Blurred Motion Photography

The art of deliberately blurring your subject in stills photography

My July online photography talk came at the end of the month, and this time covered blurred motion photography. This is, in other words, the art 0f deliberately blurring your subject to put over the sense of movement, energy and dynamism.

A recording of that talk is now available via You Tube, and you can watch it here. Just click on the image below and the talk will launch. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any queries or comments just get in touch.

The art of subject blurring

This talk, Blurred Motion Photography, covered a range of techniques and scenarios in which you would want to blur your subject to put over the sense of movement.

The technique is particularly associated with landscape photography, most especially in blurring the movement of water, whether that be the sea, with waves rolling into shore, or perhaps a fast-flowing river running over and round rocks.

Blurred motion photography is used not just in landscapes but also in wildlife, people and street life (particularly traffic after dark), where all kinds of activities can be blurred to give the sense of movement. So the beating wings of a bird, the movements of a working person and the colourful lines of traffic tail-lights are all great examples of commonly blurred moving subjects. Even a blurred background as the camera pans to keep up with a fast-moving object (such as a bird, a sportsman or traffic) is part of this technique.

Blurred Motion Photography: Botallack tin mines

The technique of blurred motion photography

In essence, it is a very simple thing to do. Just put the camera on a tripod and use a long exposure, thus ensuring that anything moving in the frame will be blurred.

Of course, this can only be achieved within the limits of how far the lens aperture can be stopped down. The narrower you have this (ie the higher the f-number) then the less light that is allowed through to the sensor, and hence the longer the shutter needs to be open to compensate. Of course, there is a limit to how narrow the aperture can be, and once you’ve reached that limit any attempt to make the exposure time longer will just allow in too much light and result in over-exposure.

So doing this in bright sunlight will often require you to add a neutral density filter to the front of the lens, thus cutting down the amount of light getting into the lens, and mimicking low-light conditions. This is particularly so for landscape photography. Things may still work well in bright sunlight, however, if you’re intending to blur the motion of something that is moving really quite fast, such as a fast-flying bird or free-flowing traffic.

Without filters, blurred motion photography still works well in dull, overcast conditions, at dusk, dawn and at night, any of which will yield great results.

Blurred Motion Photography: Seashore ice in Iceland

How much blur?

Just how much blur you need will depend on the effect you’re trying to generate and how fast your subject is moving. For example, when photographing surf rolling onto a beach, or a mountain stream babbling around rocks, an exposure of several seconds will result in the subject completely blurring out. A wave will become quite invisible in itself, replaced by a very soft, often white, smooth silken effect that, though still depicting movement, is actually very calming and which will serve to isolate a static object (such as a rock) from the rest of the view, and removing any clutter.

Replace that very long exposure with a rather faster one, say one-tenth of a second, and the blur will become rather jagged, producing what I call a ‘shards of glass’ effect, with sprays of water clearly visible. The effect now is very restless and dynamic, very different from the smooth ‘white-out’ of the long exposure.

It’s a similar thing with photography of evening traffic. How long the exposure needs to be depends very much on the amount of traffic and how fast it’s going. However, an exposure of several seconds will be enough for the individual vehicles to become quite invisible, replaced by colourful, continuous red tail-light lines. It’s a highly effective way of illustrating the evening life of any urban district. Using a shorter exposure – say one-tenth of a second – in this scenario is less effective, as the vehicles become visible and the tail-light streams become broken up into dashes that don’t link up into a continuous stream.

Blurred Motion Photography: the static subject

Blurred motion photography of static subjects

This may sound a little odd, but it is sometimes possible to give the sense of blurred motion to a static object. It works particularly well with evening lights, and is achieved by moving the camera during an exposure lasting a few seconds.

This movement may consist of moving the whole camera (while on a tripod), or of turning the zoom ring on a zoom lens, something that produces quite a dramatic and very dynamic effect.

Getting stuck in

Blurred motion photography is a technique that has very variable and unpredictable results. The only true way to really hone one’s skills in this is to get stuck in and just play! Enjoy it, and experiment as much as you can.

Blurred Motion Photography: the disco

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People Photography: capturing the life around us

Nigel’s June 2021 online photography talk

My June 2021 talk, called People Photography: capturing the life around us, has just been held, and now you can see the recording here. Although it’s true that I’m generally not recognised as a people photographer, in actual fact my travel and tourism work has entailed quite extensive work with people in a host of situations.

Little of my photography covers the classic posed studio portraiture so often associated with the term ‘people photography’. Instead, my photography covers people in their environment, often photographed doing what they do in their daily life. As such, this photography fits more into the genres of environmental portrait photography, street photography or documentary/journalistic photography.

So this talk covers many of the techniques I use in carrying out such people photography, and to watch it here just click on the image below to launch the You Tube file.

