Flopped image

Last updated
Lexus IS 250 Breakwater Blue Metallic1.jpg
Original image of a left-hand-drive Lexus IS 250
Lexus IS 250 Breakwater Blue Metallic.jpg
Flopped and cropped image with badge restored

In photography and graphic arts a flopped image is a static or moving image that is generated by a reversal of an original image across a vertical axis, as in a conventional mirror image. This is opposed to a flipped image , which means an image reversed across a horizontal axis. Flopping can be used to improve the subjective aesthetic appeal of the image in question.

Contents

Use in advertising

There are two main uses in advertising, one practical, and one subjective. On a practical level, images of cars are often flopped to ensure cars look appropriate for left-hand-drive or right-hand-drive markets. This allows the results of a single production shoot to be used across markets, allowing a cost saving. On a subjective level, the direction in which a person is looking or a car appears to be travelling may be regarded as important. When placing a picture on a page of text, it is usual for depictions of people to face into the text, rather than off the page; thus, when compositing a page, a picture may be flopped so it may be placed either side of a column of text.

Use in art

Cultural considerations come into play  a picture of a person eating with their left hand may be flopped for publication in a Muslim publication, due to the strong taboo against eating with the left hand in Muslim society. Similarly, Vincent van Gogh took the trouble to etch some of his originals in mirror-reversed form so that when printed, people in the image would appear, correctly, as right-handed.

An example of flopping is the use of Joseph Edward Southall's painting Fishermen and Boat as part of the art associated with Kate Bush's album Aerial. The picture is flopped, and the name "AERIAL" added to the boat.

In moviemaking

Flopped images are common movie bloopers, usually called "flipped images" contrary to the technical usage of that term. Flopped images are common because they can be used to correct continuity errors between shots and are hard to see without extensive examination. Examples of these can be found on several movie blooper sites.

In James Cameron's "Titanic" movie, the scenes of the ship at Southampton Pier were shot flopped, and later reversed.

Oh, don't even talk to me about flopping", groans Winslet … "It made me laugh when I saw sailors with 'ENIL RATS ETIHW' written across their hats. [1]

Accidental

Billy the Kid. (Flopped tintype photo) Billykid.jpg
Billy the Kid. (Flopped tintype photo)

One of the most famous flopped images is this picture of Billy the Kid carrying a Model 1873 Winchester rifle and a pistol belt with the pistol on his left. This led people to believe he was left-handed, but it was later revealed to be a flopped image due to the cartridge loading gate on the rifle being on the wrong side. [2]

Notes

  1. James Cameron's Titanic by Ed W. Marsh, 1997 (New York: HarperPerennial) ISBN   0-00-649060-3 p. 52
  2. The loading gate on a Model 1873 Winchester lever action rifle is on the right side of the receiver.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mirror</span> Object that reflects an image

A mirror, also known as a looking glass, is an object that reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the direction of the image in an equal yet opposite angle from which the light shines upon it. This allows the viewer to see themselves or objects behind them, or even objects that are at an angle from them but out of their field of view, such as around a corner. Natural mirrors have existed since prehistoric times, such as the surface of water, but people have been manufacturing mirrors out of a variety of materials for thousands of years, like stone, metals, and glass. In modern mirrors, metals like silver or aluminium are often used due to their high reflectivity, applied as a thin coating on glass because of its naturally smooth and very hard surface.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multivibrator</span> Electronic circuit used to implement two-state devices

A multivibrator is an electronic circuit used to implement a variety of simple two-state devices such as relaxation oscillators, timers, latches and flip-flops. The first multivibrator circuit, the astable multivibrator oscillator, was invented by Henri Abraham and Eugene Bloch during World War I. It consisted of two vacuum tube amplifiers cross-coupled by a resistor-capacitor network. They called their circuit a "multivibrator" because its output waveform was rich in harmonics. A variety of active devices can be used to implement multivibrators that produce similar harmonic-rich wave forms; these include transistors, neon lamps, tunnel diodes and others. Although cross-coupled devices are a common form, single-element multivibrator oscillators are also common.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parallax</span> Difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight

Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or half-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objects show a larger parallax than farther objects, so parallax can be used to determine distances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Single-shot</span> Firearm that holds one round of ammunition

