12.2 CONTINUOUS PHOTOGRAPHY

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With digital cameras, you normally take one photo at a time, but you’re not limited to that way of shooting. You can also capture sequences of photos. In this continuous mode, you just hold down the shutter-release button and images are captured one after another. You can then choose the best image from the sequence or use all of them to create animations on your computer.

In most cases, the camera uses a smaller image size, such as 640 x 480 or smaller, to take sequences. This reduces the processing needed so you can take images at a faster rate.

When shooting in continuous mode, you’ll take pictures more quickly if the light is brighter. You may get your best results in bright sunlight.

This sequence was taken in continuous mode on a bright sunny day. If you look closely, you’ll see that the excavator’s boom is moving out during the sequence.

Animated GIFs

There are programs that convert a series of images into an animated GIF. When posted on the Web, the images are quickly displayed one after the other like frames in a movie. One shareware program you can use is GIF Construction Set.

Lenticular Prints

For years there have been novelty cards that displays one image when held at one angle and another image when tilted to angle. The principle behind these cards, called lenticular photography, was first demonstrated by Gabriel Lippman in 1908. Lenticular images have come a long way since then and it's now possible to carry a short 1-second "video" in your pocket, or hang it on the wall. As you turn the image in your hand, or walk by a large one on the counter or wall, the image seems to come to life. Depending on how the underlying photographs are taken, lenticular images convey the illusion of 3D and/or video motion. You may have seen them on CD jewel cases, movie posters, Pokémon cards, and novelty items.

Recent advances are now bringing the creation of lenticular images to the desktop so you can make them yourself, or have them made for you at a reasonable price. Digital cameras should make this form of printing more popular than ever. For example, you can easily use your camera's sequence mode to capture the frames needed for a short video to be displayed on one of these cards. And they are no longer just cards. They can be found on mouse pads, counter displays, keyrings, or in frames on the wall.

A lenticular image has two components; a printed image and a lenticular lens screen through which the image is viewed.

• The printed image is two or more photographs (or other image types) interlaced in narrow strips. The number of images, or strips (called flips) is dependent on the size of the image. Smaller images can have more flips because the angle of view changes little from one side to the other. On larger images, when the angle of view varies a lot across the face of the image, the strips must be wider to prevent "ghosting" when you can see more than one strip. It's said that smaller images can contain 30 or more flips or frames, about 1 second of video.
• A lenticular lens screen is a sheet of plastic on which a series of cylindrical lens are molded in parallel rib-like rows. Each or the lenses, called a lenticule, has a focal length equal to the thickness of the clear plastic sheet on which it is molded. Each lenticule magnifies a very narrow strip of the image placed behind it. If you change your angle of view, the strip that is being magnified also changes. On a small card, each lenticule can show any one of 36 different strips depending on your angle of view.

As you view the lenticular image at different angles, you see different strips on the printed image. Image courtesy of Panasonic.

Taking Images

The way images are taken determines what form the final lenticular image will take. Here are some of the possibilities:

• Flip images are any two images that flip back and forth as you turn the lenticular image.
• 3D images are created by shooting the same object or scene from different angles. One way to do this is to attach your camera to a slider bar mounted on a tripod. Between shots, you keep the camera facing the same way but move it along the slider from left to right. When the images are interlaced, you'll seem to "walk" around the object as you turn the card. 

Flip! Slider lets you take multiple images of the same object or scene from different angles. Courtesy of Flip Signs.

• Video effects are created by shooting a sequence of images from the same position. Alternatively, you can create a morphing effect and use those frames.

Software and Supplies

Kodak and other companies make high-end lenticular equipment used in commercial labs. However, Tony Gelardi and Dr. Stephen Fantone have jointly developed a desktop system of software and lenses that makes it possible for anyone to create lenticular images on your your desktop computer and inkjet printer. Their Starter 2 Software ($69.95) can merge two images at 300 dpi resolution in a variety of sizes for use with frames, pins, magnets, and keychains.

Insight, Inc. offers a line of pre-preformatted premium papers for you to use with your desktop printer. Using Insight's Merge ready printer papers eliminates the need to cut or trim the printed image or images. Once you have the printed images, you can slip them into a number of lens designs.

Merge's 9"x10" display frame & special effects lens (MI-001) lets you slip in a lenticulkar photo created with their software. To change graphics just open the drawer and insert new graphic card under the special effects lens.

Printers

Lenticular images can be printed on almost any color printer and then mounted to a lens. However, the Panasonic P-M1000 Motion Printer prints directly onto the back of the lens. Used in conjunction with compatible software, the printer can combine up to six images on a business card sized (2" x 3") lenticular card and tilting the card gives the illusion of 3D motion. The P-M1000 is a dye sublimation printer and each takes about 2 minutes.

The Panasonic P-M1000 Motion Image Printer has a resolution of 300 by 600 dots per inch and a 16.7 million color gradation. Courtesy of Panasonic.