Moving camera or moving subject?

Explore the different ways in which you can capture and create motion blur in your photos

To create motion blur you obviously need a moving element. That can be either the subject or your camera, or a combination of both.

If you’re moving the camera to track a moving subject, try to pan the camera smoothly so that the motion blur ‘streaks’ in one direction: this enhances the sense of speed. Using an image-stabilised lens or camera that can detect panning will help to stabilise the camera for movement in the opposite plane – so it will reduce vertical camera shake if you’re panning left to right, for example. This feature can also be useful when you’re shooting stationary subjects, such as the forest scene on the right here. Minimising the side-to-side movement meant that the trunks stayed well defined.

Finally, there’s the option of keeping the camera still and allowing the scene to move. Use a tripod to keep the stationary parts sharp.

Moving camera To capture some definition in the leaves of the trees in this abstract image, I kept the camera stationary for the first part of the 0.8-sec exposure before tilting it upwards.

Moving subject and camera These fast-flying birds were shot at 1/25 sec with a camera pan.

Moving subject The camera was locked on a tripod for this 30-second exposure.