# TPF need your opinion - CC on first cinemagraph



## camz (May 28, 2011)

All inspired by Jamie Beck.  I saw her work early this year and I finally got to try to attempt my first cinemagraph since I took off from paid photography this month. Love to hear your thoughts on these as there are so many applications across our field.  Since most dslr's have video technology to me this seems to be a pretty interesting middle ground to pursue . 

I went with a low resolution on my first attempt but now I regret it as the editing these takes some work.  Now I have to start over to get what I want .


However I'm just wondering what your thoughts are on these?  A potential big product? Creepy? Cool?


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## Bitter Jeweler (May 28, 2011)

Very cool!
Kinda creepy, too. 

Ok, spill it, what is the process?


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## Derrel (May 28, 2011)

I do not quite "get" the allure of this type of photo...we have frozen action, then motion over a small part of the frame...I guess it is cool, but it's no longer 1889...I'd rather see a 5-second full-motion clip with audio...does that make me jaded? Should I be listening to Aerosmith's Jaded on iTunes right now?


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## MWG (May 28, 2011)

Its pretty neat to me, but i somewhat agree with derrel, how hard was it to make?


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## camz (May 29, 2011)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> Very cool!
> Kinda creepy, too.
> 
> Ok, spill it, what is the process?


 
And reveal weeks and weeks of research! lol. Thanks Bitter I think it's pretty cool but it's Hary Potter kinda creepy too.

There is no DYI that I've seen of this out there yet so I'll tell you what I did wether or not it's the most efficient way. The process is to take a photo and video of your subject. Mind you they can't move much as the photo and video needs to match pretty close in composition or else it won't work. 

I used Sony Vegas to edit by masking out the parts I don't need from the video(which is everything else but the napkin being blown by a fan). Then I blended it with the photo together with the masked video which came out to have about 25 frames. Save it as a gif :razz:. It takes a bit of time to do especially if you want to do some edits on 25 frames. 



Derrel said:


> I do not quite "get" the allure of this type of photo...we have frozen action, then motion over a small part of the frame...I guess it is cool, but it's no longer 1889...I'd rather see a 5-second full-motion clip with audio...does that make me jaded? Should I be listening to Aerosmith's Jaded on iTunes right now?


 
Nah not Jaded at all Derrel. What's amusing to me about this type of edit I noticed myself staring at these longer then a still photo. The viewer has something more to think and talk about which is the "allure" for me. I ended up staring at other's cinemagraphs for quite some time actually. 

Talk about missing the focal point of the a still shot, how about replacing it with movement! I really do find that concept amusing . Thanks for the POV. 





MWG said:


> Its pretty neat to me, but i somewhat agree with derrel, how hard was it to make?


 
I'm all new to this and took some figuring out so the editing alone took me a couple hours. 


Hmmm... let me put it this way. MWG since you take photos of people, do you think there's market for this?  Would you want want of your own or family?


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## camz (May 30, 2011)

Second attempt


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## Bitter Jeweler (May 30, 2011)

Cool. I have Vegas, and haven't been doing any video lately. Gives me a reason to dust if off.

I think it's cool because it falls between video and photography.  Or combines them. Shrug.

I could see these being displayed perfectly on those digital frames.


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## molested_cow (May 30, 2011)

Never knew animated gifs can be serious too!


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## Robin Usagani (May 30, 2011)

do one with blowing smoke rings


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## camz (May 31, 2011)

Bitter Jeweler said:


> Cool. I have Vegas, and haven't been doing any video lately. Gives me a reason to dust if off.
> 
> I think it's cool because it falls between video and photography. Or combines them. Shrug.
> 
> I could see these being displayed perfectly on those digital frames.



Yeah I see this as a pretty solid product across the board.  I'm actually very curious to see how far the macro guys can take this.


If you dust of Vegas and try this, go with the highest res as possible.  The conversion to gif is horrible plus the hosting sites like flickr doesn't help any.




molested_cow said:


> Never knew animated gifs can be serious too!.


 
I haven't touched gifs I think since the 90's.  Once I saw Becks work I had to try it myself.




molested_cow said:


> do one with blowing smoke rings


 
lol


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## camz (May 31, 2011)

Ok so I revisted the original one and rendered it to the highest res as possible. Took me about half the time to edit the series..think I'm getting the hang of it.

I had some ideas I photgraphed and filmed today. Let's see if I can implement and I will post :razz:


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## UUilliam (May 31, 2011)

Love this effect when I first seen it and I still do!
My idea on the process would be to use Adobes intergrated "animation" work panel.

