Psychedelic Camera Trick

Use your zoom to create amazing starburst patterns and crazy psychedlic photos

Posted by Kay Bay

About

Want to take camera pictures that will leave you feeling more than a little bit trippy? Or if you're just a fan of this tunneling effect then have a go at this easy trick.

(You'll need a DSLR camera and a lens with the 'zoom' function to make this trick work, so that you can hand rotate the lends and zoom your picture in and out. And a tripod would be handy!)

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You Will Need (3 things)

  • Dslr Camera
  • Zoom Lens
  • Tripod

Steps (6 steps, 3 minutes)

  1. 1

    Switch your camera mode on your DSLR to Tv mode using the Mode Dial. Tv is the shutter priority setting so you can play around with which shutter speed suits you (the Mode Dial is the red one circled in the above picture). You can control shutter speed by turning the Main Control Dial on the top of the camera and therefore changing the displayed shutter speed number on the camera display (both circled in green in the above and below step pictures).

  2. 2

    An easy way to know which shutter speed is best for your use is to remember that the smaller the number the quicker the shutter falls closed; for example 1/1000 is a small number and the shutter will be super quick, 1" is a larger number and the shutter will take longer to close.

    We are using a larger shutter speed number in this trick as we need time to manipulate our zoom for our final image; I chose to use 1" and achieved these pictures with this shutter speed.

  3. 3

    It's best to use a tripod to stabilize your camera as you do this because you will definitely notice the effects of a shaking hand and you'll need a hand spare to manipulate the zoom lens.

    Focus your lens on a spot or object (bearing in mind that the 'tunneling' effect doesn't have a wide field of focus once you've done the trick so a face or a moving object may not be appropriate) and click down on the shutter button and use your hand to twist the zoom on the lens.

  4. 4

    You can play around with going slow or fast, and taking a photo whilst zooming out instead of zooming in.

  5. 5

    Play around to see what effects work best for you. Maybe think about doing a graduated zoom (like in my 'Juddering Zoom' picture where I rotated the zoom with light and jerky movements).

  6. 6

    You could even go to manual set up and play around with both shutter speed and aperture to see if more light will make your image more effective.

    Whatever the case you've now got a very psychedelic photo! The more colourful the medium the more psyched out it will look.