value you editing in the template file.

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If you try to change these values in Lightroom, Lightroom will revert to normal and tell you that you need a time between 1.0 and 20.0 seconds.  If you want another setting below 1.0 seconds, the template file needs to be edited again.  Or perhaps you might create multiple templates with various time settings.

This worked for me with a variety of transition times.  Hope it will do the trick for you.  Please comment if you run into any troubles or have any fine tuning to share.

Happy stop motion and time lapsing to you all!

-- Patrick