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How to Take Creative Landscape Shots Using Intentional Camera Movement

21 Feb

The post How to Take Creative Landscape Shots Using Intentional Camera Movement appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Richard Beech.

If you’re looking to capture some unique, creative photos, then I highly recommend trying out intentional camera movement photography.

Now, many photographic situations rely on ensuring your camera is still as possible during exposure for pin-sharp images. But is keeping your camera still always a good thing?

Instead, why not throw caution to the wind, move your camera while the shutter is open, and explore the range of creative opportunities this offers you as a photographer?

In this article, I’ll show you how to do exactly that!

What is intentional camera movement and why should you use it?

Intentional camera movement (or ICM for short) is a photographic technique where you move the camera as the image is taken.

bluebell woods intentional camera movement

One example of ICM is panning. The camera follows a moving subject in order to keep the subject sharp and the background blurred.

But while panning can get some great results, it’s actually a pretty tame form of ICM. Moving your camera during the exposure can open up many more creative options for you to try out.

In particular, intentional camera movement can be used to take some truly unique landscape shots. The technique can be exceptionally liberating, and by reducing the number of sharp details in a landscape, it allows you to concentrate on line, form, and color in your images.

In fact, with ICM, a scene that you may ordinarily consider too cluttered might just come to life – by letting you blend colors and shapes for an interesting abstract shot.

One of the reasons I have grown to love ICM is that it enables you to capture a landscape in a unique and personal way that cannot easily be reproduced. It can even breathe new life into overly familiar scenes, letting you see and capture something unique about a location you may have photographed many times before.

If you’re struggling to find inspiration for your next photographic project, or you want to get your creative juices flowing, intentional camera movement is a technique that you should try at least once.

In fact, it’s relatively easy to take some striking shots with ICM.

Plus, it can be a lot of fun!

So let’s take a look at how intentional camera movement photography actually works:

The best settings for intentional camera movement photography

A key factor to get right when using ICM is your shutter speed.

You see, the exposure needs to be long enough to capture significant motion blur (though different shutter speeds will give different effects).

In general, I recommend anything from 1/3s or 1/2s all the way down to multi-second exposures. Of course, you’re always free to experiment with faster or slower shutter speeds; the core of a creative technique like ICM is simply playing around.

Because of these lengthy shutter speeds, shooting in low-light conditions is ideal for ICM. During the daytime, it can be harder to achieve the required shutter speeds, even at your camera’s lowest ISO setting and your lens’s smallest aperture (i.e., highest f-stop number).

If you do decide to shoot in the day, you may need to use a polarizing filter, a neutral density (ND) filter, or a combination of both. Personally, I prefer to use a polarizing filter as a starting point, as this helps to boost colors and cut down on reflections and glare. I will then add a 2-stop or a 4-stop ND filter if the shutter speed needs to be slowed down any further.

When starting out with ICM, it can help to shoot in Shutter Priority mode. Set the shutter speed to around half a second to start, then turn the ISO to the lowest available setting on your camera.

Once you have practiced at this shutter speed, you can use longer exposure times thanks to a combination of low light and filters.

Make sure you focus manually in advance, and turn off the autofocus to prevent the camera from searching for focus during the long exposure.

Also, if you are using a lens that has image stabilization, remember to turn this off.

How to move your camera

Once you have taken control of the shutter speed, the next step is to determine how you’ll move the camera after pressing the shutter button.

Get creative; there are no rules! You can move the camera vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. You can move it fast or slow. Alternatively, you can rotate the camera 360 degrees to create a spiral effect, or change the focal length on a zoom lens during exposure to create a zoom effect.

With practice, you can combine two or more of these movements to create something truly unique. The look and feel of your final images will be determined by the speed, direction, and smoothness of your chosen movements.

Note that you can always use a tripod to control the camera movement. This will help you to capture a smoother result, which can be useful if you wish to retain a straight horizon line.

(Personally, I prefer to work handheld when moving the camera, as it offers greater flexibility and provides more opportunities to experiment with different movements.)

Bold movements can sometimes be more effective, as there is a risk that subtle movements may end up looking like camera shake in the final image.

So bear in mind:

While waving your camera around may not come naturally and may result in you getting some funny looks from amused onlookers, the end results will definitely be worth it!

What to shoot for the best results

Now that you know how to capture beautiful ICM photos, all that’s left is to pick your ICM subjects.

A good place to begin is by looking for locations that offer striking colors, lines, or patterns.

