Upload
jim-may
View
267
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Nowadays, people are literally walking around with a camera in their pocket in the form of asmartphone. People are taking more photos than ever before simply because their phones arewith them all the time. Whereas in the old days you lug around a camera because you have aspecific intention of capturing photographs, now we take photos of unplanned and unexpectedmoments.
Citation preview
How rolling shutter effect can be used
for trick photography Written by Jim T May (http://trick-photography.org)
Nowadays, people are literally walking around with a camera in their pocket in the form of a
smartphone. People are taking more photos than ever before simply because their phones are
with them all the time. Whereas in the old days you lug around a camera because you have a
specific intention of capturing photographs, now we take photos of unplanned and unexpected
moments.
Because of this, more and more people are discovering the rolling shutter effect with their
phones. You've probably seen pictures taken using their smartphones of spinning plane
propellers with multiple weird boomerang shapes. It looks even more baffling on video as the
boomerang seems to melt, deform, and merge with one another. Another example is when
people take pictures out of a moving car or train. The picture looks skewed in one direction.
So what causes the rolling shutter effect?
Cameras fitted with an imaging sensor that has a rolling shutter or performs a line scan suffers
from this effect. Not all parts of the image are recorded on the sensor at exactly the same time
due to the rolling shutter. This is normally not an issue as the rolling shutter takes very little
time to fully capture an image, but very fast-moving objects can still create the effect. The
moving object has already moved before the full image has been captured. Most camera
sensors are of this variety, especially smartphone cameras so the odds of people encountering
this artifact is higher.
Here are the distortions you can get with the rolling shutter effect:
1. Wobble. The image looks "wobbly", as in straight lines don't appear straight anymore, and
appears wave-like like jello. You are more likely to get this effect if your camera or the object is
vibrating very rapidly.
2. Skew. The image appears to be skewed in one direction. This is most common if you take a
picture out of a moving car or train.
3. Smear. This is an even more extreme version of the skew as the image appears to be
stretched until it looks blurry like a smear.
4. Partial exposure. The image appears like two separate photos joined together. This can
happen if in the middle of capturing the image, a flash of light goes off. One part of the image
appears brighter because the flash went off then, and the other part of the image appears
darker as it was captured after the flash.
Normally these are considered unwanted artifacts in an image. But if you want to capture
extraordinary trick photography images, then you can turn these unwanted artifacts into the
highlight of the image.
Propellers and fan blades
For example, the boomerang-shaped airplane propellers can look very alarming while you're in
the air, but with a bit of work you can recreate this effect on the ground or in a studio. You can
get some abstract and surreal shots using a common house or portable fan. Then try
experimenting with different colored fan blades and lighting. Spray or splash water onto the
blades. You never know what the end result might turn out to be, either way it is going to be
something most people never see.
Vibrating objects and strings
Once in a while a new and interesting use of the rolling shutter effect for trick photography
emerges that blow people's mind. Someone took their smartphone and dropped it inside their
guitar facing the strings and began to record while strumming the guitar string. The result are
pictures of the string "frozen" in mid-oscillation. The video version shows the string frozen at
different wobble patterns as it vibrate at different frequencies. You could produce beautiful
photos or videos of musicians playing their string instrument and be able to see the individual
string vibration.
Move the camera instead
For truly bizarre pictures, you can try strapping your camera to something moving very fast.
There are videos of people on the Internet subjecting their cameras to extreme conditions like
strapping their cameras to the propeller of a toy helicopter to produce some really psychedelic
photography. The world wobbles, melts, and flows like liquid unlike anything you've ever seen.
People are discovering fun new ways to do trick photography with the rolling shutter effect.
Hopefully the explanation, examples, and tips here will encourage you to get started and
explore further!
Jim blogs about trick photography and special effects techniques, that people use to create stunning
photographs. You can sign up at his Trick Photography site to receive a free report on the top 10 trick
photography ideas for travel photos. Please feel free to share this document with your family and
friends if you think it’ll interest them, thanks!