I would think you take about 5-10 photographs (with the camera on a tripod)
then much like when you have the photographs where there is many people in them.
place each layer, one above the other.
then you could mask out the person (or mask in the moving object I suppose...)

and just use frame by frame animation.

just my take on the process.


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## RMThompson (May 31, 2011)

UUilliam said:


> Love this effect when I first seen it and I still do!
> My idea on the process would be to use Adobes intergrated "animation" work panel.
> 
> I would think you take about 5-10 photographs (with the camera on a tripod)
> ...


 
That would be too choppy I think. This is clearly video OVER video, which I don't know how to combine either. I've seen some neat ones on Tumblr.


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## Josh66 (May 31, 2011)

I think it's kinda cool.  I guess the only real problem I have with it is that it can only be viewed on a computer/TV (or I guess a digital frame - can they display GIFs, or are they JPG only?).  That's a given for video, but this isn't quite video...

It might be cool, but I don't see a huge market for something that basically cannot exist outside of the computer.


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## camz (May 31, 2011)

UUilliam said:


> Love this effect when I first seen it and I still do!
> My idea on the process would be to use Adobes intergrated "animation" work panel.
> 
> I would think you take about 5-10 photographs (with the camera on a tripod)
> ...



RMT pretty much nailed it.  If you can show your transition from 5-10 frames it might work but that's tough to do.  I'm recording and running the 5D at 24 fps already and I find it lacking sometimes.  



			
				[B said:
			
		

> *O|||||||O*[/B];2256645]
> I think it's kinda cool.  I guess the only real problem I have with it  is that it can only be viewed on a computer/TV (or I guess a digital  frame - can they display GIFs, or are they JPG only?).  That's a given  for video, but this isn't quite video...
> 
> It might be cool, but I don't see a huge market for something that basically cannot exist outside of the computer.



As a gif it probably won't work on a digital frame, it has to be converted to a movie format for it to play.

I read this article that e-book sales are almost equal to physical book sales last year and growing as we speak.  These little "cinemagraphs" might be a good small addition to that market - more compressed then a video, more interactive then a photo.  Just sayin 

We tested it in Facebook and some other sites and it seems to view fine just as long as it's opened in the original size.  The interested ones I've showed it to tend to gaze at the cinemagraphs longer then the photos.  Thanks for the input Josh.


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## camz (May 31, 2011)

Wanted to try something different with water and had a bit of a tricky time with this.  This consisted of about 23 frames.  Another tricky part was the reflection on his chin, I wanted it to shimmer in sync with the water but just decided to include that part as a still.  

Still need some practice


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## Dp-PARIS (Jun 1, 2011)

wow, very cool work.


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## camz (Jun 1, 2011)

Thanks


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## Robin Usagani (Jun 1, 2011)

camz.. i just made one but my camera wasnt still

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...rum-photo-gallery/246017-blowing-bubbles.html


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## camz (Jun 6, 2011)




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## Markw (Jun 6, 2011)

Wow. This is turning out to be something _VERY _interesting to me! So, I still dont't quite understand, though. The still part is a single frame of the film, then the moving part is just masked out of each of the other frames, ran together as a video, and placed over the original frame/photo?  I wish there was a way to get rid of the video noise.

Mark


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## photoguy1971 (Jun 6, 2011)

That is great! I really like this.


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## camz (Jun 6, 2011)

Markw said:


> The still part is a single frame of the film, then the moving part is just masked out of each of the other frames, ran together as a video, and placed over the original frame/photo? I wish there was a way to get rid of the video noise.



Yeah that's the idea Mark.  You can easily do it in Sony Vegas.  You can also do a transparent layer in photoshop but you're still going to need an video editing software so I figured I cut a step and do all the masking in Vegas.  After masking I then take each frame then I edit and convert to Gif in photoshop.

As far as the noise it's unfortunate that we're in the mercy of photoshop's compression when converting to gif.  What's funny is that my other two PC's don't detect the noise, however this one I'm on right now does.  If I convert it to another video format in 1080..noise gone.  Gifs don't do it justice.


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## Markw (Jun 6, 2011)

I use Premiere Pro, so I'm sure I could do it if I only had an idea to use it with. 

Mark


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## camz (Jun 9, 2011)

Mark maybe you can take this to the next level with your macros. I actually want to try this for the first time with clients this weekend's shoot.  I'm not going to mention anything to the clients yet and run a pilot until I know I can deliver.


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## mishele (Jun 9, 2011)

Amazing work!!! I'm loving the ping pong shot......lol POST MORE!!!


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## camz (Jun 9, 2011)

LOL thanks Mish!   I have some more I have to edit and I'll post


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## camz (Oct 23, 2011)




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## camz (Oct 24, 2011)

Hindsight


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