Final Project: Vertigo Shot and Miniatures

Melissa Su, cs194-26-aay

Part 1: Vertigo Shot Background

The goal of this assignment is to recreate the Dolly Zoom, which is also known as the Vertigo Shot. This camera trick produces a disorienting effect by focusing on a subject while simultaneously walking backwards and zooming in to maintain the "size" of the subject. The process narrows the field of view.

Process and Challenges

I have a maker pass at Jacobs Hall so I had access to a fancy camera with optical zoom (also known as real zoom). I used a Canon Eos 5D Mark III with 24-105MM Lens. It did not have enough zoom so I wasn't able to take more than 4 photos per sequence. I found it hard to keep the camera still and maintain the position of the subject throughout the photo sequence. I did my best to walk back in a straight line while keeping the camera steady. In the picture below, you see one of my set ups where I put the camera on a rolling chair and used a large tube as alignment. Despite the efforts, the subject is not perfectly aligned throughout the sequences.

Results

Furby Sequence: I was going for horror movie because I thought the Furby was creepy so I shot these in the metal shop at Jacobs Hall. It actually turned out quite cute.

Mini Campanile: My subject is a mini laser cut Campanile in my coworkers office. I placed it against the window because I wanted the bush outside to serve as scenery/greenery.

Arianna: My friend Arianna sitting in Jacobs Hall with her fun lego laptop.

Bells and Whistles

Above sequences as gifs.

Combination of moving subject and camera.

Move toward object while zooming out (the opposite of a Dolly Zoom).

Furby in Motion: When I shake the toy it will animate and move around. I played with the idea of moving the object and camera simultaneously. You can see its ears and eyes change position.

Compute Field of View

I used the equation FOV=2*arctan(d/2f) where d = width of subject, and f = distance from camera to subject.

Firby min zoom: d = 5in, f = 6in, FOV = 45.24 degrees

Firby max zoom: d = 5in, f = 60in, FOV = 4.77 degrees

Campanile min zoom: d = 1in, f = 6in, FOV = 9.53 degrees

Campanile max zoom: d = 1in, f = 30in, FOV = 1.91 degrees

Arianna min zoom: d = 5in (face), f = 24in, FOV = 11.89 degrees

Arianna max zoom: d = 5in (face), f = 84in, FOV = 3.41 degrees

Part 2: Miniatures

The goal of this assignment is to recreate titl shift, an effect that makes an image look like a toy or miniature by simulating a large depth-of-field.

Process

1. Define Depth of Focus
I used pyplot's ginput to allow users to select two points as a horizontal upper and lower bound for the mask region.
2. Progressively Apply Blur
I applied a Gaussian filter on regions outside of the mask. The farther away a region was, the more I would blur that region.
3. Saturate the Photo
I scaled the saturation up by 1.5 to increase the illusion of a miniature.

Results

Florence: source me

SF: source me

Toledo: source me

Cinque Terre: source angelosboattours.com

New York: source nationalgeographic.com