In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have no moving parts other than the trigger, hammer/firing pin or frizzen, and therefore do not need a sizable receiver behind the barrel to accommodate a moving action, making them far less complex and more robust than revolvers or magazine/belt-fed firearms, but also with much slower rates of fire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rifling</span> Grooves in a weapon barrel for accuracy

Rifling is the term for helical grooves machined into the internal surface of a firearms's barrel for imparting a spin to a projectile to improve its aerodynamic stability and accuracy. It is also the term for creating such grooves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mirror image</span> Reflected duplication of an object

A mirror image is a reflected duplication of an object that appears almost identical, but is reversed in the direction perpendicular to the mirror surface. As an optical effect it results from reflection off from substances such as a mirror or water. It is also a concept in geometry and can be used as a conceptualization process for 3-D structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Specular reflection</span> Mirror-like wave reflection

Specular reflection, or regular reflection, is the mirror-like reflection of waves, such as light, from a surface.

Savage Arms is an American gunmaker based in Westfield, Massachusetts, with operations in Canada and China, PRC. Savage makes a variety of rimfire and centerfire rifles, as well as Stevens single-shot rifles and shotguns. The company is best known for the Model 99 lever-action rifle, no longer in production, and the .300 Savage. Savage was a subsidiary of Vista Outdoor until 2019 when it was spun off.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pseudoscope</span> Binocular optical instrument that reverses depth perception

A pseudoscope is a binocular optical instrument that reverses depth perception. It is used to study human stereoscopic perception. Objects viewed through it appear inside out, for example: a box on a floor would appear as a box-shaped hole in the floor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polarized 3D system</span> Using polarized light to create a 3D image

A polarized 3D system uses polarization glasses to create the illusion of three-dimensional images by restricting the light that reaches each eye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wagon-wheel effect</span> Optical illusion

The wagon-wheel effect is an optical illusion in which a spoked wheel appears to rotate differently from its true rotation. The wheel can appear to rotate more slowly than the true rotation, it can appear stationary, or it can appear to rotate in the opposite direction from the true rotation.

A gunstock or often simply stock, the back portion of which is also known as a shoulder stock, a buttstock, or simply a butt, is a part of a long gun that provides structural support, to which the barrel, action, and firing mechanism are attached. The stock also provides a means for the shooter to firmly brace the gun and easily aim with stability by being held against the user's shoulder when shooting the gun, and helps to counter muzzle rise by transmitting recoil straight into the shooter's body.

This article contains a list of cinematic techniques that are divided into categories and briefly described.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Gibson</span> American actress (1889–1946)

Dorothy Gibson was an American actress, socialite and artist's model, active in the early 20th century. She is best remembered as a survivor of the sinking of the Titanic and for starring in the first motion picture based on the disaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flipped image</span> Vertically mirror-reversed image

A flipped image is a static or moving image that is generated by a mirror-reversal of an original across a horizontal axis, making the image upside-down. In contrast, a flopped image is mirrored across the vertical axis, as in a conventional mirror image.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Star diagonal</span>

A star diagonal, erecting lens or diagonal mirror is an angled mirror or prism used in telescopes that allows viewing from a direction that is perpendicular to the usual eyepiece axis. It allows more convenient and comfortable viewing when the telescope is pointed at, or near the zenith. Also, the resulting image is right side up, but is reversed from left to right.

Transformations of text are strategies to perform geometric transformations on text, particularly in systems that do not natively support transformation, such as HTML, seven-segment displays and plain text.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colt CM901</span> Assault rifle

The Colt CM901 is a modular selective-fire rifle. Its caliber and barrel length can be changed without the use of tools. Its semi-automatic variant is the LE901-16S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Strip photography</span> Type of photographic technique

Strip photography, or slit photography, is a photographic technique of capturing a two-dimensional image as a sequence of one-dimensional images over time, in contrast to a normal photo which is a single two-dimensional image at one point in time. A moving scene is recorded, over a period of time, using a camera that observes a narrow strip rather than the full field. If the subject is moving through this observed strip at constant speed, they will appear in the finished photo as a visible object. Stationary objects, like the background, will be the same the whole way across the photo and appear as stripes along the time axis; see examples on this page.

The IWI Tavor 7 is an Israeli bullpup battle rifle chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge designed and produced by Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) as part of the Tavor rifle family. It is a fully ambidextrous rifle.

References