ADD BLUR TO PORTRAITS

James Paterson shows you how to use intentional camera movements and lighting effects to produce stylish, partially blurred portraits

Most photographic blur effects occur when the subject moves during the exposure – think of blurred water or clouds, or a fast-moving subject such as a speeding car.

Of course, for these kinds of effects a perfectly stationary camera is essential – but what about if we flip things around, so that the subject remains still and the camera moves instead? With the right setup, we can create streaks of blur across our image.

For this technique we quickly move the camera during a long exposure of around a third of a second to blur parts of the subject. But that’s the simple part. The slightly more complicated aspect is the lighting. The aim here is to light our subject partially with flash, and partially with continuous lighting. This way, the flash gives us sharp details, while the continuous light lets us blur parts of the body.

We’re basically making two exposures in one – the first is exposed with the flash, which lights the face and arms, and the second is the ambient exposure, in which the camera movement works with the continuous lighting to give us our blur in the lower part of the frame. It’s a wonderfully unpredictable technique that will inevitably require a little trial and error to get right, but the results can be fantastic.

THE SETUP MIX FLASH AND CONTINUOUS LIGHTING

1 FLASH

The key to this technique is mixing flash with continuous lighting. We’ve used three flashguns here – one in front and two behind the subject. You can use any flash setup you like, although keep in mind that the blur will show more clearly if the flash does not spill onto the dark background.

2 DARK ROOM