Assignment, Week 4: Creative Blur

So far in class we've focused mostly on low-light photography and ways to combat one of its greatest obstacles - blur. While we generally want pictures to be as sharp as possible, it's good to keep an open mind to the creative possibilities of blur. While most of the time the blur we generate is random, by controling the shutter speed and movements of the camera we can create and control blur purposefully, as in the image to the right.

Here's another example below:

The original, non-blurry image is to the left. The blurred version is to the right. Same concept - rather than random blur, we have intentional, controlled blur. The question is, how did I do this?

Step 1: Figure out how to control blur, and replicate the images above

Once you've figured out how to achieve the two images above, you can start getting more creative.

Step 2: Get creative and make creative blur shots of your own

Keep in mind you're really not limited to just spelling words out...

Assignment Summary:

Figure out how to achieve the effects in the first few images.
Try to replicate the images above
Experiment with creative blur of your own
Upload photos here: /gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=43685
For some ideas, see this folder: /gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=32369
Helpful tips
- Use a long shutter speed - if you can't manually set it, try to go into "night mode" or "fireworks" mode.
- Take pictures of scenes that are very dark, but with a single bright feature (question: why won't this work if we take pictures in a bright scene?)
- If your camera has a BULB exposure mode, try it out. This opens up the shutter for as long as you hold the button down.
- A tripod may or may not help