Zoom Burst Photography
Photo essay by Ernesto Gonzalez Diaz
HAVANA TIMES – Zoom burst is an effect that is achieved by zooming, either zoom in or zoom out, while taking the picture. For this, a camera of at least a mid-range is necessary and that offers the possibility of changing the lens or objective, because other cameras block the zoom at the time of taking the photo.
Another important element is that the shutter speed must be at least 0.5 seconds, in the case of the photos that we show, they all have shutter speeds close to one second, so that there is time to move the lens while zooming. This effect gives the impression that the same object or subject in the scene appears in more than one plane, precisely due to the movement of the lens.
One of the first photographers, of which there are references that used this effect, was Josh Adamski, an Israeli photographer who defined himself as an impressionist photographer, due to the similarity of this pictorial style with the photos obtained through this effect. These images could also be considered surreal due to their dreamlike nature.
This effect also exists in photoshop, that is, this effect could be digitally applied to an ordinary image, but it would never be the same result, neither artistically nor creatively, as when it is achieved by taking the photograph directly.
