Tabi basa everyone! Today’s topic would be on the recent viral photographer that sparked a lot of discussion in local photographer community. However, it is impossible to not share bits of the information about the picture. To avoid triggering anyone, I won’t share the name of that particular photographer. What I want to emphasis here is the learnings.

What Happened?

On 19 June 2022, there was a photographer posted an artwork he called Motion Blur Photography in Malaysian Photographers Community (Official) Facebook Page. There was a lot of people commented on his artwork, among it includes people claiming his artwork induces vertigo, dizziness instead of breaking the rule.

The viral motion blur photography, inviting a lot of criticism.

All of photographers in MPC collectively agree that he was actually trying to imitate Olga Karlovac’s artwork as shown below. But her artwork is totally a different league. You can see Olga’s work in this snapshot below from her Instagram. It is something that we call Impressionist, with motion blur as its main creative method.

Olga Karlovac’s Impressionist Artwork

What’s The Issue Then?

The issue was with his attitude when he responds to the people who comments. He is not open to feedbacks. Not all feedbacks are being accepted openly by him, especially by those who said that his artwork needs more practice and compositioning in framing.

Some senior even commented that there were not rules broken because the one who posted it didn’t even know the rule though he claim that he is breaking the rules.

A lot of people can tell that he is struggling, but he fails to recognise that he needs a lot of work. Instead, he told others that photography is subjective. It is as wide as the ocean. But one senior has a good comeback to that. Because it is as wide as the ocean, a lot of people are drifting away.

How Does He Should Respond?

For me, when someone give honest feedbacks about my artwork, I will thank them, especially when they are my seniors or someone that I admire in photography. I admit that I have a long way to improve in photography. It is also one way for us to be

Let’s Talk About Motion Blur In Photography

In photography, motion blur is considered purposeful blurring of an object in motion in a photo to convey a story. It is widely accepted as a great way to capture movement in a photography.

It can be seen in street photography (a person running in the street), sports photography (player running across the field) or nature photography (bird in motion).

Here are the samples that I have taken:

Aseania Langkawi Dancers In Action. It actually an impressive fire show. But for this post, I only show the motion blur part. Look at the trails of flaming particles.

Offshore Running Man

How To Create Motion Blur?

For this, you will need to fully understand your gears. I don’t care what you are using because fundamentally, it is the same.

Let’s talk about the three main ways to create motion blur, i.e. via:

1. Aperture Control – Amount of light entering the sensor (from 100% to 2%) – the smaller the aperture size, the less light will hit the sensor, then you can create motion. I usually will play with aperture smaller than f/5.6.
2. Shutter Speed Control – Sensor’s duration of exposure to light. Use slower shutter speed. Less than 1/120.
3. ISO Control – Sensitivity to light (e.g. from 100% (base ISO) to 40,000%). Use lower ISO numbers. Less sensitive = better motion blur.

There will be some school of thought that will tell you about intentional camera movement as well, such as spinning the camera, use zoom lens, use tele lens etc. Well, to each their own.

You can also create motion blur in photoshop if you wish to do so. It is possible.

THE GOLDEN RULE of motion blur

Firstly, master the rule of motion blur: anything that moves while the shutter is open will blur.

That’s all that you need to know. But there is a catch.

DANGERS IN MOTION BLUR

If you notice what I have written above, the motion blur should be purposeful. It is not really easy to create a purposeful motion blur, although in theory, it is very easy to create a motion blur. One has to be careful with what they are doing, and when they are doing motion blur. For me, the rule of thumb is to ensure the face of the subject is in focus. Other part of the body can be made blurry. Do refer to the offshore running man picture above.

FINAL WORD

However, whatever I have written here is not the absolute rule. There are literally tonnes of ways to create motion blur, with countless variation that you can pick from the sky. You can also create from the  It basically means that you and I appreciate different things in photography. Feel free to create your own version of motion blur. You can do it. Most importantly, have fun.

Your Tukang Rantek,
Claudius Weson
Follow me on Twitter & LinkedIn: claudiusweson.

Note:
1. Claudius is a freelance photographer based in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia.
2. “Tukang Rantek” means “photographer” in Bidayuh Serian language.