Take Stunning Abstract Pictures with Movement & Zoom

Camera movements have been used a lot to create an abstraction from a scene. The recipe is very simple: in a long exposure times move the camera while exposing. The result will look similar to the scene but in a more abstract way, in this small article I will discuss how to do it and what kind of results you can expect.

Equipment

Many of these images can be done handheld but it will be a lot easier with a tripod. If you handhold the camera it will be really difficult to get motion in only one direction and the result will probably look messy. If you have a tripod you also need a good head, a head that can allow you to move the camera in only one direction. Three way tripod heads or geared heads are perfect for the task. A ballhead will not be very useful but you can use it to pan horizontally if it has a panning knob as most ballheads have.

On a Sunny day you may also need some ND filters are you will be trying to achieve long exposure times. A ND8 filter is probably enough if you stop down the lens to F16 or F22. Diffraction is not a big problem as nothing in the image will be totally sharp.

A zoom lens is a good idea to create different compositions and to do some zooming!

Exposure Time

This depends a lot on the scene and what you plan to do. Very long exposure times or very short exposure times usually produce an unpleasant result. If you can try to use exposures from 1/30 to 4 seconds. With 1/30 you need a fast wrist!

Movements

The movements you can try depend on your equipment and the scene some basic ideas are:

• Vertical panning (typical for trees)
• Horizontal panning
• Circular panning
• Zooming

Circular movements are nice for fisheye views of a forest with the lens pointed straight up or for the opposite effect with the lens pointed 90 degrees down on a flower field or some scene with a lot of contrast.

Camera movements can be fun to try and can help you create a beautiful scene with bad light or when there are distracting elements in the middle of your composition. It’s a simple way to create abstract representations of what you see and if you process them strongly they can be beautiful prints.

Courtesy: Photography Blogger