Camera College

In general, we photographers are usually focused on squeezing every drop of sharpness out of our lenses and cameras. But embracing blur can open up a host of new creative opportunities...

_ Explore the basics of photography and understand them from every angle. This issue: how to capture motion blur shots like a pro. Then enter our reader challenge, and you could win a copy of Affinity Photo!

Motion blur is music to the eyes. (Bear with me.) One minute it can be used to pump up and energise a picture; the next it can help to slow down the pace of things and create a more relaxing mood. It’s a technique that can be applied to any subject, even ones that are stationary – or moving so slowly that it’s impossible to discern in real time.

Generally speaking, when it comes to motion blur, you need to make sure there’s enough of it to make it look intentional rather than just bad photography. While motion blur on the wheels of a motorbike will enhance the sense of speed, for example, if the rest of the bike and the rider are indistinct, it will probably look as though you’ve made a mistake.

The trick is to choose the correct exposure time to give the level of motion blur you want to capture. It’s the shutter speed that determines how long the camera’s sensor is exposed to light, so it pays to set the camera to Shutter Priority or Manual when you begin experimenting with this technique: both of these shooting modes give you full control over the shutter speed.

While there are no hard and fast rules that dictate which shutter speed is going to work best, if you’re panning the camera to follow a fast-moving subject, you’re still going to get motion blur at relatively fast shutter speeds. That

previously mentioned motorbike? If it’s moving at top speed, you’re likely to get bags of blur at 1/200 sec when you’re panning the camera to track its movement, whereas you might be looking at 200 seconds or longer to blur the slow slide of clouds across a landscape.

Most of the time you’ll probably want to capture some sharpness in the image: it adds a visual contrast with the blur that intensifies both aspects, as well as providing an entry point into the picture. This is why panning the camera is a good option for shooting moving objects: you can keep the subject in the same place within the picture, so it stays sharp while the background becomes motion-blurred.

You can also move the camera while photographing stationary objects with a relatively slow shutter speed. The extent of the motion blur will be determined by how fast you move the camera – and when you move it as well. By keeping the camera still for part of the exposure, for instance, you will be able to include an element of sharpness to add interest.

You can create some highly original work by using a moving camera to capture a landscape or cityscape, for example, with familiar scenes reduced to

You’ll probably want to capture some sharpness: this provides a contrast with the blur that intensifies both