Wedding Photography Blurring Techniques
In general when photographing weddings you should try to avoid blurring. You can use shutter speeds on cameras which are fast enough to ‘freeze’ the action. You generally want images to be sharp, and blurred images are usually the sign of poor photography - the subject is difficult to make out and the whole image can look like a mess.
However, sometimes an element of motion-blur works well as this image shows:
The composition of this image, especially the brides expression is very pleasing, but the look that we are really aiming for is a ’sense of movement’. If the whole image was sharp then it would have been ok, but there’s something else, an urgency maybe, that is illustrated by the blurring to everything but bride. It’s different as well, to typical wedding photographs, so that adds another dimension to the collection.
For this motion blur look to work use a shutter speed that is far slower than usual - 1/13th of a second in this case, and pan the camera as the subject moves. This is the tricky bit. Holding a camera still at a 1/13th of a second is hard enough. Keeping a moving subject in exactly the same position in the viewfinder at that speed is one of those frustrating tasks that just tends to come with practice. But you need to practice; can you nail each image on the first attempt? No, sadly not. The average ‘hit rate’ is at best 50% unfortunately, but when it works the results are natural and very pleasing.
Here’s another foray into the slow-speed world after the ceremony:
Of course, it’s possible to use Photoshop filters to create motion blur, but it’s got a long way to go before the effect is very realistic in my eyes.
An alternative is to keep the camera still but let the moving subjects blur, again using a slow shutter speed:
This method is much more risky than panning the camera, as there’s no knowing what the subjects will do as they walk by. Again, it’s only by experimentation that we can find the settings that work well for a wedding photographer
Author Bio
Need more information about wedding photography techniques? Contact the London Wedding Photographer. David Jones is an experienced and renowned Wedding photographer in the UK. He can be contacted at David Jones Photography, 39a Dulwich Village, London - You can call him on Tel: 020 8613 1420.
Alternatively visit his website at www.davidjonesphotography.com
However, sometimes an element of motion-blur works well as this image shows:
The composition of this image, especially the brides expression is very pleasing, but the look that we are really aiming for is a ’sense of movement’. If the whole image was sharp then it would have been ok, but there’s something else, an urgency maybe, that is illustrated by the blurring to everything but bride. It’s different as well, to typical wedding photographs, so that adds another dimension to the collection.
For this motion blur look to work use a shutter speed that is far slower than usual - 1/13th of a second in this case, and pan the camera as the subject moves. This is the tricky bit. Holding a camera still at a 1/13th of a second is hard enough. Keeping a moving subject in exactly the same position in the viewfinder at that speed is one of those frustrating tasks that just tends to come with practice. But you need to practice; can you nail each image on the first attempt? No, sadly not. The average ‘hit rate’ is at best 50% unfortunately, but when it works the results are natural and very pleasing.
Here’s another foray into the slow-speed world after the ceremony:
Of course, it’s possible to use Photoshop filters to create motion blur, but it’s got a long way to go before the effect is very realistic in my eyes.
An alternative is to keep the camera still but let the moving subjects blur, again using a slow shutter speed:
This method is much more risky than panning the camera, as there’s no knowing what the subjects will do as they walk by. Again, it’s only by experimentation that we can find the settings that work well for a wedding photographer
Author Bio
Need more information about wedding photography techniques? Contact the London Wedding Photographer. David Jones is an experienced and renowned Wedding photographer in the UK. He can be contacted at David Jones Photography, 39a Dulwich Village, London - You can call him on Tel: 020 8613 1420.
Alternatively visit his website at www.davidjonesphotography.com
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A Sense of Movement
