I received a beautiful basket of petunias today. The colors were unique, with some having a slight brown undertone. The basket itself had a full roundy moundy look -a term we used in the florist industry for a typical round centerpiece arrangement. The first thing that came to mind was to do an in-camera blur effect. So that’s what I did.
Both were shot using a slow shutter speed of 0.6sec. with my Sony 200-600mm lens set on manual focus. Yes, my 200-600mm lens. I had just returned home from scouting my local beaches looking for Piping Plovers. So, I decided to give it a try, I had to take the image stabilization off in order to get a blur-even at this slow speed. It just proved to me how effective the stabilization on the Sony lens is.
In addition to a slow shutter speed, I moved my camera slightly in different directions until I liked the result. The camera movement does not need to be great, especially at this shutter speed I was using. I also added an ever slight zoom to the second image to add some depth. Lots of factors contribute to the pleasing outcome of an intentionally blurred image. If you would like to learn more about how to do in-camera blurs, check out my newest blur book titled “A Guide to Creative Blurs” sold only through A Creative Adventure.
