Fun photo technique

Ok, so I saw these really cool “photos” on the web and thought I need to learn how to do this.  So here is my first attempt.

Watch carefully

If you watched, you will notice that every once in awhile, the photo blinks. Fun and sometimes spooky effect.

How it’s done is not as hard as it seems. The key is to get some good material. I shot the “photo” knowing that I would be creating this type of result. The model needs to hold perfectly still as you capture a series of frames for the blink. With newer DSLR’s the video function works great for this.

You then bring the frames of the video into Photoshop as layers. Determine which frame will be your “Master Frame” and perform all your retouching on this frame. I have this frame as my top layer. I will then use masking to allow the lower frames to peak thru.

Open the animation window in Photoshop. You will see that it automatically adds the first frame. This should be your master frame with the mask turned off. Click the new frame button and activate your mask. Add another frame on turn off the first layer that is showing thru the mask. Continue adding frames and turning off the prior layer until you have added them all into the animation. You need to make sure you end back on your master frame.

Now you can set the time delay on the first and last frames. 2-4 seconds is good for the first frame. And 5-10 for the last.

Now choose the menu to save for web and save as a gif. This will output the file as an animated gif, and hopefully it will have worked. You can open the file in your web browser to test it.

Orcatek Photography – Phoenix. AZ