Forests are a favorite ICM subject of mine, particularly during the spring and autumn seasons. Clean, parallel lines provided by the trees, as well as the vibrant colors of nature (created by flowers in the spring and fallen leaves in autumn), lend themselves to a vertical camera movement shot. The movement can be from the top down or from the bottom up, and it can be fast or slow; it really just depends on the effect you wish to capture and how experimental you want to be.

intentional camera movement in bluebell woods

Seascapes can be a good starting point for side-to-side camera movement, where you pan the camera in line with the horizon. Alternatively, in rougher waters, you can try to match the movement of your camera to the movement of the waves for an altogether different effect.

Shooting at sunrise or sunset can provide you with a greater variety of colors to work with, and shooting city lights after dark can also offer a wide range of creative options.

Once you’ve identified a suitable location, you will probably find yourself taking multiple shots with various different movements.

(I should warn you that intentional camera movement photography can sometimes be quite addictive, and you’ll often find your memory cards filling up quickly!)

You may find it useful to set your camera to shoot in burst mode so that you can take a series of shots in quick succession while moving the camera in a particular direction.

That way, you’ll end up with a lot of images to choose from – plus, every new shot will offer you a slightly different composition and effect!

A few intentional camera movement tips

As with any type of photography, images created using intentional camera movement are not going to be to everybody’s taste.

It’s a highly subjective art form, and what works for you will not work for others.

Also, keep in mind basic principles of photography, such as composition and exposure – these are still very important!

Also, while the ICM technique will give you a very abstract result, you may find it helpful to have at least one element of the scene sharp or recognizable in the final image.

Finally, there is an element of trial and error when starting out with intentional camera movement. You’ll quickly find out what works for you and what doesn’t; this will help you develop your own style.

And don’t be too concerned if you do not get an effect you like right away – the technique can be quite hit-and-miss sometimes. Take a lot of shots, and don’t be too quick to delete images that you feel haven’t worked. There is a chance that, after a few days, you may take another look and see something that you like, after all!

Intentional camera movement photography: The next step

One of the great things about intentional camera movement photography is that it is all about how you express yourself!

Think of your camera as your paintbrush.

Get creative, have fun, and start seeing landscapes in an exciting new way.

Now over to you:

Do you have any intentional camera movement photos you’d like to share? Please feel free to display them in the comments below!

The post How to Take Creative Landscape Shots Using Intentional Camera Movement appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Richard Beech.

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Weekly Photography Challenge – ICM (Intentional Camera Movement)

25 Apr

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

Since many of us are still limited to where we can go, this week’s photography challenge topic is the ICM (intentional camera movement)!

Weekly Photography Challenge – ICM -Intentional camera movement green grass with sun in background — I focused the camera then as I pressed the shutter button, moved the camera following the direction of the grass blades. f/16, ISO 100, 1/15th sec.

This is a fun exercise you can try inside your home or out in your yard (if you are lucky enough to have one). If you live in an apartment in the city, you may want to try capturing the night city lights with ICM instead.

You’ll want to use a relatively slow shutter speed – something slower than around 1/15th of a sec. Then you will want to physically move the camera in the direction you want as soon as you hit the shutter button.

Weekly Photography Challenge – ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) — I moved the camera horizontally to follow the line of the water © Caz-Nowaczyk

You may want to follow the direction of the lines in your compostition or go against them – the creative decision is yours!

You can even make the exposures so long that we have to guess what photograph is actually of (you can probably tell what mine are, though!).

I look forward to seeing your shots.

Check out some of the articles below that give you tips on this week’s challenge.

Tips for photographing the ICM

How to Take Creative Landscape Shots using Intentional Camera Movement

Creative Reasons to use Intentional Camera Movement

Intentional Camera Movement and the Landscape

Intentional Blur- How to Create it and Why it’s Awesome

How Mark Rothko’s Paintings Can Inspire Your Photography

5 Great Ways to Create Abstract Wave Photography

Simply upload your shot into the comment field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them. Show me your best images in this week’s challenge.

Share in the dPS Facebook Group

You can also share your images in the dPS Facebook group as the challenge is posted there each week as well.

If you tag your photos on Flickr, Instagram, Twitter or other sites – tag them as #DPSICM to help others find them. Linking back to this page might also help others know what you’re doing so that they can share in the fun.

The post Weekly Photography Challenge – ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Caz Nowaczyk.

