Cinemagraphs are photographs that are partially animated or in motion. Most of the time, they are created by taking a series of photographs and only putting a part of each image in motion, leaving the rest of the picture still. By doing this, you can avoid movement of elements on your image that would distract the viewer when being put into motion and achieve a partially moving timelapse video.

Photoshop-expert Howard Pinsky explains how to create awesome cinemagraphs using Photoshop in under a minute:

• First, you import your footage, which should be completely in motion.
• After you have done that, you duplicate your video layer, drag the duplicated layer to the top of your layer list and pull the duplicated video on top of the original footage, then rasterize it.

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Now, you just need to add a layer mask to your rasterized layer and select a soft, black brush. Then you simply paint the areas of the image that you want to be in motion and export your video.

It is as simple as it sounds. Tell me in the comments below whether this worked for you and if you got any further advice for people that want to create great cinemagraphs by themselves.

About the Guest Contributor

Robert Lüthje is an architecture- and urbex photographer, based in Berlin. He also participates in short films and music videos. If you’re interested in his work, you can follow him on Instagram.