Thinking ahead: deciding on the kind of approach

Even before starting a shoot, it is important to have a plan for kind of photography you’re intending to do:

  • Will it be staged, posed photography, or rather more fluid, spontaneous shots of someone in action?
  • Do you intend to shoot portraiture concentrating on the subject’s face, with them looking at the camera? Or should the subject more or less ignore you, carrying on with work, for example, while you photograph what they do?
  • What kind of lenses should you use? Your decisions about the previous point will probably affect the type(s) of lens you choose to use: telephoto to concentrate on someone’s face, soften features and blur out the background. Or a wide-angle lens to increase depth of field and to make it possible to show a subject’s environment and their activity as well as their face.
  • What kind of light to use? More often than not, this kind of people photography uses only natural light, but its angle and intensity can have a big influence on the results of the photography. Flash is very rarely used as the main light source, its role (when used at all) mainly for fill-in, removing shadows created by awkward ambient light, for example. The use of fill-in flash can also make it possible to use a much slower shutter speed than would otherwise be possible, an important consideration when having to shoot with the camera hand-held.
People Photography: Capturing the life around us

Getting the light right

As already mentioned, the angle and intensity of the light can have a big impact on the resulting photos. Bright sunlight straight into or side-on to the face can give strong, saturated colours, but it will also put deep shadows and harsh highlights across the face. For example, deep-set eyes may be lost in shadow, a prominent nose will put a shadow across the face, a strong jaw will leave the entire neck in shadow, and may also result in bright highlights above the jaw. Such lighting is often acceptable if you’re trying to emphasise the ‘strength of character’ in a face, but it is rarely flattering.

A much more attractive result can be achieved by having soft, even light across the face. This will result in no dark shadows or harsh highlights, a softening of features and improvements to the appearance of skin. To achieve this, photography on a bright cloudy day is often a good solution, or if shooting on a sunny day have your subject in the shade or indoors.

An alternative approach is to shoot into the sunlight, with the sun shining from behind the subject. You generally need to use a telephoto lens for this to work, and to make sure the sun is not in the image frame. This approach ensures that the face is lit by flat even light, while the sunlight coming from behind lights up the hair beautiful. This is particularly effective on someone with blond hair. However, because the face is effectively in shadow it may come out in the photos a little dark. To overcome this, either use a reflector to bounce light back into their face, or a little fill-in flash, or simply over-expose the image a little.

People Photography: Capturing the life around us

Looking down, looking up

One of the biggest problems I often encounter when photographing people as they go about some activity is that they will almost inevitably be looking down a lot of the time, as they concentrate on their work.

In all people photography it is important to focus on the subject’s eyes, since that is what we, as humans, are hard-wired to look at when we see a face. Focussing on a subject’s eyes can be difficult when they are looking down. They certainly won’t be looking towards the camera, and sometimes it may even appear as though their eyes are closed, only the eyelids visible.

To overcome this you can try a number of potential solutions. If you’re photographing face-on to the subject, try moving so that you’re shooting side-on. Alternatively, try putting the camera lower, so you’re looking up into their face. If these don’t work, then often the only solution is to ask the subject to stop what they’re doing, hold a pose and look up into the camera for a few seconds.

With a cooperative subject this can work wonders, and create images where there is plenty of eye contact between the subject and the viewer. However, with a nervous subject it can cause them to freeze in a very tense posture, something that will be very visible in the photos.

People photography: capturing the life around us

Specialised people photos

Most of the time I photograph people in a way that shows them off quite clearly; well composed and lit to show up both the person and their activity. There are occasions, however, when I deliberately photograph in a slightly more abstract way: a silhouette is perhaps the most obvious example, but another that I commonly use is blurred motion. In this latter type of image part of, or sometimes even the whole person is blurred as they move about. The intention is to put over the sense of movement and energy, rather than to freeze an otherwise dynamic situation into something quite static. The subject of blurred motion photography is the topic for the July 2021 talk, to be held live online on 28th July at 8pm.

And finally…..

I hope you enjoy watching the video of my talk People Photography: capturing the life around us, and reading its summary here. If you have any queries or comments just get in touch. And if you’d like to join a future talk live, just click on the link below to register to be sent the talk’s link. All talks are held once a month, on a Wednesday evening at 8pm (BST).

People photography: capturing the life around us

See more

You can find out more about outdoor portrait photography in the blog that I wrote recently for Ripe Photography Insurance.

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Architectural Photography: the built environment

An online talk giving tips and techniques for top quality architectural and interiors photography

My May 2021 online photography talk, Architectural Photography: the built environment, went ahead on 19th May, and you can now watch the recording here. Just click on the image below to get it started. I hope you enjoy it: if you do, then please Like and Share it.

If you’d like to stay in touch about all my videos then please subscribe to my You Tube channel – you’ll be able to do so towards the end of this video, or by going to the Nigel Hicks Photography You Tube channel.

What is architectural photography?

Architectural photography covers a wide gamut of subject matter: everything to do with the human built environment, ranging from entire urban skylines through single buildings, to tight building details, to intimate interiors. This is true whether you’re dealing with photography of modern or historic architecture: the techniques and purpose are exactly the same.