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How to Use Intentional Camera Movement in Your Photography to Great Effect

24 Apr

The post How to Use Intentional Camera Movement in Your Photography to Great Effect appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

The presentation of motion in a static image is the subject of this article – a seeming contradiction in terms. This is not the case, and today you’ll discover how to use intentional camera movement to create dynamic images. You’ll learn the techniques you can use during the day and those which you can use at night. So read on and find out how you can make your photos dynamic!

What is intentional camera movement?

How to Use Intentional Camera Movement in Your Photography to Great Effect — This image used a day time zoom burst, and a strong ND filter.

The majority of the time, you’ll be taught to keep your camera still, to avoid blur in your photo. However, what if you moved the camera during an exposure, and you did it on purpose? This is what intentional camera movement is.

Now for this effect to work, you’ll need to use slow shutter speeds. You won’t see any worthwhile results from shutter speeds over 1/100th.

It’s possible to practice this handheld with shutter speeds between 1/50th and half a second. Anything slower than that will require a tripod for the best results.

How to use intentional camera movement during the day

There is more than one way you can apply intentional camera movement to your work. The most well known is probably panning. The following are the main ways you can move your camera, and produce interesting results.

1. Panning

Panning is a technique used to show the motion of a moving object. The aim is to move your camera at the same pace as a moving object and to expose the image for around a third of a second to produce blur in the background.

There are several ways you can refine this technique to produce even better results.

The shutter speed used will also be dependent on the speed of the object you are panning. This is a nice technique to try as there is a clear main subject, which is not always the case with intentional camera movement.

2. Zooming

Using zoom during the day can also give interesting results. You’ll learn how you can add even more to this technique at night by reading below. The effect is produced by changing the focal distance of your lens, so primes lenses won’t work here.

The following are the steps you’ll need to take to create a daytime zoom burst.

Exposure – You’ll need to find a location that allows you to expose at 1/10th second or longer. If you choose to use a longer exposure, you’ll need a tripod.
Lens – You’ll need a lens that allows you to manually change the focal distance during the course of the exposure.
Filter – Those daytime long exposures will likely require an ND filter to achieve them.
Zoom in – The effect will broadly be the same whether you zoom in or zoom out, but for daytime zoom, it’s better to zoom in.
Focus – Focus your camera at the focal distance you intend to finish the zoom burst at. This may require pre-focusing the camera, and setting the camera to manual focus for the exposure itself.
Location – A location with something overhead like a tree canopy will work best to show the zoom effect. A clear sky won’t show any zoom at all.

3. Intentional camera movement

This type of photo is often very abstract in nature. The goal is to move the camera in such a way it produces appealing blur patterns in your image. You’ll need a longer exposure to produce this.

The best movements are often defined shapes. If you move your camera in a straight line, a circular motion, or perhaps a heart shape, you should get a nice result.

It’s possible to carry out photos like this handheld if the exposure is short, and you keep to a simple movement. An exposure of around half a second would work for this.

4. Using a tripod

It also possible to use intentional camera movement from a tripod, though you’ll be limited to the movements your tripod head will allow. That means you can produce all the shapes mentioned above, you’ll just be pivoting from a fixed position.

The advantage of using a tripod is that the camera will be that much steadier. The next advantage is that if you wish to combine intentional camera movement with a stationary phase to an exposure, this is possible with a tripod.

Techniques you can use at night

It’s that much easier to practice intentionally camera movement at night. That’s for two reason. The first is it’s easier to carry out long exposure, as the light level will be lower. The second is light sources you’ll see out night will light paint across your scene. In fact by night intentional camera movement might more accurately be described as kinetic light painting. The techniques listed above can be adapted to night photography. Panning is almost the same, so this won’t be discussed any further.

1. Kinetic light painting zoom

Kinetic light painting involves changing the focal distance of a zoom lens, during a long exposure photo. The exposure lengths at night mean you’ll now need to use a tripod to get good photos using this technique.

A key difference with daytime zooming is that it’s preferable to zoom out when practicing this. The reason for this is you want the light paint to zoom outwards across your scene. If you zoom in, the chances are you’ll have light painting across your main subject in the center of your scene. To find out more about this technique, you can read this article.

2. Kinetic light painting rotation

Another type of kinetic light painting is camera rotation. Once again, you’ll need a tripod for this, and you’ll move your camera body while it’s attached to the tripod. It’s a technique that works best where there are tall structures. These can be tall buildings, statues or perhaps Christmas trees.

