Stillmotion Explained, Other Stuff Not Explained.
Since I started doing “Stillmotion” pieces a couple years ago – creating video using short, high-speed bursts of still photographs – a lot of people ask me for a step-by-step roadmap to the technique so they can do it themselves.
Here are a couple of the more popular examples:
In Line from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.
The Beta – Six Feet Under from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.
You can see most of the ones I’ve done at my Stillmotion album on my Vimeo Page
It’s something I’ve talked about in detail in a Guest Blog for Scott Kelby, on Robert Benson’s blog, on the NikonRumors website, and as a speaker at the 2009 Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, but I’ve never really put it all down step-by-step.
Recently Digital Photo Pro Magazine interviewed me about it, and they did just that, spelling out in gory detail exactly how to do it. So stop bugging me about it.
Seriously though, It looks like a ton of steps but really, its hella simple. You just need to make sure you have the right tools. I happen to use Nikon DLSRs for capture and sequence everything in Final Cut Pro.
One thing DPP did not ask was, “Why the hell would you do it?” It does look pretty cool, and it’s novel. That’s probably enough for me. But maybe the benefits versus video (extreme resolution, access to unique lighting and shutter effects) do not outweigh the pain-in-the-asses (difficult frame rates, extreme workflow challenges, no sound). It’s a question I ask myself, especially given that there are so many amazing video capture tools out there today – most of which I use daily for other productions.
I believe that in the near future, there will be full motion-capture technology that is very similar physically to what I am doing with a high-speed still camera.
Try it out yourself, tell me if I am full of shit, and enjoy the article:
Comments
Oh Boy oh boy!
Thanks!
I lack the tools but I’m always hungry fro video tutorials. 🙂
Cheers!
Hi Andrew
I have enjoyed my brief look at your work. I would like to understand where the benefit of high resolution fits in as with the exception of 4K projectors I can’t see where I can view the clips in all their glory.
Kind Regards
Michael
Hey Michael – thanks. There are some resolution benefits even with relatively low-resolution output. There is a lot more image information per frame to work with, and even when scaled, the difference is there (consider for example how large format photography looks on a postcard versus 35mm, or how cinema film looks better than standard definition even on a television) There is also the ability to crop and zoom. More interesting to me is that any frame could potentially be used in full (or nearly full-)resolution print.