Street Photography Quick Tip (9)

Street Photography Quick Tip 9 – Motion Blur

As you already might have learned from the last edition of my Instant Inspirations (“Instant Inspiration (15) – Long Exposure Waterscapes”) , recently I just love to play with longer shutter speeds and the effects you can generate with it. So with the ninth episode of my “Street Photography Quick Tips” I apply this technique to shooting everyday life in the streets. For more how-to and inspirational photos continue reading after the jump….

My Street Photography Quick Tips are short, easy to read and easy to use tips that I think could help you while shooting in the streets. Today’s post is about using longer exposure times to blur the motion of moving people or objects and create interesting effects in your photographs.

Setting up the camera is fairly easy. Start with a shutter speed of 1/6 seconds. This is the setting I find myself using most for my motion blur shots. It creates just enough movement that shows the dynamic of either a moving person or an object, but it is still short enough to leave enough clear texture that you can clearly distinguish what the moving subject/object was. And with most modern cameras that have some sorts of image stabilization it is short enough that the stationary scenery or objects of your photography is still sharp.

But varying the settings, playing with compositions and variations of moving subjects and stationary background or vice versa, shooting in monochrome or color really brings out the fun in using this technique when shooting in the streets.

I hope this collection of photos with both blurred people and objects gives you an idea of what to look for and what settings to use when shooting motion blur in the streets.

Have a great Friday!

Marcus

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