To make this technique work, you’ll need these structures to have lights on them. To find out more about camera rotation read this article.

Create dynamic images intentionally!

Now it’s your turn to get out and create some images. If you can’t get out and about, try some of these in your yard or home. It’s a great way of adding narrative to an image, or perhaps to create a completely abstract image.

Have you tried any of the ideas mentioned in this article? If you have what were your experiences?

As always, if you have images that display intentional camera movement, please share them in the comments.

The post How to Use Intentional Camera Movement in Your Photography to Great Effect appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Bond.

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Intentional Blur- How to Create it and Why it’s Awesome

18 Feb

An abstract blur of cotton grass, Fairbanks, Alaska, in autumn.

Open up any photography magazine or website, and I promise there will be at least one article, and a half dozen ads, discussing image sharpness and how to get it through technique or gear. Don’t get me wrong, sharpness is great. When I’m shooting a classic landscape or portrait, if the image is a hair out of focus, it goes in the trash. But, at times, blur is exactly what you want, and occasionally, it’s exactly what your sharpness-obsessed brain needs. All you need, is a camera that allows you to manually control shutter speed.

Abstract Panning Blur

Creating abstract blurs is a chance to explore color, and pattern, and forget about the nit-picky details of composition. Frankly, it’s a fun way to screw around with your camera, and the results can be very cool.

An abstract blur of Fireweed, Fairbanks, Alaska, in autumn.

I made the above image in the small wetland below my home in Alaska. In the autumn, the fireweed fades from green, to orange and red, and these plants erupted from the background. Photographically, I didn’t care about the fireweed itself, I wanted to create an image with the feeling of an explosion. After a moment of pondering, I decided a blur might do the trick. I set the camera shutter to 1/10th second, and panned the camera parallel to the direction of the stems (up and down).

The process is simple, but can feel strange. The camera must be in motion for the entire length of the exposure (usually longer than 1/15th of a second). If you pause, start too soon, or end too early, then elements of the image will retain detail, and the clean washes of color will become confused.

Below are a couple of examples using a patch of autumn foliage. In the first (below left), I moved the camera slowly, while the second (below right) is a quicker motion:

An abstract blur of Fireweed, Fairbanks, Alaska, in autumn.

Linear patterns, like the fireweed stems I noted above, or trunks of trees, make great subjects for this kind of image. Below are two interpretations of a forest. The first of these images was made during the blue hour of a snowy winter morning, the second is a very fast vertical pan of cottonwoods, on a bright spring day.

AK-FAI-winter-abstract-6
AK-FAI-CreamersField-abstract-104284-25

You can also experiment with jiggling the camera as I did in the image below. The results can be very painting-like, and are quite unlike any other type of image I know how to create.

Zoom Blurs

A zoom blur, as is obvious from the name, requires a zoom lens to execute. The result is an image that appears to blur outward, from a comparatively sharp center point. Often, it gives the impression of forward motion, or viewing the subject down a long tunnel of color and pattern. Bright subjects, like flowers, often work well. When done properly, this technique yields an image that is a celebration of color.

AK-Girdwood-fireweed-abstract-3

Just as you need the camera in constant motion to create an effective panning blur, you’ll need to make sure the zoom is activated throughout the exposure. Try 1/10th second as a starting point. I’ve experimented with this technique in a variety of situations, even on a colony of King Penguins (below), where I think the technique emphasizes the chaos and noise of the tightly packed birds. It can also be effective for portraying motion, as I did in the image of the mountain biker (second image below). For this image I used a small zooming motion, instead of a dramatic pull back, as the cyclist approached me.

SGeorgia-9Jan10-SalisburyPlains-53
AK-FAI-GoldstreamSports-Sep13-121

Subject Blur

In the techniques I described above, either the camera, the lens, or both must be in motion, but blurs can also be effective when it’s the subject that’s moving. Most landscape photographers will already be familiar with the technique of blurring moving water through the use of a slow shutter speed. This technique requires a tripod to be effective, and composition, unlike in abstract blurs, now plays an important role.

Your shutter speed will dictate how the blur appears in your final image. Slowly moving subjects like rippling waves, may require several seconds to blur, while a fast tumbling creek or waterfall may only need 1/15th second. Experiment, and see what you get. In the two images below, the bear and waterfall required only 1/15 second to blur, while the slower moving creek required nearly a half second.

A Brown Bear fishes for salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, AK, USA.

