Assignment 0: The Vertigo Shot

Ronit Slyper

Description

camera. Two dolly-zoom sequences were taken with a digital camera using optical zoom. The camera was a Casio Exilim Z750, 7.2 megapixels, small, surprisingly cheap, and very lovable. The vertiginous effect works like this:

i.e. using a combination of dolly and zoom, you can keep the subject the same size while changing the amount of background shown.
software. Images were edited in The Gimp.
location. I first took indoor sequences using a tripod; these didn't turn out very useful because the effect relies upon having a significant background. The locations I chose were plants in the backyard, a fire escape, and a lamppost. The plants came out well. The stairs induce vertigo (walk walk trip!), but not in the intended fashion. I should have taken the pics from higher up. It is also hard to create a perfect dolly without a dolly-o-magic; I attempted to rig one using a wheeled item I had in my room, but it only worked for indoor shots.

Results

Bells & Whistles

gifs.Gifs really show off the effect.

field of view. To measure the field of view, long distances are best. A sports field has long, pre-measured distances (like so:

), so I thought it would be ideal. The zoom used was optical only. The pictures were taken and measured at 3072x2304, and are downsampled here for viewing:


Minimum zoom	Maximum zoom
Goal crossbar was 936 pixels == 24 ft	Goal crossbar was 350 pixels == 24 ft
Entire picture is thus 3072 * 24 / 936 = 78.77 ft	Entire picture is thus 3072 * 24 / 350 = 210.65 ft
Dist to camera is sqrt(24^2 + 252^2) ft = 253.1 ft	Dist to camera is sqrt(24^2 + 252^2) ft = 253.1 ft
Field of view is 2arctan(78.77/(2253.1) = 18 degrees	Field of view is 2arctan(210.65/(2253.1) = 45 degrees