In photography, a good photo is often determined by perfect sharpness. However, blurring the subject is a fun way to convey emotion. You can achieve this by slowing down your camera’s shutter speed (a.k.a. dragging the shutter). With a slowed down shutter, any movement will cause a blur in the final image. Make sure that something is stationary so that your photo will have both sharpness and blur. Generally, the entire photo blurred can often be considered just bad photography.
Here is an example from a recent photo shoot:
I’ll tell you the do’s and don’ts of this process.
1. Stabilize your camera. I didn’t have my tripod, so I got a stool and set my camera down. No matter how hard I try, I cannot hold still enough in a situation like this.
2. Instruct some of the party to hold very very still (mom and dad)
3. The other part of the group (kids) must move quickly to show that blur/movement.
4. Slow your shutter waaay down.
My settings for this particular shot: ISO 100 f /16 ss 1/5 sec
I set my ISO at 100 because, well, it was bright outside. Though we were in the shade, my test shot was SUPER bright. Because I slowed my shutter way down to 1/5 of a second, I had to compensate by cranking my f-stop/aperture way up to f/16 to darker it up.
Here is my first test shot:
Can you see it? It’s there–lots of white! My settings were just a guess: ISO 320 f/11 ss1.6 second
So then I fiddled a bit and got this:
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thanks for the challenge – I definitely want to give this a try!
that is really funny. When I had heard the phrase "dragging the shutter" in readings in the past I assumed it was this really technical thing … when all it is is setting a slow shutter speed! Wow. Thanks for sharing :)
What a cool idea! I love finding new and creative ways for family pics.
So cool! Love this!
VERY cool!!
Can't wait to try this!!!
I love this affect! I really have a lot to learn on my camera. It can do a lot of things, but I still haven't read how to do them. Thanks for the inspiration!
this is awesome! I still have so much to learn but I think I am going to try this out in a photo shoot I have booked for next month-I love the kids in a blur while the parents stand still!
Hi, just wanted to let you know that I featured your site on my blog today. I am doing a new post each Friday featuring a site that I love. I just found yours not to long ago and check it all the time. Thanks for all your wonderful posts!!
As usual…thank you for your fun posts. My hubby and I took our son to the park for the first time and I actually caught some action shots of them on the swing only to come home and read your post! I learned how to do this in a college photography class. Have you tried pushing your shutter release as your subject is moving and following them with your camera? This will get the subject clear and your background blurry. I was able to capture both effects of my boys on the swing. You can see it here:
http://www.shawnandjamieoverton.blogspot.com/