Did you see that? A slight movement in the photograph…almost as if it were haunted. Don’t be frightened, it’s just a cinemagraph. Cinema..what? Don’t worry, I didn’t know what they were until just recently. “Cinemagraphs are still photographs in which a minor and repeated movement action occurs. The term “cinemagraph” was coined by U.S. photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck, who used the technique to animate their fashion and news photographs beginning in early 2011.”
They are produced by taking a series of photographs or a video recording, and, using image editing software, compositing the photographs or the video frames into an animated GIF file in such a manner that motion in part of the subject between exposures (for example, a person’s dangling leg) is perceived as a repeating or continued motion.” The cool thing is there are lots of demo’s of how you can build your own cinemagraph. Might be a cool project to test out this year. Here’s an idea…create your own Halloween cinemagraph to email out to your friends. To get you started, check out this tutorial. Take a look at the Stanley Kubrick cinemagraphs of the movie “The Shining” for inspiration.
