Shooting Blurs

There’s power in movement. While a sharp action image can be dramatic and beautiful, a blurry photograph that captures the energy of a moment can be equally as stunning. Blur softens the details of an image and, although normally we try to avoid this when creating a shot, it becomes an invaluable tool when interpreting movement. Where fast shutter speeds freeze action and produce sharp edges and contrast, a slow shutter speed smoothes and softens details. This creates an emphasis not on the peak moment, but on the energy, form, tone and color of motion.

Achieving good results with blur has always been a challenge. You either needed to have a lot of past experience or you had to be prepared to waste a lot of film. Now with a digital camera, the immediate feedback of the camera’s LCD lets photographers know whether they got the shot.
             
Digital Advantages
A digital camera’s LCD is a boon to photographers who want to capture movement using the image blur technique. Simply set a slow shutter speed, focus on your subject, squeeze the shutter and within seconds you can view the results on the screen. If the shutter speed is too fast or too slow, it only takes a moment to make an adjustment and try again. Gone are those days of waiting anxiously for film to be processed by the lab to determine whether you were successful.