A year and a half ago, I recorded Photoshop Workbench 297 which explained how to create a cinemagraph using Photoshop CS5. When CS6 was released, the process became much easier. To be honest, even if the process weren’t substantially easier, I would still feel compelled to revisit cinemagraphs because few things delight me as much.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with cinemagraphs, imagine still photographs with localized moving elements. If you have Photoshop CS6 and a digital camera with basic video capabilities, you’ll be amazed how easy it is to create a cinemagraph. The key is to come up with a clever concept that features two subjects that should be moving, such as a person and running water. One of the subjects will be frozen in post-production while the other will be left in motion.
When you capture the scene using your camera’s video capabilities, be sure to place it on a tripod and frame so that the moving subjects don’t overlap. The Ann Street Studio blog, displays a variety of compelling examples. Keep in mind that subtle subject movement is more effective than radical movement.
Once you’ve captured the scene, the rest is handled in post-production, and that, my friends, is where we will pick up today…
I learned a lot following this video tutorial. One problem that I encountered: My gif displays in “slow motion”, substantiallty slower that the movement in the working Photoshop document . Am I missing some setting when saving a gif for the web, or is this normal?
The slow motion is the same, whether viewed in an e-mail document, Internet Explorer window, or as posted on my Pbase photo gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/filer/image/148694976
I followed your instructions and everything worked fine except that when I paint with black on the still image’s mask I get the eraser effect where the image pixels are erased leaving an empty space. The effect runs fine, but at the end is the image with the area I masked out as white space.
I personally want to know the reasons why you branded this particular blog, “Photoshop Workbench 368: Cinemagraphs Revisited – Mark
S. Johnson Photography”. Regardless I actually loved it!
Thanks for your time,Minna
This is my 3rd try to post a comment, so I hope that all three don’t show up later!
I found by an Internet search how to change the frame rate of the cinemagraph to get rid of slow motion effect. After the working file is saved as a GIF, open the GIF file back in Photoshop. The time line changes from the Video that was present in the original working document to an animation time-line with all the individual frames visible. Select all the frames and then change the frame rate to a shorter duration.
My second cinemegraph utilized this technique.
A minor problem on this one was that I couldn’t find a perfect match in the smoke for the first and last frames, so there is a little glitch in the loop. Further work could smooth that out.
I added a hue/saturation adjustment layer to render a sepia tone and a grunge border for additional “aging”.
http://www.pbase.com/filer/image/148726133
Also, a possible answer to Jim’s post:
It’s possible that you did everything correctly, but had the still image duration extend beyond the limits of the video in the time-line. Both layers need to be exactly the same length.
Love the tutorial! Really well done.