AK-Denpark-Savageriver-01

1/8th second at f16

Water is the obvious subject for this kind of photography, but don’t limit yourself. Several years ago, I was hiking atop a ridge in the Alaska Range. It was mid-summer, a few minutes before midnight, and the sun was just setting behind the mountains. It was windy, and tufts of golden tundra grass were waving rapidly back and forth in the breeze. I knew that when the last light of day departed, those tufts of grass would be lit up, and all the rest of the world would be shadowed. Quickly, I set up: tripod placed low, long shutter speed (1/4 second), and waited. Sure enough, for just a moment, the only thing lit by the sun was the blowing grass stems:

Blowing tundra grass lit by evening sun, Alaska.

Action Blurs

This last technique is frequently used to give the impression of movement and speed, and is often used in sports and wildlife photography. There are two flavors of action blurs. The first is when the camera is panned to track a moving subject. This results in an image with a sharp, or semi-sharp subject, and blurred background like the image below.

AK-FAI-Equinox-marathon-109203-3

The second is when the camera is still, and the subject is in motion. The outcome is a blurred subject, with a sharp background. Both result in an image that clearly tells the story of motion.

AK-FAI-GoldstreamSports-Sep13-128

Results using this technique are hard to predict. The combination of long shutter speeds, and moving cameras and subjects, can result in many failed images. But when it works, the results can be awesome.

CO-Golden-Cyclocross-26Sep2012-87

Rapidly moving subjects may require only 1/60th of second (or faster) to provide blurred motion, but slow subjects may need substantially longer shutter speeds. It’s a game of trial and error. Running and cycling races, or other sporting events, are great places to practice the technique, as you can shoot again and again while experimenting with different shutter speeds. Once you’ve mastered the method, you can break it out on higher stakes subjects like fast moving wildlife, where you may only get one opportunity to get the shot.

AK-FAI-CreamersField-Migration-Aug2009-54

Go out and experiment. Blurs, be they abstract, impressionist, or realistic, can be great fun to play with. For me, it’s a fallback technique when I need to jumpstart my creativity.

Have you tried making blurs? I’d love to see what you get. Feel free to post them in the comments below.

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The post Intentional Blur- How to Create it and Why it’s Awesome by David Shaw appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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How to Take Creative Landscape Shots using Intentional Camera Movement

19 Aug

Many photographic situations rely on keeping your camera as still as possible during exposure for pin-sharp images. You may have practiced hard to develop a steady hand and you’ve probably used tripods, remote shutter releases or image stabilisation to reduce the risk of camera shake. But, is keeping your camera still always a good thing? Every now and again, why not throw caution to the wind, move your camera while the shutter is open, and explore the range of creative opportunities this offers you as a photographer.

Bluebellwoodsblur750

What is Intentional Camera Movement and why use it?

Intentional Camera Movement (or ICM for short) is a photographic technique where the camera is moved as the image is being taken. One example is panning. The camera movement mimics that of a moving subject to keep the subject sharp and the background blurred. However, moving your camera during exposure can open up a lot more creative options for you to try out. In particular, ICM can be used to take some truly unique landscape shots. The technique can be exceptionally liberating and, by reducing the amount of sharp details in a landscape, it allows you to concentrate on lines, form and colour in your images. A scene that you may ordinarily consider too cluttered, might just come to life through ICM by letting you blend colours and shapes for an interesting abstract shot.

One of the reasons that I have grown to love ICM is that it enables you to capture a landscape in a unique and personal way that cannot easily be reproduced. It can even breathe new life into overly familiar landscapes, letting you see and capture something new about a location you may have photographed many times before. If you are struggling to find inspiration for your next photographic project, or you want to get your creative juices flowing, this is a technique that you should try at least once. It is relatively easy to take some striking shots, you are sure to end up with a unique set of landscapes and it can also be a lot of fun.

ICMburtonbshorejul15750

Slow Shutter Speeds

A key factor to get right when using ICM is the shutter speed. It needs to be long enough to capture significant motion blur; anything from 1/3 or 1/2 second exposure times, up to multi-second exposures. Because of these slow shutter speeds, shooting in low-light conditions is ideal for ICM. During the daytime, it may be harder to achieve the required shutter speeds even at the lowest ISO setting and the smallest aperture (highest f-stop number). You may need to use a polarizing filter, a neutral density (ND) filter, or a combination of both. Personally, I prefer to use a polarizing filter as a starting point as this helps to boost colours and cut down on reflections and glare. I will then add a 2-stop or a 4-stop ND filter if the shutter speed needs to be slowed down any further.

