Computational Photography -- Project 0 -- Kelleker Guerin

This project dealt with the Vertigo Shot or dolly zoom which is used extensively in film. In effect, the photographer starts at a position close to the object using a wide focal length and takes a picture. He then moves back away from the object and adjusts the focal length (zoom) of his camera so that the object is the same size as the previous image. Several of these photos taken in series (or a continuous video) produce the dolly zoom. The increasing distance and increasing focal length serve to reduce the perspective of the image from normal to weak. In effect, the subject does not appear to change while the background zooms in. For these shots I used a Canon Rebel 8mp camera with a 24-300mm zoom lens, letting me get about 25-30 feet away for the far shots. I tried to choose locations where the background was varied enough to show good zooming.

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This first image is a statue outside Baker Hall on the Cut. The statue is relatively tall compared to the initial position of the camera, so there is some geometric change in the apperance of the statue in the begining of the sequence. When the camera is further away, this effect becomes less noticeable.

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This second image is of a fire hydrant on the Cut, with Hammershlag and Porter Halls in the background. This was a much lower object and I was able to keep the camera and image at a relatively uniform height.