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Have you heard of cinemagraphs? I’ve gone all obsessed. I see them in every scene; pull over at the sight of a horse, yelling apologies over my shoulder as I abandon my family in the car. ‘CINEMAGRAPH ALL THE THINGS!’

A little bit extreme, I’ll grant you, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about myself it’s that obsessions bring awesome results. I mean, Mark Hamill DMd me about his underwear last week! Anyway. I digress.
Cinemagraphs (I persist in calling them ‘cinemagrams’, which is wrong) have been around a little while now. Somewhere between video and photographs, they capture a small moving element in a larger, photographic scene.
 

 
I first encountered them about a year ago via this article & was transfixed. Immediately these moving pictures sprung to the top of my ‘want to create list’, where they promptly languished for a year while I failed to find the time, energy or courage to actually tackle a new skill.
 

 
In the continued absence of any of those things, I’ve begun making them on the hop. In fact, so far I’ve only used my iPhone, despite having everything I need to have a step up to higher quality (& greater accuracy!). As a result, much of what you see here is flawed, but in tribute to learning curves & killing perfectionism, I’m sharing them anyway ???.
 

 
I’ve been using Flixel to create my cinemagraphs (Not cinemagrams. Not cinemagrams.). It’s priced for professionals, which means in a similar bracket to Photoshop etc, but they offer a free trial of both the app and desktop software before purchase. I fluttered my eyelashes at them a bit and convinced them to give me a discount code for anyone interested, too – use ORLAANDFLIXEL to get 20% off .? 

I’m also co-judging their #mysummerthrowback competition over on Instagram this month – the winner gets a Flixel Annual Plan including all of the apps, or some cool Apple prizes. (Not sponsored – just mutual appreciation! ?).

What do you guys think? Are you as intrigued as I am, or totally un-arsed? Should I share a bit more about how to make them, or my continued experiments in getting better at it?

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24 Comments

  • Eduard Militaru

  • September 11, 2016

I’m obsessed with it. I try to make cinemagraphs with everything :)) And when I don’t shoot anything I take shots from movies and I make them cinemagraphs using Photoshop. It may seem hard to learn it to do it properly but it’s actually easy. I posted some on my website too.

  • Annabel Beeforth

  • September 10, 2016

I’ve been wanting to learn how to create them for years now – I think they were pioneered by my fave blogger Jamie Beck over at http://annstreetstudio.com/category/cinemagraphs/ – I’ve certainly been enjoying them over on their website for several years now (just had to google my own blog as I’m pretty sure I blogged about my own love of them too at one time – and voila – http://www.lovemydress.net/blog/2011/08/cinemagraphs-love-them-or-loathe-them.html – cannot believe that’s 5 years ago though!). It used to be a really complicated layering process in Photoshpo but I’m super keen to try out this new software so THANK YOU so much for the discount code lady! xxx

  • Lindsay Eryn

  • June 15, 2016

Ah! I’ve seen your cinegraphs on Instagram, and not only do they look super cool, but you were so excited about them, I wanted to try them, too! Theeeen I downloaded the Flixel app and realized it cost $15 to really do anything with it, so I quit right away. Now I see you’ve got a discount code, so I’ll think about splurging for this new creative outlet! Thanks for getting that for us!

  • Celia @ AfterOrangeCounty.com

  • June 12, 2016

Yes, please, please share more. Thank you!

  • Lauren

  • June 08, 2016

Yes, I would love to see more, and yes, please share how! These are lovely 🙂

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Gah, sorry Erin! ? I know that feeling! Get the free app and have a play? Or I hear you can make them in Photoshop if you’re clever that way… (I’m not!) xx

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Thanks R! xx

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Hurray! Tutorial post coming very soon, then 🙂

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Hurray! xx

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Thanks Rebecca! x

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Thanks! I’ll get to work on a little beginner’s guide 🙂

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Oh, you! <3 Thanks for the vote of confidence! More to come (I hope!) xx

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Hurray! Thanks Kate. Working on it right now 😀

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Yay! So glad, Ashley!

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Thanks Charlotte! I totally know what you mean – they have that feeling to me. Timeless, and a little bit uncanny.

  • Sara Tasker

  • June 06, 2016

Yay! Thanks Steph! x

  • Charlotte {theteapotexplodes}

  • June 06, 2016

So beautiful Sarah! I love them. There’s something beautifully old fashioned and romantic about them

  • Ashley Pitts

  • June 06, 2016

Oh, wow! I love these!!

  • Kate

  • June 05, 2016

These are gorgeous! I’d love to see more.

  • City Cookie

  • June 04, 2016

Amazing! I’d love to learn how to make these

  • Shannon Clark

  • June 04, 2016

Your talents never seem to cease! I LOVE them all!

  • Rebecca @ Strength & Sunshine

  • June 04, 2016

Ooo so cool!

  • Elizabeth Dalton

  • June 04, 2016

Love these, definitely want to learn more.

  • Rebecca Harrison

  • June 04, 2016

Ooh love these!

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