"Motion Blur" pictures, how do I do it?

[SeanC]

When I get my camera I would like to try a bunch of different types of pictures, one this the type with a center focus with blured motion around it.

Im guessing this has something to do with shutter speed, but not sure how to do it.

The type of picture I mean is say at a band show, a picture of a (fairly) still and focused singer, while the other band members are going crazy motion speed stuff .

Hopefully you understand what I want.


I have Olympus c-5060 (or will)

[Ben Miller]

The short explanation is: Set a long shutter speed.

How long depends on what sort of motion you're shooting. Really fast things won't need a very long shutter, slower things will need a longer shutter. Basically you want the shutter to stay open long enough to capture the subject in more than one position, creating the blur. Different situations will call for different settings.

Of course, the shutter speed affects the entire picture, so the singer you mentioned would have to stay a lot more still than the band to come out sharp. If the singer moves then he/she'll come out blurry too.

The easiest way to pull this off with your camera would be to put it in shutter priority mode ("S" on the mode dial). This allows you to pick a particular shutter speed and the camera will adjust the other settings automatically. Try something around 1 sec and adjust it from there. (However, that will probably only work in dark places. Anywhere else the light will be too bright to allow a 1 sec exposure.)

(I'm doing my best to answer ALL your questions, SeanC... Let me know if I miss one.)

[SeanC]

Haha thanks alot, thats kind of what I assumed with it..


Expect alot more questions in the near future ...
like... how to turn it on

[John_Reed]

Originally Posted by SeanC

Haha thanks alot, thats kind of what I assumed with it..


Expect alot more questions in the near future ...
like... how to turn it on

Another type of motion blur photo happens when you purposely use a slow shutter speed, and follow your moving subject through the shot, so that the subject looks sharply focused, everything else blurs. I've used my Panasonic cameras to get these kind of shots. To make it happen with their image stabilization system, they provide a "Panning" mode, where the horizontal component of IS is disabled. Here are two examples:
FZ1: 1/30 sec. f2.8

FZ10: 1/50 sec., f6.5

I'm not suggesting that you must have a Panasonic with IS to get good motion blur, these are just examples of photos I shot. You can do the same thing, by going for a slow shutter speed, and following the subject, through the shot, with nearly any camera that lets you set shutter speed.

[maflynn]

What about using photoshop in some instances, to my inexperenced brain this seems like it could do the trick. Not that I'm avoiding learning new techniques for photography but it seems to fit the bill.

Mike