Overview
Goal of these two projects is to reproduce the famous in-camera effect: the dolly zoom and to create artifical miniature shots by simulating the effect of selective focus cameras: Tilt-shift photography.
Vertigo Shots
To simulate the vertigo shot we keep an object stationary and use a camera with a real zoom lens to take photos at different depths while keeping the object in focus. When we are further away from the object, we zoom in to take a photo. Conversely, the closer we are to the object the more we zoom out. The key is to keep the object we are focusing on roughly the same size so we only see the background changing.
Waterbottle Photo Sequence
Waterbottle Animation
Recycling Photo Sequence#2
Recycling Animation
Fake Miniatures
In this part we simulate a minature effect by masking a region of image and applying a blurring filter to the rest of the image. This narrows the perceived depth of field and creates an illusion that the lens was up close to the subject. To make this illusion more apparent, we successively apply gaussian filters on areas away from the subject.
Field with mountains
Path with sun rays
Lake with mountains
Sunset with flowers
Conclusion
Overall, I am impressed that these simple techniques can achieve such interesting results. After creating a vertigo shot myself, I will never see movies with vertigo shots in the same way again. In addition, implementing fake minatures has helped me realize how easily our human eyes and brains are fooled by optical illusions.
Photo Credits: Pexels