Scott Photographics | Free Photography, GIMP & Photoshop Tutorials

Most of the time blur is really frustrating for photographers, but blurring can be used to create very interesting effects like in long exposures. The ‘Zoom-Blur Effect’ as it’s sometimes called can be used to draw the viewer’s eyes into the photograph and onto the subject with the edges blurred, our eyes tend to disregard the blurred parts and look for the sharp in-focus areas.

In this short simple tutorial I’ll show you how to achieve this effect. Unfortunately if you have a compact digital camera or do not have a manual zoom lens it won’t be possible to achieve the same effect, however I’ll show you how to replicate this effect in GIMP .

Drawing attention inwards on the sign

Details:

• 1/3 secs
• F 32
• ISO 400

1. For the best results its best to have a zoom lens with a reasonable variability in focal length, this will help increase the blur and be easier to control.

2. The hardest part of the overall effect is fine tuning the shutter speed, and it varies for each scene as there might a good light source which could over exposure your photo or the opposite, leading to an under exposure photo. So it is difficult to define one specific shutter speed, however it is not a huge problem with digital photography, because you can receive instant feedback of what  the photograph is like on your LCD screen.

When shooting use the Shutter Priority mode for quick adjustments without the concern of the aperture and focus on the shutter speed. To help give an idea of what shutter speeds are ideal I’ve listed some of the details on of the photographs below:

3. The main concept of this technique is to expose for enough time so that the sensor or film can capture the blurred lines, and this is created by twisting the zoom out or in!

French Flag

Details:

• 1/13 secs
• F 32
• ISO 100

4. For these longer exposures preferably use a tripod to avoid wobbling the camera. This shot below was taken using a tripod and the CALTEX Logo is very sharp as a result of a steady camera.

CALTEX

Details:

• 2.5 secs
• F 14
• ISO 100

Beck's

Details:

• 2.5 secs
• F 9
• ISO 100

Gargoyle Notre Dame - Paris, France

Details:

• 1/8 secs
• F 5.6
• ISO 400

Stair Well

Details:

• 1/3 secs
• F 36
• ISO 100

5. Try switching to manual focus and blurring the lights and then zooming while out of focus. You’ll get these softer streaks:

Blurred Traffic Lights

Details:

• 2.5 secs
• F 10
• ISO 100

6. Experiment with this technique and be creative with the long exposures. Try moving the camera ahile exposing and zooming in, and firing a flash to freeze a subject, use a slow sync flash for better results.

If you’d like to use these photographs please Contact Me! .

Please comment below if you have any questions and I’ll answer them ASAP!

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