Zooming while shooting

divamum

Today's "How do I...?" question as usual, I understand in *theory*, but not in practice. Have found a few articles online, but none of them quite answer my Qs....

I've been footling around with my zoom in my living room (talk about "what not to shoot"!!!), but I can't quite seem to figure it out to create the effect I want - it usually just looks like bad lighting or camera shake rather than the time-tunnel effect I associate with this technique. :rofl:dunno

- what's a good rule of thumb for a shutter speed? (I've experimented with 1-3 seconds-ish, but it still doesn't look quite right to me)

- should zooming take the entire shutter time, or just some of it?

- so far it seems like zooming OUT (from longest reach to widest angle) gives a more marked effect... or am I just doing it wrong?

- does zooming faster or slower give you a more marked effect?

As ever, thanks!

angevin1

I'm sure others are more practiced with this effect, but so far it is easier for me with a trombone type zoom and shutter on the slow 1/60th side~~~~cheers, tom

darkdragon

Not sure what effect you are going for so this is just a guess, but try pausing at different zoom spots momentarily. Instead of zooming quick all the way through, zoom smoothly but pause at intervals.

Hope this didn't confuse you more.

System

divamum

Thanks!

In fact, I only saw these (very helpful) comments after I'd done the shoot, but it's nice to have some of the things I figured out confirmed (ie, stopping in mid zoom - the best ones I got had three distinct points of focus, kind of small/medium/large)

Thanks for the help!

ziggy53

The "Radial Blur" filter in PhotoShop and other software can provide a similar effect, and you often have much greater control over the outcome.

For instance, if you want the effect to occur off-center you can accomplish that much more easily in the digital filter than using a lens based approach.

Likewise, if you notice a region that is not blurring correctly because it has too many elements or the contrast range is too high or, ... whatever, you can attend to those problems before the radial blur and often correct them.

Wachel

captain78 wrote:

I'm getting dizzy!