Make a still photo sorta look like video?

M

mikeshu

Well-known member
Hi Guys,

I finished a shoot in Japan where I shot an outdoor location at the only time of day we could (morning), but it looks like we could use an alternate shot with the sun on the other side for editing and b-roll purposes.

I'm in the U.S. and the Japanese crew is a bit far from the location, so I'm looking for cheap and dirty solutions.

I know there are a bunch of hi res pictures taken of the location and I was wondering how to make the shot look like video in any way. I guess ignoring the lack of leaves moving, how would one replicate the somewhat random elements that film and video has?

Anybody successful?

Thanks so much!
 
Adding some sort of movement is frequently pretty easy, but that depends very much on the shot. If it's an outside shot with sky, you may be able to fake some slowly moving clouds floating through the sky. Or in a street scene, add some greenscreened foreground silhouetted people walking past. Use your imagination. It may not even require movement as such, e.g. blinking lights aren't hard to add to a still.

Adding some fake camera shake might help? Or a very slow zoom in or out.

And don't forget subtle sound effects.
 
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Thanks for the ideas, clang!

I never thought of the compositing... might work.

The shot is of a chapel that is being advertised as part of a hotel company in rural Hokkaido, so it's trees, blue sky and a small white chapel. I guess maybe moving the clouds helps. Doing camera moves will be tough as they often look like a Ken Burns effect. I guess it depends on how I implement it.

Oooorr. I can film some motion tracking markers and do a few small moves and then apply that to the image to see how natural I can get the movement? I did this to feign handheld on locked down footage successfully before but not on stills.

Any other pointers out there?
 
Hey Mike. If the location is frequently photographed, then it might be frequently videotaped too. Check some of the stock footage sites like Pond5.com and revostock.com. You might find some footage of it.

If you're going to go the greenscreen/compositing route, try shooting some tree branches against the greenscreen and put them in the foreground of the shot. Make those leaves move, and add in the moving clouds, and it might work.
 
Ooooh, I wish it were. The thing is that a far off resort. There have been 2 commercials filmed there before, but the footage from those have been too far off from what we have shot, but the photograph is very suitable.

I wish there was some telepresence crew technology that allows me to just step in there in a virtual body and nab the shot. I was using my slider and steadicam, which the crew doesn't have :-(
 
comp in some birds flying through.
alotta movies use those big set sized photo backdrops and often the only movement is birds flying by.
 
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