Mixing Photography and Photoshop in a new way - Cinemagraph [Gizmodo]

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WINNER! Here's my submission for the Cinemagraph Contest. I shot this at Patricia Beach, just outside of Winnipeg on Canada Day long weekend with my Panasonic GH2, and the 25mm Voigtlander f/0.95 lens, ISO100. Rather than take a bunch of stills, I've found it makes a lot more sense to take a bunch of video and piece together the cinemagraph from that. Doing it that way allows for some happy accidents like the bird flying overhead. That happened at a much later part of the shot, but I just comped in that one frame where I wanted it.

All of the tutorials I see online recommend you use Photoshop to make these Cinemagraphs, but that seems like the wrong tool for the job... I used Adobe After Effects, since it's built for manipulating video. It's much easier to make things loop properly since you can cross fade the layers over time, and make non-destructive adjustments to your masking which allows for a lot more experimentation and refinement. I did use Photoshop for the final export to an animated GIF, but other than that, it was totally assembled in After Effects.

-Kert Gartner

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When I saw this weeks challenge, I knew I wanted a picture with some sort of an electronic sign (neon sign, crossing sign, traffic light, etc). I grabbed my camera, tripod and my sister along for the ride and headed out to downtown. We were walking past a bar and smoke shop and my sister stopped to check out a hookah pipe and I thought it'd be an interesting capture. I talked to the owner to see if we can shoot outside the store but I was surprised when he wanted to check our IDs. We had to get 'special permission' to shoot in front of the store with my sister, since she was underage. And the owner was nice enough to keep the sign switched on for about 20 minutes even after the store closed up.
The picture was taken with a Canon T2i, 18-55mm lens, ISO 3200, with exposure set to +2. I used a bit of color correction on the video before adjusting the curves and putting a vignette.

-Shali Herath

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Skateboarding has been a large part of my life for the last 11 years. I've had many broken bones and a few stitches here and there but that doesn't stop me. The thrill of landing a trick down a set of stairs makes the desire to skate that much greater. The gif represents my passion for skating; it never stops. I shot this using my canon 60d with the iso at 1200, shutter 1/60, aperture 5.6.

-Robert Lundskow

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Camera: 5dmkii
ISO: 100
Focal: 50mm
f/: 1.4

I have been amazed by Jamie's cinemagraphs for a while now and wanted to create something different, something that looped a dynamic object like steam. It took me forever to create a technique that allowed me to loop steam. So, here it is. Hope you enjoy.

-Jackson Finter

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A Dinner in Nazarethstraat
we used a panasonic hdc tm900 in picture mode, took something like 130 frames and looped it.
edit/photoshop: we took the 1st frame and expanded it true the all sequence, masked the 2nd frame showing only the guy in the red t-shirt(maartin) swinging in the chair, then created a clipping mask on all the other frames.

the story behind this animation: my friend came to my place overexcited about this "Cinemagraph"/ gif animations. after experimenting with it for the all afternoon we decided to eat something. after having dinner a nice light came out and we decided to go for a last one.

-Davide Bellotta, Maartin Hunink and Ingetje Wielenga

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This looked like an interesting challenge so I thought I'd give it a try. Problem was my Canon 450D doesn't shoot video. I thought of EOS Camera Movie Record, a program that captures camera's live feed. But then I was limited by the length of my USB cable. So I decided to take a shot from my balcony and capture something at the bus station below. I was trying to film people getting on and off a bus, then this girl turned around and waved at my direction. And that was it, my first cinemagraph.

-Nikša Stanović

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Title: Cramming

I had always wanted to do something with pen spinning and this is a great method. I recreated my terrifying exam study experience for this challenge. In this photo, I was plotting how to ace my Japanese exam and I ended up writing 6 full pages of notes for practice (which paid off). This was shot with a Panasonic DMC ZS3. For a tripod, I stacked some books on a chair and mounted my camera on an adjustable lamp with masking tape. Though risky, it worked as well as a real tripod!

-Kelly H.

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Gear and technique: Nikon D300, Sigma 85 F1.4, tripod and burst rate. Each picture is shot at f/1.8, 1/100s, ISO 800. I used f/1.8 instead of 1.4 to have more details on the 2nd candle. F1/4 would have smoothed the background too much. D300 does not have a movie mode so i had to use burst (6 FPS) and cropped images in photoshop.

Story: From dusk till dawn, Prague becomes the golden city, thanks to the street candle lights and wet pavement.

-Ghetu Daniel

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Shot on Friday 1st July.
Camera: RED Epic
Lens: Carl Zeiss Primes 24mm
Frame size: 4K
60fps

When creating this cinemagraph as soon as I saw the lady shaking her head from side to side I knew it had to be included, it just sums up the fact that this shouldn't be happening. The world is moving as usual, but all the people have frozen. It is wrong some how, but comical at the same time.
There's a bit more movement in the scene which some people don't even notice. I've had to scale this down from its original resolution of 4K down to 640x360, so it has got quite small.

-Lee Spooner

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Shot with Canon 60d 24mm iso800 f/1.4 1/50s

Just got 5 husky pups. This one in particular has a very serious looks. And the animation just make her looks more serious while her siblings can't stop playing around. Doesn't make her less cute though.

-Zefanya Hanata

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My cat, Stitch, resting on the window sill waiting for birds to fly by. When he sees a bird, he likes to move his tail around.

