MOTION-BLUR BACKGROUNDS

Jason Parnell-Brookes shows you how to capture blurred scenery outside a moving vehicle using a suction-mounted camera rig

When you’re shooting longer exposures it’s necessary to keep the camera completely steady while shooting, and this usually means shooting on a tripod to avoid camera shake. If the camera is still during a longer exposure, so too will be anything in the frame that’s static, while anything moving is blurred. However, it’s possible to keep a moving object completely sharp while the background is blurred during a long exposure, so long as the camera is moving at the same speed and direction as the object.

To show you how this works, we attached a DSLR to a sports car using the Hague SM11 Telescopic Camera Suction Mount Rig (£290 / $400, from www.haguecamerasupports.com). By using powerful suction pads to attach a rigid metal boom to the body of the car, we can ensure that our camera moves in perfect unison with the vehicle. This means that longer shutter speeds will blur the background while we’re driving, but keep the car in sharp focus.