Deliberate Blur

Flora Impressions #5. Boulder, Colorado, 2014

Deliberate blur, by moving your camera during the exposure, is one more fun way to play with your creative mind marmots.

You can…

–Move the camera up and or down.

–Move the camera from side to side.

–Move the camera in circles.

–Jerk the camera around randomly.

–Throw the camera up in the air. (Called “kinetic photography“…check out THIS LINK for some wonderful examples.)

–Use small, subtle movements, or large grandiose movements.

–Do anything else you can think of…all while the shutter is open.

Obviously, the key is the correct shutter speed during that short period of camera movement. You may want to play with anything between 1/15 of a second to 1 or more seconds.

The requirement of a fairly slow shutter speed means you will have to seek out moments when the available light is low. Bright, noon, sunlight may not permit such slow exposures. For example, you might want to try these games on dark, overcast days, pre-dawn or post-sunset, or at night.

Experiment with a wide array of shutter speeds and differing rates of camera movement until you get the effect you want. (Digital “film” is pretty cheap!)

And, finally, don’t be satisfied with just the cool effect alone. Pick specific subject matter, objects, colors, or color combinations and challenge yourself to apply the same standards as you would in a normal, static image–things like basic composition, center-of-interest, form, shape, lines, balance, depth, color relationships, and so on.

Have fun!

Related post: Embrace the Blur!

Flora Impressions #2. Boulder, Colorado, 2014