Used a tripod and a Canon T1i DSLR with kit lens. Shot the video at 1080p at 24fps.
GIF made in Photoshop CS4.

-Oriana Kwok

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I was out taking pictures in my neighborhood when I came across this open fire hydrant. I thought it would be a great opportunity to add some motion to an otherwise still image. To catch this guy skateboarding and woman walking by at the same time adds to the surrealness of the cinemagraph. It's awesome to create these types of illusions because your brain and eye are expecting movement from the other objects. Shot with a Canon 60D.
-Tom McCarthy

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Dripping Drop

For this challenge i wanted to shoot someone in the rain, but it didn't rained hard enough this last days. So I did like a smaller version, with just two drops. I tried different drops, speed, and amount of blur in the background, ending up with this one. I made the gif using After Effects and PS.

Canon T2i, 24fps, ISO 400, f/18, Shutter Speed 50

-Diego Ramírez

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I used a canon SD800 IS—the only camera I had with video capabilities. Took this at a park over the weekend. I had another shot I wanted to use in portrait orientation, but after I realized the resolution constraints (vertical widescreen doesn't look to great), I chose this landscape one.

-Matthew Vajen

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Canon T2i, EFS 17-55mm lens.

I call this cinemagraph "game over". It was shot at Patriot Stadium in Foxboro, MA. I'm sure anyone who has ever had their car break down can relate to it.

It was interesting that the security staff at the Patriot Stadium escorted me out of their parking lot because of "suspicious activity," and also had me show them all the pics I took on the DSLR, even though this was about a mile away from the actual stadium :-S — I guess the tripod looked menacing? Game over for everyone, I guess.

Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg are brilliant! I actually ended up with 3 decent cinemagraphs, and plan to do more in the future. GREAT idea.

-Diego Jiménez

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I spent the long weekend with my family in upstate New York, and spent a while wandering around with my camera and my brand new tripod trying to get a good video to make into a cinemagraph. I was looking for something natural that stayed mostly still and moved a little, but it seemed like everything either moved places constantly (butterflies) or didn't have any noticeable movement at all, until it vanished suddenly (frogs). I finally found this dragonfly, which was posing for me in the garden, with just a gentle breeze moving its wings.

-Leah Nicolich-Henkin

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"Queen of the Couch"

When I saw the challenge on cinemagraphs, I knew I had to take part as I love the style and wanted to learn how to create one on my own. I borrowed a friend's DSLR for a day and headed out to the beach, hoping to grab some good videos in which I could isolate out a particular action during post-processing. After spending a few hours on Photoshop, I realized that the best video clip I had was too shaky due to the sea breeze and did not turn out very well as a cinemagraph. Towards the end of the long weekend, while hanging out with friends, I noticed that Snow-eie, a friend's frenchie, stayed so still that she almost looked like a photograph. I quickly whipped out my iPhone, steadied it on a coffee table, and took a video of her. Post processing was minimal, although I had to fiddle with the delay to make the looping look more natural. iPhone 4 camera, unknown ISO.

-Jayme Khoo

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This is the view from the passenger seat of my car. I aimed the camera out the window at the rearview mirror, and also managed to get my hand in the shot. I have the inside of the car holding still, and the outside whizzing past. A fun little detail is the reflection of my hand in the window, as you can see my fingers moving.

ISO 80, 1/500, Lumix DMC FZ-35, Adobe Photoshop CS4.

-Peter Glitsch

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Nikon D3100 10-55mm F/3.5-5.6G lens, 1080P Video.

Spin Me Round Round!
I shot Spin Me Round Round by accident. I was intending to shoot a photo but I hit the record button by mistake. I'm sure glad I did because what I was originally intending to submit was nowhere near as fun and creative as this. I had first made a cinemagraph of a NASCAR race on TV. It was easy to do since the moving object is already encased within a square TV frame. It looked great and I was happy with the results, but I couldn't help but notice that it looked too much like a video and not a moving photo. I decided to try again but I didn't know what I wanted to film.
The next day while at a family BBQ, I filmed my nephew Carlitos spinning round round on a swivel lawn chair. What was meant to be a photo, ended up being the perfect video for my submission. The total video length was no more than a minute long but that's all I needed. This cinemagraph was not as easy as the first NASCAR image I had made the night before. I had never used photoshop so that added another challenge. Thankfully the tutorials linked in the challenge gave very clear directions. I played around with the moving objects until I found the right balance of what should be moving, and what should be still. I initially had the swiveling kid and the trees in the background moving. Though it looked great, it still looked like a video and not a photo with motion. When I removed the tree's movements and made only the swiveling kid move, that's when it felt and looked right.
The entire process of this challenge was as fun as it was challenging. I thank Gizmodo for inspiring me to go out and shoot, and for introducing me to other forms of photographic art!
-Fernando Fernandez

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I shot this in the backyard as the sun was on its way out. I suppose it's a little more subtle nod at the recently concluded holiday weekend. There is such a fine balance in masking and maintaining continuity in the animation. It's really rewarding to find the key frames and see this half-photograph/half-film image emerge. I'll be working on making more of these.

Shot on a Canon Vixia HF200, Aperture priority @ f/2.8
The whole animation is about 86 frames long

-Jonathan Vanderweit