Special Effects: Advanced Photography Part II

I'm back - sorry for the delays!
Now, on to today's post. On this blog, I've mostly discussed traditional photography, emphasizing things like aperture, shutter speed, and composition. However, there are also special tricks and tips that one can employ to create unique images (without post-processing edits).

Click here to see Advanced Photography Part 1.

How to Use Shutter Speed to Create "Special Effects" with your Images

As discussed in my photography basics series, photographers adjust aperture and shutter speed to obtain accurate exposures. However, you don't have to do this. You can manipulate the shutter speed or aperture to achieve goals other than exposure.

Dreamlike exposures can be created by artificially prolonging the shutter speed and then moving the camera during the shot, producing unusual motion blur.  For this shot, I used a very slow shutter speed and a high aperture to compensate. You will need to experiment with different  exposure times to achieve the effect you desire without completely washing out your image. For each shot in this style that I like, I take about 10-15 "duds" - so keep trying different combinations.

f/32; shutter 1/8

Obviously, the longer the exposure and the more motion you create, the blurrier the end result will be. Compared the previous example, the example above is more painterly, with less detail preserved. This is due to the longer exposure.

Additionally, you should experiment not only with moving the camera body during the exposure, but also with zooming in and out with the lens.

What do you think about this technique? Have you tried it? Let me know in the comments.

Check back next Friday for the next installment of...TwoFeetPhoto. Please remember to share, follow, and subscribe via the fancy sidebar options! Here is my tumblr and here I am on bloglovin.