When starting out with ICM, it may help to shoot in Shutter Priority mode. Set the shutter speed to around half a second to start, and turn the ISO to the lowest available setting on your camera. Once you have practiced at this shutter speed, you can then get longer exposure times by using a combination of low-light and/or filters. Focus manually and turn off the autofocus to prevent the camera searching for focus during exposure. Also, if you are using a lens that has image stabilization, remember to turn it off.

RockpoolsportlandICM750

Moving the Camera

Once you have taken control of the shutter speed, how you move the camera is totally up to you. Get creative, there are no rules. You could move the camera vertically, horizontally, or diagonally – fast or slow. Alternatively, you could rotate the camera 360 degrees during exposure to create a spiral effect, or change the focal distance on a zoom lens during exposure to create a zoom effect. With practice, you can combine two or more of these movements to create something truly unique. The look and feel of your final images will be determined by the speed, direction, and smoothness of your chosen movements. If you wish, you can use a tripod to control the camera movement. This will help you to capture a smoother movement, which can be useful if you wish to retain a straight horizon line. I prefer to work hand-held when moving the camera, as it offers greater flexibility and provides more opportunities to experiment with different movements.

Bold movements can sometimes be more effective as there is a risk that too subtle a movement may end up looking like camera shake in the final image. Waving your camera around may not come that naturally, and it may result in you getting some funny looks from amused onlookers, but the end results definitely can make it worthwhile.

ICMwarehamtreesunset750

What to Shoot

A good place to begin using ICM in your landscape shots is to look for locations that offer striking colours, lines, or patterns. Woodland is a favourite ICM subject of mine, particularly during the spring and autumn seasons. Clean, parallel lines provided by the trees and vibrant colours of nature (provided by bluebells in the spring and fallen leaves in the autumn) lend themselves to a vertical camera movement. This can be from the top-down, or from the bottom-up and can be a quick or slow movement. It really just depends on the effect you wish to capture, and how experimental you want to be. Seascapes can be a good starting point for side-to-side camera movement, panning the camera in line with the horizon.

Alternatively, in rougher waters, you could try to match the movement of your camera to the movement of the waves for an altogether different effect. Shooting at sunrise or sunset could provide you with a greater variety of colours to work with, and shooting city lights after dark can also offer a wide range of creative options.

Once you have found a suitable location, you will probably find yourself taking multiple shots with various different movements. (I should warn you that this technique can sometimes be quite addictive, and you may find your memory cards filling up quite quickly!) You may find it useful to set your camera to shoot in Continuous Shooting Mode so that you can take a series of shots in quick succession, while moving the camera in a particular direction.

Bluebellaction750

Final Tips

As with any type of photography, images created using this technique are not going to be to everybody’s taste. It is highly subjective and what works for you will not work for others. Just keep in mind basic principles of photography such as composition and exposure – these are still just as important. Also, while this technique will render much of the landscape abstract, you may find it helps to have at least one element of the landscape sharp, or recognizable in the final image.

There is an element of trial-and-error when starting out with Intentional Camera Movement. You should soon find out what works for you and what doesn’t; this will help you to develop your own style. Don’t be too concerned if you do not get an effect you like right away – the technique can be quite hit-and-miss sometimes. Take a lot of shots, and don’t be too quick to delete shots that you feel haven’t quite worked out as you had hoped. There is a chance that, after a few days, you may take another look and see something that you like in there after all.

One of the great things about this technique is that it is all about how you express yourself through photography – think of your camera as your paintbrush. Get creative, have fun, and start seeing landscapes in an exciting new way.

RiverweedsICMblandford750

I have included several of my attempts at ICM landscape shots. Please feel free to share your own in the comments section.

The post How to Take Creative Landscape Shots using Intentional Camera Movement by Richard Beech appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Creative Reasons to use Intentional Camera Movement

14 Jun

One of the earliest lessons you likely learned as a photographer was the importance of keeping your camera steady and stable. You wanted tack-sharp focus, so you learned to tuck in your elbows and support your camera properly. But why limit yourself when there are so many creative reasons to move your camera?

intentional camera movement, ICM, blur, motion blur, how to, sunrise

Try Intentional Camera Movement or ICM

ICM is the abbreviation for Intentional Camera Movement, a term that covers a wide range of photography situations. What brings these different situations together is the fact that rather than remaining still, the camera itself is moving while the photograph is being taken. This creates a wide-range of creative effects and abstract images, like the sunrise image above.

