Cinemagraphs – A new kind of (creative) photography

Cinemagraphs – A new kind of (creative) photography

Have you ever seen a Cinemagraph before and wondered what goes on behind the scenes to make this enticing image come to life? We can tell you more.

Take, for example, a photograph of a beautiful woman standing in the breeze. It’s a stunning shot and upon looking at it, it becomes alive to you. But imagine if you could put some sort of life into it – and not just in a figurative sense – maybe with her hair or dress moving slightly. Cinemagraphs have made a way for that to be possible and are appearing all over the ‘Net’ for their ingenuity in simplicity and their versatility.

Basically, cinemagraphs are still photos which have a small but repetitive movement in them. They are usually made in GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) format and the viewer gets the impression of watching a video, when it is still actually an image. Usually, cinemagraphs are produced from a series of images or a video recording which are composed together using editing software. This allows the image to become an uninterrupted loop of frames, giving the image movement between exposures. This is perceived as the repeated motion in the image.

Although GIF files have been around since the 80s, the vividness and clarity of cinemagraphs – and the term itself – is relatively recent. The term “cinemagraph” was coined by US photographers (and couple) Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck of Ann Street Studio in Manhattan, New York. They used the technique to animate their fashion and news photographs in early 2011.

Cinemagraphs capture beauty, glamour and fantasy in an image. Granted cinemagraphs cannot be printed, but that makes this kind of photography all the more unique in it’s digital art form. Cinemagraphs now incorporate two of the most effective forms of documentation, film and photographs, into one stunning package.

We cannot wait to start creating cinemagraphs for our clients!