Challenge: Motion Blur

Lets be honest, most of the time you expect the image to be sharp. Most of the time when there is a blur in the image it is the background which we call bokeh, but certainly you don't expect to see blurred subject. But blur can be used in many different ways to highlight the story.

This blog is going to be different. With girls from Clickin moms we are doing a blog circle and this month theme is motion blur. Love this theme, it is time to show that not everything and all the time has to be sharp, in focus to get the message accross.

Motion of the subject can be created in many different ways, but what you want to create and what you want to emphasize needs to be decided before you press the button.

Freezing moving subject is the most the common way to capture. You keep still while the subject moves. Although the subject is frozen You still know that he was running by looking at his body language.

Freezing

 Another way to photograph movement is panning technique. Basically you follow the subject with your camera while keeping the subject in the focus. It means that your subject moves but you are moving as well.

Panning

Zooming in/out is another option to consider. In this case while my subject was moving I was focusing on his face but at the same time I have zoomed in the lens. I could freeze the boy in the full swing but I have chosen to create the blur to emphasize the dynamic and the overall energy and fun.

Zooming in

All techniques need careful planing and preparation. Some are easy to learn but some need a lot of practicing and when you nail and understand the technique than all you need is stop and think before you press that button. Camera is a great tool but it need somebody to give the commands :).

Now head over to Deirdre and see how she captured motion blur and then continue the blog circle to see how other photographers interpreted the challenge.