In order to capture recognizable blur, you need to shoot at a slow enough shutter speed to capture significant motion. A quarter to a half-second or longer is a good place to start. Shooting in Shutter Priority mode allows you to set a longer shutter speed, and your camera will choose an appropriate aperture. If the picture is too light or too dark, you may want to consider dialing in all of the settings in Manual mode. You can also achieve ICM style shots with a point-and-shoot camera in darker situations, where your camera will select for a longer shutter speed. (Both of the panning shots, below, were taken with a point-and-shoot camera in Program mode.)

Try Panning

Panning is one specific type of intentional camera movement. Rather than being random movement when panning, the movement of the camera mimics the relative movement of the subject. This results in an unusual composition where a moving subject appears frozen and the background of the image becomes blurred and conveys the sense of motion.

intentional camera movement, ICM, panning, people, motion, blur, blackandwhite

Panned at 1/4 of a second – if you want less blur use a slightly faster shutter speed like 1/30th

The tricks behind panning are in the focus and the follow-through. A moving subject and a moving camera can confuse your camera’s autofocus, so you will get better results if you use back-button focus or pre-focus the camera to the right distance and then switch it into manual focus mode. Either technique will keep the camera focused at the right distance, and you will not waste time waiting for your autofocus to lock on to your subject.

The second trick for panning is in the follow-through: both before and after you take the shot. Just like in golf or baseball, the smoothness of the swing comes from continuing the motion before and after the point of contact (hitting the ball or hitting the shutter). If you want smooth motion blur in your panning image, you need to be moving and following your subject both before and after hitting the shutter.

intentional camera movement, ICM, panning, motion, blur, car, vehicle

Panned at 1/8th of a second

The best way to get a feel for the mechanics of panning is to practice the movement without actually hitting the shutter and taking a photograph. Practice keeping your subject in approximately the same place within your viewfinder as it moves past you. For example, if you are trying to capture a panning shot of a car, begin by locating the car in your viewfinder when it is a short distance away from you. Swing the camera to follow the motion of the car as it approaches, passes, and zooms away from you. Once you have been able to successfully track a few cars and keep them in the frame, try repeating the same process but press the shutter button midway through the motion. Continue to follow the car with the camera as the shutter closes, and you will find you have a much smoother feel and flow to the final image.

Shooting a few successive frames using High Speed or Burst mode can help get a successful panning image also.

Try a Zoom Burst

A zoom burst is another specific type of intentional camera movement. Rather than moving the entire camera, during a zoom burst shot you move the lens and zoom it in or out while the photograph is being taken. The more focal lengths covered by your camera lens, the greater the zoom effect will appear to be.

intentional camera movement, ICM, zoomburst, zoom, motion, blur, christmas lights, abstract

18-270mm lens, 4 seconds at f/13, ISO 100 on a tripod

The bright points of light on a Christmas tree provide an excellent subject for a zoom burst shot, as each individual light renders as a bright streak across the image, making for a feeling of achieving warp speed and rocketing forward into the photograph. This shot had a shutter speed of four seconds and was taken hand-held, with one hand holding the camera and the other rotating the zoom lens during the shot. The slight bumps and jumps in the lights are a result of the movement of the camera body due to camera shake and the added motion from zooming the lens.

intentional camera movement, ICM, zoomburst, zoom, autumn, leaves, abstract, motion, blur

10-24mm zoom lens, ISO 100, 1/25th at f/22

Zoom burst shots can be of any subject, not just bright points of light. Here, the variations in color of the fallen leaves provide a colorful backdrop for the motion and lines of the zoom burst effect. This shot also demonstrates that you can achieve a zoom burst effect with a smaller range, as this image was shot hand-held using a 10-24mm lens.

Conclusion: try Intentional Camera Movement

There are many, many ways to use Intentional Camera Movement to capture creative and unusual shots, and these different techniques are just the tip of the iceberg. Don’t let yourself be locked in to only stable, tack-sharp photographs.

intentional camera movement, ICM, blur, motion, abstract, sunrise

ISO 100, 0.6 seconds at f/11 done hand-held by rotating the whole camera when shooting (took several tries to get that smooth)

Experiment with intentional camera movement, and you might surprise yourself! Share your results in the comments below.

