Adding blur techniques when making photographic images can lift your images out of the ordinary. If you feel you're stuck, producing mostly "postcard" type images, then try these methods. Blurring in-camera doesn't come naturally to those of us who have been brain-washed into thinking everything, subject and background, must be in sharp focus, especially landscapes. So these techniques require practice, patience, persistence. And slow shutter speeds!

Shutter Speed: You'll want at least half a second. But more time is usually desirable. So try for speeds of one second or more. How to get these slow speeds?

1) Set the ISO to its lowest setting. Some DSLRs will go to 50, but most start at 100 or even 200.

2) Set the camera to the equivalent of aperture priority, meaning you set the aperture and the camera decides the best shutter speed.

3) Set the smallest f/stop for the lens: f/16 or f/22 for most lenses.

4) Now focus on an object and note the shutter speed your camera wants to use. If it's less than half a second, you'll need to use neutral density filters to cut down the amount of light entering the lens. Here's what I use:

Camera: Nikon D80; lens: Nikkor 50mm f/1.4; neutral density (ND) filters - screw into the front of the lens - one 2-stop and one 4-stop = 6 stops less light. ISO = 100 (lowest this camera will go); Aperture Priority usually at f/16; manual or autofocus.

ND filters come in specific sizes to screw onto the front of lenses. Or you can also get ND filters that are square and fit into a holder that itself screws onto the lens.

Following is a chart of the different blurring techniques:

• • Camera movement.
    • Subject Still
    • Subject Moving
  • Camera still, lens fixed
    • Subject Moving
  • Camera still, lens zoomed
    • Subject Still
    • Subject Moving
  • Lens zoomed, camera rotated
    • Subject Still
    • Subject Moving

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Camera Movement: This means that you actually move the camera during the exposure! You can do this either on or off of a tripod. If the tripod head is a ball type and is easily moved up, down, from side to side, diagonally, or rotatable, then you might try using a tripod for camera movement. I don't like the head I have for easy and quick movement, so I hand hold my camera while moving it.

Depending on the shutter speed, you may have: not much time, or a lot of time, for the intended movement. So experiment. Focus on the scene/subject, press the shutter release and immediately move smoothly up or down, diagonally, or sideways, or rotate it clockwise or counterclockwise. Check the results. Try again - and again - and again.

Some subjects/scenes look awful with vertical or horizontal movements, but look very interesting with a rotational movement. And vice versa for other subjects. Also try wavy movements vertically, diagonally or horizontally.

Other ways to move the camera, usually hand held, are: set the slow shutter speed and activate the shutter, then walk forwards; or shoot from a car. With a car's speed, the closest objects will be very blurred. But the further away from the car the objects are, the less blurred they'll be. Some people shoot from bicycles or motorcycles. Usually they rig some sort of a clamp to mount the camera and have a remote control to activate the shutter.

One final way: Mount the camera firmly on a monopod, set the self timer for several seconds, then hoist the monopod and start turning around in place. This will take at least several tries to get useful images. Just getting the camera tilt right to show the subject may take several tries.

Try camera movement first with a stationary subject. When you feel like you have this technique under better control, then try it with moving subjects.

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Camera still, lens fixed: If the camera is still and you want blurs, then you must put the camera on a tripod - and wait for your subject to move. Try out different shutter speeds for this. This means opening up the aperture some, too. What most people want is enough movement of the subject to cause blur, but leave a still-recognizable subject. People, animals, vehicles make the best subjects. But also if it's a very windy day, then the wind provides movement of leaves or whole tree/bush branches or fields of flowers or grasses or clothing on a line or even debris scudding across a street.

In the image second from left, one of the men had on a bright white T-shirt. This is the only part of him that showed up in the image, as he was walking very fast. In the image below at the right, the time of 2.2 seconds was too slow, so the moving people are just barely identifiable as people.

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Camera still, lens zoomed: Use a tripod again, plus a lens that you can zoom, say from 70mm out to 28mm. Shutter speeds of more than a second work best for this technique. For a 4-6 second zoom, I start with 70mm. I hold this for a second or 2, then quickly zoom to 50mm, hold, zoom to 35mm, hold, finally out to 28mm as the shutter closes. This also takes practice. Count down the time as you zoom. Soon it'll become very easy. Remember if you don't like it, or went too fast or too slowly, just delete and try again.

Try this with a stationary subject/scene first. Then try it with moving subjects. Naturally, slower moving subjects will give a more satisfactory blur.

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Lens zoomed while camera rotates: This is a technique that I recently tried. I have some friends who do use this technique and have produced very intriguing images. If your zoom lens has a rotating collar, then hold the camera by the lens collar with one hand while rotating the camera body around the collar. You'd think this should be fairly easy to do hand held. It isn't! So this technique is best done with the camera mounted on a tripod. You need a ball head or other type of head, like the horizontal pistol grip head that I have, that is easy to rotate. I don't know how one would zoom/rotate with a lens that has a push/pull collar. Again, as with most of the above techniques, try this with stationary and moving subjects.

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With all these blurring techniques, you will get results that fall into three categories: Images in which you'll be able to identify the object or scene, yet there'll be definite blurring; in others you'll get a pleasing pattern of colors and/or shapes, without definite identification; and the last category of results will be smears and unattractive colors which you'll undoubtedly toss. Easy to do with digital cameras, as it doesn't cost anything if you don't like any particular result. So blur away! Best of all, have fun!

See Tree Lights Blurs

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