It is all just architectural photography: the built environment.

Architectural Photography: the built environment

Technically correct versus creative techniques

One of the major challenges of architectural photography is that the great majority of building photos come out with the building apparently leaning backwards, their vertical lines no longer vertical or parallel to each other, but converging towards the top of the frame.

This is an inevitable result of having to tip the camera back in order to fit the whole building into the frame, something that is particularly problematic with tall buildings.

The result may look OK in ordinary snapshot photography, but it doesn’t pass muster in high quality architectural photography. So what is the solution?

The answer lies in the central theme of my talk, that there are essentially two broad types of technique applied to architectural ph0tography: technically correct and creative techniques.

The former are used when you want to reproduce buildings in their correct perspective, that is with their verticals actually vertical and parallel: the building stands up straight in the image, with none of the usual leaning back scenario.

Creative techniques, are quite the opposite. Here, almost anything goes, with crazy angles and diagonal lines. Very often that ‘leaning back’ phenomenon is exaggerated for both artistic license and to create some strong diagonal lines that instil a dynamic, energetic mood into what could otherwise be a very static subject.

architectural photography: the built environment

How do we achieve technically correct photography?

The essential step towards achieving technically correct photography is to keep the back of the camera (and hence the sensor inside it) vertical and parallel to the walls of the building(s) being photographed. But how can we do this if the only way to fit the building in the frame is to tip the camera back?

The best method is to use a shift lens. This is a very specialised lens that allows the camera to literally look upwards while keeping the camera back vertical. The lens elements literally slide up and down on a rack, putting them out of direct line with the sensor, creating an upward or downward field of view, instead of the usual straight ahead.

The above is a rather expensive solution. Instead, it is possible simply to use an ordinary wide-angle lens, shoot in the usual way with the camera tilted back, and then correct the perspective aberration using Photoshop post-photography. This works quite well, up to a point, but can result in loss of image quality if an extreme amount of perspective correction is needed.

More commonly, an architectural photographer will use a shift lens for the shoot, and will then simply add a few small final corrections in Photoshop.

It is also possible to use an ordinary wide-angle lens with the camera back vertical. However, this will result in the building being in the top half of the frame with an awful lot of foreground captured in the lower half. If you’re trying to shoot a tall building in this way, you’ll need to back up quite some way to get the whole building’s height in, really opening up the amount of foreground visible in the final image.

This means that your foreground had better be extremely interesting, helping to really augment the building as the image’s main subject. One of the best foreground elements to include, where possible, is calm water, providing the possibility of a beautiful reflection of your subject building, thus doubling its size and effectively bringing it into the lower half of the frame, as well as the top half.

Architectural Photography: the built environment

How do we make use of creative techniques?

It’s actually rather difficult to lay down rules here, as just about anything goes. The usual rules of image composition apply: keep your compositions simple with a single strong subject dominating the frame. It is essential that nothing else in the frame competes for attention: clutter is your worst enemy. And in architectural photography that usually means such issues as parked cars, overhead wires, yellow no-parking lines, wheelie bins, satellite dishes and TV aerials. We really don’t want to see these in your architectural photos!

Within those rules we’re out to capture really geometric compositions, coordinated combinations of diagonals, verticals, horizontals and various shapes. Together they should result in truly graphic, impactful compositions.

Architectural Photography: the built environment

Details

While much of our architectural photography may revolve around entire buildings, the story is not complete without some details. In modern buildings these will often consist of a concentration on curving or diagonal lines in a building’s shape, geometric patterns in the walls or windows, and an interplay of light and reflection off those structures.

In historic buildings, some of these factors may also come into play, though it is also more likely to encompass embellishments, such as sculptures, statues and spires, most often seen on churches and cathedrals.

Villa window close-up

Interiors photography

The inside of a building is just as important to architectural photography as the outside. Indeed, in many instances – such as hotels and restaurants – the interior may be a lot more important.

Interiors can vary enormously, from huge public spaces that make some kind of statement to the world – perhaps civic or religious, for example – through a whole host of different building types, right through to the smallest and most intimate rooms in your home, including the bathroom.

While creative photographic techniques can commonly be used in interiors photography, more often the technically correct techniques are the most important. Leaning walls (usually leaning outwards in interiors photography) just don’t pass muster in most instances.

More often than not these days interiors photography makes use simply of whatever ambient light is available. No additional lighting is inserted, the removal of shadows or bright highlights being left to Photoshop in post-photography processing.

Finally, the most challenging room in interiors photography? The bathroom! It is usually very small and is often filled with reflective surfaces. Together, these two factors can make it very difficult to get a workable angle.

Harpa interior

A final word

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this summary and watching the video of this talk Architectural Photography: the built environment. If you have any queries or comments don’t hesitate to get in touch.

The next talk will be People Photography, on 16th June at 8pm.

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