Posted on by Jan

Blur

Your camera has a manual setting that allows you to control shutter speed, so why not make it work for you? You’ve done this before, probably in Photo I, but this is a skill that needs lots of practice. Sometimes a blurred action makes the difference between an OK image and a spectacular one.

Follow these steps:

  • Load a roll of film that has a low ASA number, like 100 or 50. Why? A film with a low ASA number requires more light to register an exposure, which means that you can select a slow shutter speed.
  • If you wish, you can use 400 film as well, but you will then need to do this exercise in a spot with low light, like Keku, the auditorium stage or in a classroom.
  • Use these shutter speeds: 1/60, 1/30, 1/15 and 1/8.
  • You need a tripod! This exercise asks for blurred action, but if you think about it, the blur needs to contrast with the surrounding details that are not in motion. Those need to be as sharp as possible.
  • As with some other exercises, take six different shots. This might mean that you are photographing the same subject, but that you have arranged it in six different ways.
  • In each of the six sequences of shots, bracket your shots. Most of the time, bracketing means changing the exposure slightly, but for this exercise bracket your shutter speeds without changing exposure. Different shutter speeds will result in different images, with the amount of blur changing in each shot. Be sure you adjust the aperture each time you change the shutter speed, so that the film receives the same amount of light in each shot. If this doesn’t make sense, think about it for a few minutes and then ask me to explain.

What should you see?

In each of the six groups you should see one shot that hits the “sweet spot,”  with just the right amount of blur but not so blurred that nothing is recognizable. It may be harder than you thought to hit that sweet spot because three factors influence the degree of blur:

  1. the shutter speed
  2. the speed of the motion
  3. your distance from the subject (The closer you are, the more the blur.)