Cool photo effect I cant duplicate....

[Drakeskakes]

Often times when you see Documentaries or Biography pieces, they show a photograph that almost appears to be 3D. The foreground subject (Usually a person) seems to be separate from the background. I was watching a special on University of Miami and they used it a lot. I also saw it on Laird Hamilton's photo during Step Into Liquid.

Is this something that can only be created for TV? I don't recall ever seeing it on line and I cant find any examples strangely enough. Help? Does anyone else know what i'm talking about or do I sound crazy!!

[The Hard Way]

I think I know what you're talking about. It looks like the split a photo into several layers, like a diorama, and animate the background, foreground, and middle layers to scroll past at different speed to give a 3D effect.

[hawkeye60]

It's a video effect obviously. I did a short tutorial on doing the effect with Adobe Premier Elements, you can see it here, scroll down to the video on the bottom of the page:

http://www.freewebs.com/pe3help/specialeffects.htm

[tstowe]

I've seen what you're talking about. I think it's a little Photoshop and a little video. What I think they do is open the image in Photoshop and erase everthing but the person. Then open your favorite slide show program. I use Pro Show Gold. Show the original image and layer the edited image on top of it. Then zoom on the edited image.

[Drakeskakes]

Originally Posted by The Hard Way

I think I know what you're talking about. It looks like the split a photo into several layers, like a diorama, and animate the background, foreground, and middle layers to scroll past at different speed to give a 3D effect.

Exactly. There was one photo i saw today that had no movement which is what sprung my curiosity as to if it can be done with still frame.

[MikeFairbanks]

I recall that being done first (at least from my point of view) in the 90s video by Smashing Pumpkins: "Tonight".

Neat effect. It was actually done a bit by Monty Python, wasn't it?

[rdenney]

The people are cut out of the scene, enlarged enough to allow a little movement, and then moved relative to the background.

Personally, I find it exceedingly annoying, and often done with historic photographs by well-known photographers. It is even more annoying than panning across a photograph.

Rick "capable of looking at static images without being bored" Denney