The post Creative Reasons to use Intentional Camera Movement by Katie McEnaney appeared first on Digital Photography School.

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Intentional Camera Movement and the Landscape

17 Oct

Intentional Camera Movement

An interesting thing about digital photography is that it has led to the rise in use of techniques that are more difficult to carry out with film cameras. It’s all down to the ability to view your images on the camera’s LCD screen after you have taken them. It’s a simple feature, but one that has made a profound change to the way some photographers work.

Regardless of what you may read about ‘chimping’, the LCD screen lets you see if your technique is working, and make adjustments on the spot if necessary. It’s one of the reasons that professionals don’t use polaroids to check their lighting setups any more. It also makes techniques like long exposure photography much easier – what was once something that was just done occasionally by landscape photographers has turned into a new genre.

Another technique that has gained in popularity is that of introducing intentional camera movement (also known as ICM on photo sharing sites like Flickr) into the image. Panning, one way of doing that, has been around for decades. But recently some adventurous photographers have started pushing intentional camera movement in new and interesting directions.

ICM photographers

If you’re not familiar with the intentional camera movement technique, then I recommend that you take the time to look at the work of some photographers that are proficient with the technique. One of the best known is Chris Friel – an artist turned photographer who pushes the boundaries of what is possible with intentional camera movement (you can read my interview with him here). Doug Chinnery is another.

Intentional camera movement fascinates me because it is a method that can create some beautiful, ethereal images. When it works, it works beautifully. Yet when it doesn’t, it just looks like camera shake. Some people will say all intentional camera movement photos are just a form of camera shake. Ignore them if you want to try it out – like many areas of photography it’s a subjective call and not everybody will like it.

Like long exposure photography, the idea behind intentional camera movement is to use a slow shutter speed to introduce blur into the photo. The difference is that with long exposure photography you use a tripod so that part of the image remains sharp. With intentional camera movement, you deliberately move the camera during the exposure so that everything is rendered as a blur.

Getting started

Intentional camera movement is carried out with a hand-held camera. It works with shutter speeds from around 1/4 second to four seconds in length.

Intentional Camera Movement

Get started by finding a landscape that lends itself to intentional camera movement. You can get the idea by looking at the work of the photographers mentioned earlier. Coastal scenes tend to work well. If you are inland try looking for forests, lakes or rivers. Whatever scene you are working with, search for something that is relatively simple and has some strong graphic shapes (that’s why seascapes, like the one above, work so well). The best time to try these techniques is at dusk. The light is beautiful and the low light means that it’s easy to obtain the slow shutter speeds required.

Intentional Camera Movement

There are two basic types of movement you can use. The first is panning – moving the camera from one side to the other in a more or less straight line. It works well for photos like this one, which I took on the beach after sunset.

Intentional Camera Movement

The other type of movement is more of a random movement. Jiggle the camera around slightly during the exposure and see what happens. This is where keeping the composition simple helps, as it means the subject is still recognisable even when blurred.

If the exposure is long enough (say around four seconds) you could try holding the camera relatively still during the first three seconds, then moving it for the last part. This can produce some interesting results.

Experiment

The key is to experiment, and to keep looking at the results on your camera’s screen. This shows you how well your technique worked, and you can adjust accordingly. You may find that you need a shorter shutter speed (or a longer one). Or that a different type of movement produces different results. Keep looking and adjusting as you go along and hopefully the results will improve.

Be prepared to create plenty of images that just don’t work. That’s okay – they are just stepping stones along the way to creating something special. It’s fine if you take a hundred photos and get just one good result – the random nature of intentional camera movement means you are always going to create images that just don’t work.

How do you know whether you got a good intentional camera movement image? That’s an excellent question. These types of photo are highly subjective. If you like it, and you created a moody image that evokes the atmosphere of the location you’re in, then I think that’s a success. Your eye for what makes a good intentional camera movement image will improve the more you use the technique.

Mastering Photography

Intentional Camera Movement

My ebook Mastering Photography: A Beginner’s Guide to Using Digital Cameras introduces you to photography and helps you make the most out of your digital cameras. It covers concepts such as lighting and composition as well as the camera settings you need to master intentional camera movement photography and take photos like the ones in this article.

Post originally from: Digital Photography Tips.

Check out our more Photography Tips at Photography Tips for Beginners, Portrait Photography Tips and Wedding Photography Tips.

Intentional Camera Movement and the Landscape

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