Cinemagraphs

[Lss]

Is anyone on RFF experimenting with combining elements of still photography and video? These can be fun images for sure, but in many cases it feels the gimmick is more important than the content:

http://weburbanist.com/2011/05/04/moving-pictures-stunning-photographs-brought-to-life/

Some of the creations by Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg are however really really good: http://cinemagraphs.com/.

 

[Jamie123]

The only ones that sort of work IMO are the ones without people in them although then it basically becomes a looped video.

For me the main problem to this approach of combining still photography and motion is that you're losing the impact of the ''captured moment'' aspect of still photography while at the same time not gaining the narrative possibilities of motion photography.

These ''cinemagraphs'' have been around for a while in the form of moving billboards. The gimmickiness (is that a word?) of it certainly draws attention which is good for advertising but other than that I don't find it all that interesting.

 

[Lss]

For me the main problem to this approach of combining still photography and motion is that you're losing the impact of the ''captured moment'' aspect of still photography

I agree. And unless you add the movement to the subject/real point of interest of the photograph, you also replace it with an often seemingly random point of interest. The eye is obviously drawn to the motion as soon as you detect it.