A cinemagraph is a stunning hybrid between photo and video. The beauty of them comes as the viewer is initially under the impression that they are looking at a piece of still photography, but then suddenly something catches their eye and they realise that it's moving! 

The technique was pioneered by New York photographer Jamie Beck and designer Kevin Burg, who originally used it to bring fashion shoots to life. In this tutorial I will take a recent example we created for the University of Stirling, and guide you through each step, from filming the subject, to importing the footage and using Photoshop to create the final results. You’ll learn how to use frames within Photoshop to process your footage, and how to tweak your sequence to find the perfect loop for export. Cinemagraphs have the potential to be used wherever there is a photo on a website, and I think you’ll be seeing more and more of them in the coming months. So get involved and stay ahead of the game!

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1. Choose a subject

You want something that can seamlessly loop, either continuously or back and forth. For example, eyes blinking, tap running, branches blowing, pressing a button or a roundabout spinning. Get creative. For this example we chose somebody sitting at a computer moving and clicking a mouse.

2. Frame your subject

Ensure your subject can easily be isolated from the rest of the shot. Make sure the moving parts are joined to areas that don't move. So for our shot we want the arm to move but the body to stay very still.

3. Film your subject

Try filming several variations of your scene. You only need a few seconds of usable footage for each take. Make sure your tripod is solid as shaky shots won't work and shoot in the best quality possible. Avoid anything crossing in front of or behind your subject.

4. Import the footage

We used Final Cut to transcode our footage from AVCHD to Pro Res 422 for optimum quality. You may be able to take your footage straight into Photoshop. Ensure you do not capture or re-encode to a format that will compress your footage and reduce quality.

5. Bring into Photoshop

Load your video clip into Photoshop and make sure your workspace is set to Motion (Window > Workspace > Motion). This should bring up a timeline with your video clip on it.

6. To reverse or not to reverse

Every cinemagraph should start and end on the same frame. Some subjects will automatically do this, like a piece of machinery, but not ours. We will take only the movement of the arm going forwards and reverse it later to return it to its original frame.

7. Select your clip

Select the portion of footage you want using the blue guides at the start and end of the timeline. Play the clip and experiment to find the best section. You want to find the best bit for looping or going forward, then backwards to make the action as natural as possible. 

8. Select your still frame

Now you want to go through and choose a frame from this selection to be the "still" part of your image. Once you've chosen a frame Select All (Cmd-A) and copy and paste this image onto a new layer, this will create a still image running the entire duration of your timeline.

9. Make the mask

Solo your top layer and use a suitably sized soft eraser tool to erase the part of the image where the action happens. I have erased the arm area as well as the reflection in the computer screen. You can use a more advanced method of masking if you want.

10. Test your mask

Make both layers visible and play the clip to make sure your action is visible in full without anything being hidden or cropped (like the image below). This is where the importance of keeping your subject matter still becomes apparent. Make any adjustments to the mask if you need to.