How to create motion blur in a photograph

Normally motion blur is an undesired or accidental effect in your photographs. It happens when you are photographing a moving subject using a shutter speed that is too slow for the situation. This effect, however, can be intentionally used by photographers in an artistic way to create streaks of color and light in their picture.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Camera with adjustable shutter and aperture

1. Find a subject, either still or in motion, and assess the amount of light available.
2. Then set your shutter speed 2 or 3 settings lower than the correct one.
3. Set your aperture to f/5.
4. Now take your picture. If you are photographing a moving subject try to keep the camera still while the shutter is open. This will cause anything that is moving within the scene to appear blurred.

Tips & Warnings

• You can also move the camera itself while the shutter is open. By physically shifting the camera's viewpoint you will create lines of blur in the direction your camera moved.