Oct 15, 2020
I bet you have never heard of Cinemagraphs, but they are awesome
The ones amongst you who are interested in photography might have heard about this phenomenon a long time ago: cinemagraphs.
They are different types of art that, oddly enough, not many people know or even heard about.
The first cinemagraphs were created and developed by photographer Jamie Beck & animator Kevin Burg.
But what exactly are the Cinemagraphs?
The cinemagraphs are images that contain spots with live moments that allow a flash of time to be preserved and experienced endlessly.
These extraordinary images are easy to describe as “moving photos” or animated GIF’s. They cover the area between photos & videos, as they are still photographs in part of which a minor, repeated movement occurs.
Why I love Cinemagraphs?
Whether it’s hair or clothing hit by a slight breeze or dangling jewelry swaying back & forth, the calculated action serves a purpose in adding to the mood & aesthetic.
I have experimented previously with animated GIFs myself, just for the fun of it, but as you can notice, the cinemagraphs are something completely different.
I’m mesmerized by them.
I love Cinemagraphs because they look simple, but in fact, they are so expressive.
Feel free to go through this fantastic selection of cinemagraphs below and enjoy them.
Can you make Cinemagraphs yourself?
The good news is everyone can create cinemagraphs and plotagraphs, and nowadays, there is enough information on how to make this unique kind of art. Also — there is a bunch of software available that will help you with it.
To save your time I will recommend you to check these links below that I guess will be useful for you:
The Best Software for Cinemagraphs reviewed
Examples of Cinemagraphs on Shutterstock
How to make your pictures Come To Life using Cinemagraph? (Video Tutorial by Peter McKinnon)
How to Make Moving Pictures on Your Phone? (Plotagraph & Cinemagraph Video Tutorial by Justin Brown)
Cinemagraphs vs Plotagraphs
If you enjoyed Cinemagraphs, then you will probably love the Plotagraphs too. While there are some similarities between the final products of these two types of art, I can say that I definitely prefer cinemagraphs.
Both words Plotagraph and Cinemagraph stay for an image that contains motion after the artist has finished his work.
Still, in the beginning, the raw file for a photograph, is a still photo, while the raw file for a cinemagraph is a video.
In simple words — the motion has to be artificially created by an artist in order to have a plotagraph as a final result. This is not the case with the cinemagraphs, because the motion already exists in the initial video file.
