Overview
Dolly zoom/vertigo shot is an effect that was popularized by Alfred Hitchcock. It involves keeping the subject the same size in a shot while simultaneously zooming in and moving away from the subject. This changes the field of view, which gives the impression that the background is growing/shrinking.
Camera Specs & Methods
We used a Canon EOS Rebel T3i with a 10-22mm lens.
We achieved the dolly zoom effect by aligning the subject to the camera, choosing reference points to align the center of the image as well as the bottom edge. For example, for the first set of images, we centered the image to Mike's nose and aligned the bottom of the image to the logo on his jacket. This gave us a reference so we knew how much to zoom in at each backwards step. At first, we would take a step back and then zoom to the correct level, but then we tried changing the zoom and then adjusting the distance backwards in order to preserve the same subject size.
For the locations, we tried to choose locations where the background had a lot of depth, so we could really see the dolly zoom effect, so we took a lot of images in the hallway of Eshleman Hall. The sequence of images of Mike in a chair were taken in the ASUC offices in Eshleman.
Results
Sequence of Photos of Mike in Eshleman
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Sequence of Photos of Mike in a Chair
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Bells & Whistles: Animated Sequence
| Mike in Eshelman | Mike in Chair |
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Bells & Whistles: Moving Camera vs. Moving Subject
In our previous sets of images, we kept the subject in the same place while the camera was moved backwards. This time, we tried keeping the camera still while the subject moved away from the camera and the camera zoomed in. This method was actually easier, because we didn't have to readjust the camera as much between takes. The resulting gif is a bit smoother than the previous gifs.
| Moving Camera | Moving Subject |
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Bells & Whistles: Calculating Field Of View
We can calculate the field of view of our camera for a given zoom level using the following formula:
d is the width of the subject and f is the subject-camera distance.
For the above sequence of images, we acquired the following measurements:
| Zoom | Subject Width | Subject-Camera Distance | Field of View |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10mm | 22in | 83in | 15.0988435 degrees |
| 22mm | 22in | 175in | 7.19343416 degrees |