Most of the new cameras coming to market have HD quality video. There is a technique that can take advantage of this capability called a cinemagraph. It is not a still photograph, nor a video, but a GIF file that is a combination of both. The result of using this technique is a still image that contains movement in a few subtle details. The effect can be mesmerizing.
The cinemagraphs that are online aren't videos that can be embeded in this site, so they can't be shown here. However, if you go to this website: TAXI you can view a number of these images to get an idea of how creative they can be. If you have a MAC, drag one of the cinemagraphs from this website onto your desktop and then open the image in "Preview". (There probably is a similar program on a PC). You can see in the sidebar every image that makes up the cinemagraph and gives it movement within the still image.
A cinemagraph can be created in CS5 through the use of layer masks. I gather from the description of how it is done that it can be time-consuming work depending upon the level of sophistication you wish to put into the resulting image. For a good description of how to make a cinemagraph go to: Fernandojabez.com or to these two articles on the subject: AAD1 and AAD2.
You should really check this technique out as the resulting images do catch a viewers eye and hold its attention. To view a variety of these types of images go to: If we don't remember me.
3 comments:
"Cimeagraphs" are nothing more than basic animated GIF files (which CAN be embedded on any website just like a non-animated JPEG or GIF file can be) in which only selected features of the image have been edited to be animated. This capability and application to digital images has been around for years ("Animated Photography: Will it Kill Print?" [12/2009], http://luminositymarketing.com/blog/?p=714) but it has apparently been recently 're-discovered' with some particularly creative artistic effect. You don't need Photoshop to edit the sequence of images to created the animated. A application such as GIMP will work perfectly well to do the necessary masking and selective image editing.
As GIFs have a limited color palette (8-bit, 256 colors) and are inherently low resolution, especially for animated GIFs to reduce download time, you certainly don't need a camera with HD quality video to produce good looking animated GIFs of this sort. The only technical requirement is that that a sufficient number of still image frames can be taken to capture the desired movement in the scene. Although an out-dated image format, GIF is still frequently used for such simple animations as most browsers and software such as Photoshop still support it (versus the other older APNG or MNG image file formats that also support animation).
Animated GIFs can be used for a variety of other interesting effects such as spinning objects (http://www.tabletopstudio.com/documents/EZspin_photography.htm) or 3D effect (http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/animated-3d-stereo-photography.htm). None of which require a fancy HD video capable camera.
Thanks for the technical update!
Here’s my contribution, my first use of this technique http://www.stevemarselstudio.com/blog
& http://www.stevemarselstudio.com/blog/2011/05/26/cinemagraphs-bring-life-to-photos-on-the-web/
Thanks!!
Steve Marsel
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