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Weird fish-eye effect

Ambrosia7177

Ambrosia7177

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Feb 6, 2016
2,078
396
Hello.

I have noticed that a lot of the videos online have this weird "fish-eye" effect, where the center one-third of the video looks normal, but the left and right thirds of the video are blurry.

What is up with that?

Are the video creators doing this on purpose? Or is something wrong with my web browser?

I cannot see the logic of why you would create a video, and then only have 1/3 of it be in focus/viewable?! :rolleyes:

Please help me to understand what is going on here...
 

I prefer solid background, myself, but different strokes, etc., &c. ;)

Regards, splifingate
 
splifingate said:

I prefer solid background, myself, but different strokes, etc., &c. ;)

Regards, splifingate
Click to expand...

So you're telling me that this exists because somone shot a video in portrait orientation and apparently the frame for YouTube is landscape only??
 
Sounds like a plan for "serious" videos.
Those not-so-serious (funny cats, etc) vids shot in portrait mode, just know that viewing will always have bars to ignore.
 
DeltaMac said:
Sounds like a plan for "serious" videos.
Those not-so-serious (funny cats, etc) vids shot in portrait mode, just know that viewing will always have bars to ignore.
Click to expand...

I don't understand what you are trying to say...

Are you saying that my videos are not serious?

Or are you saying a video isn't serious if it's shot in portrait mode?
 
Dave Braine said:
Click to expand...

Okay, first of all, that is probably the funniest flipping video I have ever seen!! 👍 👍 👍

Touche'


But back to my concern/argument...


Dave Braine said:
Why wouldn't you? Cinema, TV, life is all in landscape.
Click to expand...


1.) Because I am shooting on my iPhone, which is naturally vertical.

2.) Because over 50% of modern Internet surfers do so on a smartphone, which is naturally vertical.

3.) Because I am interview people, and God made people vertical...

(Sure, I can interview someone with y iPhone rotated in landscape mode, and then I still have the same problem of lots of distracting dead-space on the left and right sides...)

The video above is not only funny as hell, it does make some compelling arguments, HOWEVER, as someone who used to be a pretty serious amateur photographer, I can tell you that answer to, "How can I make my photos of subjects look better?" is "Zoom in and get a tighter shot!!"

If I was doing "street videos" or "landscape videos" or "family reunion videos", then of course I'd shoot landscape.

But when I am interviewing a person, I am most interested in capturing mid-chest to the top of their head, with emphasis on the face, as that is the person!

I am not a professional videographer, and am open to suggestions, but I think I make a couple valid points of why all of this is not necessarily black-and-white...
 
It's not about black:white, Toast . . . it's just lack of {conscious} forethought . . . recommendations don't mean squat when the alligator snaps the soap bubble out of the air, the snake burst from its shell or the flying saucer descends from the sky . . . we just want to get the recording, and share it with others . . . no matter how diligently we slice, blur and transcode, it's just not possible to transform an apple into an orange ;)

Regards, splifingate
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Texas_Toast said:
So you're telling me that this exists because somone shot a video in portrait orientation and apparently the frame for YouTube is landscape only??
Click to expand...

yup.

Regards, splifingate
 
splifingate said:
It's not about black:white, Toast . . . it's just lack of {conscious} forethought . . . recommendations don't mean squat when the alligator snaps the soap bubble out of the air, the snake burst from its shell or the flying saucer descends from the sky . . . we just want to get the recording, and share it with others . . . no matter how diligently we slice, blur and transcode, it's just not possible to transform an apple into an orange ;)

Regards, splifingate
Click to expand...

Very metaphorical response.

Please translate for me what you are advising...
 
Advice?

To enjoy videos no matter how they are posted, and consciously choose to hold your device in landscape mode if you find portrait abhorrent ;)

Regards, splifingate
 
Now that I am aware of the whole portrait (vertical) vs. landscape (horizontal) debate, I'll have to be more aware when I am interviewing people.

Since a person's face is square, I suppose the orientation really doesn't impact how "tight" of a shot you get. It just impacts what secondary infomation you capture. (And obviously it makes a difference in how people are able to view things.

Fwiw, here is a really interesting video I found online on this topic...

Vertical Video is bad - Here's how to do it!
 
The OP's views are not only his and there are more and more video sharing sites that are dominated by vertical videos.

Well, I really don't know that for sure but I heard TikTok sways that way.
 
BrianBaughn said:
The OP's views are not only his and there are more and more video sharing sites that are dominated by vertical videos.

Well, I really don't know that for sure but I heard TikTok sways that way.
Click to expand...

Was that sarcasm?
 
BrianBaughn said:
Nope! This website is basically suggesting that your pick between landscape and portrait should depend on the platform. YouTube is tied to landscape…they're on TVs everywhere. Mobile platforms…vertical makes sense.
Click to expand...

Okay.

Well, that is what i would have said also.

As is usually the case, I'm so glad that I created another thread here at macRumors, because I almost always come away from conversations wiser!!

Being stuck in the old-world, I would have never thought in a million years about the whole orientation conundrum?! (As a serious former amateur photographer, you change orientation to suit the situation, and you are never limited to one way. I guess it isn't so easy with video...)

Fwiw, when I drive back home to visit, and I am bored on the Interstate, I often grab my iPhone and hold it out/towards the passenger's side window in landscape mode and shoot the passing scenery. So obviously I am not averse to landscape?!

But when I have been interviewing people on the side of the street, it seemed more natural to me to get in close and hold my iPhone upright in portrait orientation.

Now I'll have to think about what makes more sense?!

Since I want to put these on my website and my future YouTube channel, I guess landscape makes sense. And after thinking about things tonight, I guess landscape for mobile is okay too, because you can always get your phone to rotate the video.

Maybe if all I did was TikTok or Twitter, then portrait would make more sense, but I don't know.

(If you are interested in this debate, do check out the link I posted above, because this guy made some really good points about composition shooting portrait!!)

Looks like this is a more involved topic, and one I'll have to research more...
 
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