How to do Tagedy and Comedy using Panoramic Camera

[pkerr]

My first introduction to a panoramic camera was a few years ago when Jeff Bridges was on CBS Sunday morning. He uses a 35mm Widelux. I have an old, inexpensive, Russian, HorizonT.

In Jeff's book, "Pictures", he has several photos with the same person twice, once smiling and once frowning. In his text he talks about being able to run around the photographer and be in the same picture twice. Now, I don't know about the widelux, but the HorizonT swings in a fraction of a second.

So, how does he do the photos in his book where on one frame a person sitting on a couch is shown twice? There is a vertical blur about half way.

I'm wondering if he swings the camera in the opposite way from the lens. He'd have to be using a tripod to keep the begining and end shots clear. The person doesn't move because there's a photo of Martin Landau, or two of him, and the backrground is the same behind each image.

I'm doing a presentation at my camera club on Jeff, http://www.cameraclubottawa.ca/. The evening will be photographers talking about what it would be like for a famous photographer to visit Ottawa and what photographs they would produce. I have lots of panoramics around Ottawa but I want to do one of his trick photos.

Jeff's website is http://www.jeffbridges.com

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

This was a common trick with the old Cirkut camera. In a large group photo there would be a "runner" at one end who would be standing at the starting point of the shot and would run behind the group to appear at the other end of the shot when the camera completed its travel.

I suspect Bridges is just using a camera that takes longer to make the exposure than your Horizont.

 

[Travis Nunn]

This was a common trick with the old Cirkut camera. In a large group photo there would be a "runner" at one end who would be standing at the starting point of the shot and would run behind the group to appear at the other end of the shot when the camera completed its travel.

I suspect Bridges is just using a camera that takes longer to make the exposure than your Horizont.

There are quite a few school class pictures out there where someone did just that

 

[reellis67]

I've seen this done many times in older pictures of things like schools, military photos, bands, etc... As posted above, the camera typicaly provided enough time for the person on the end where the photo started to run around to the far end and appear again. Fun to look for when purusing old panos

- Randy

 

[jamie young]

I think the widelux has a slow exposure setting which would allow the camera to do the run around thing. If you can't slow the lense rotation down, I wouldn't know how to achieve that effect. What's the slowest exposure on the horizon? The cirkuts have an effective exposure of around 1/2 -1/8.
Doesn't the widelux have a 1 second setting? if so it might be possible with that.
Jamie

 

[ian leeden]

I use a Roundshot rotating camera...on the slow speed a full 360 rotation takes about 3 minutes.... I took some photos of a dancer and she was in one of the photos about 15 times !! If you keep still in front of the camera as it`s rotating you appear sharp.... if you move slowly you are blurred and if you move past the lens quickly you are not recorded at all. It`s great fun to use for this sort of picture and the possibilities are many.
Ian

 

[Troy Hamon]

I have a widelux...I haven't seen Jeff Bridges' photos though I have heard of his work...that's the caveat...

The slowest shutter speed is 1/15 sec. It takes longer than that for the slit to travel, but not a terribly long time. So, could you do the run around thing? Probably, as long as the pictures are super close-up. But the other thing is...I suspect you could just arrest the shutter midway, move the camera, and then let it go. If you just put your finger in the shutter slit when it gets to a certain point and hold it there, I suspect you could do it. I'm not going to go do that with mine because I like my camera and am not sure what the effects of such treatment will be...but I've had to do unkind things to it to get sand out...and that's the basis for this comment. The shutter mechanism, since it is all mechanical, can be mechanically interrupted and messed with.

 

[Troy Hamon]

Just went to Jeff Bridges' web site...they did run...but I couldn't find any of the photos...

http://www.jeffbridges.com/camera.html

 

[George Papantoniou]

http://www.7deadlysins.at/

My friend Lukas is using a 120 panoramic camera with interchangeable lenses that can be stopped (I think) when he chooses to.

 

[pkerr]

Thanks for all your replies. However, I said that the photos have the person in the SAME place and the centre of the photo is a bit blurred.

If you stop the turret, you will get a bright over-exposed bar in the middle. If you run around to catch up to the lens, you will be in a different place.

The shutter speed on the HorizonT does not change the speed of the rotation, just the size of the slit. Slowest shutter speed is 1/30. The newer Horizon has a two speed turret but the slowest speed is still pretty fast.

Maybe I'll contact Jeff and/or try moving the camera as I suspect he does.

 

[ksmattfish]

Set the widelux to 1/15th, which actually takes over 3 seconds to complete the exposure. Compose the image with the subject on the left side (where the lens starts). Once the lens swings past the subject, quickly recompose so that the subject is on the right side. It's just a matter of swivelling the camera very quickly at the right moment, and changing where it's aiming. I'm sure it's the kind of thing that gets easier with practice.