Creating Blur/static effect

NyGregg · Jan 5, 2012

At some point in the past, I saw a photo of a vehicle where, (let's say it was a car) the front end of the car was static (frozen) and the remainder of the car and background was blurred from the car's motion. I am trying to figure out how it's done. I have a Nikon D7000 so I should be able to do just about anything. Can anyone tell me whether it was done by adjusting the curtain, if so how? Also, what I am hoping to do is photograph a train at night and capture the locomotive still and the cars it's pulling blurred. I can start out doing a bunch of daytime exposures to learn and then progress to the night. I also would like to do a similar shot with a car at night and then capture the tail light trails. Any suggestions are really appreciated..Thanks.

Josh66 · Jan 5, 2012

NyGregg said:
I have a Nikon D7000 so I should be able to do just about anything.

If only it were that easy...

Can you find an example of what you're talking about?

NyGregg · Jan 5, 2012

I've tried but am not sure about the right wording to search for the type I am looking for. It almost seems like a type of Long Shutter and Panning combined...not sure though

2WheelPhoto · Jan 5, 2012

youtube search on "panning technique tutorial" <---daytime

front/rear flash curtain <---night stuff

Rephargotohp · Jan 5, 2012

Long(er) exposure that takes the movement of the Vehicle from One end of the frame to almost the other, Then, with your Flash, Set to Second/Rear Curtain so it stops the motion of the vehicle at the end of it Motion (Shutter will open, capture, capture capture, flash fires shutter closes)

You may also need to add panning to the mix, But first try without.

The trick is, You need to find an aperture that gives you the exposure time you need. And then Have your Flash Power equal that Aperture

DiskoJoe · Jan 6, 2012

2WheelPhoto said:
youtube search on "panning technique tutorial" <---daytime

front/rear flash curtain <---night stuff

Yeah, panning.

NyGregg · Jan 6, 2012

Rephargotohp said:
Long(er) exposure that takes the movement of the Vehicle from One end of the frame to almost the other, Then, with your Flash, Set to Second/Rear Curtain so it stops the motion of the vehicle at the end of it Motion (Shutter will open, capture, capture capture, flash fires shutter closes)

You may also need to add panning to the mix, But first try without.

The trick is, You need to find an aperture that gives you the exposure time you need. And then Have your Flash Power equal that Aperture

I just re-read your response and it made me think of a question...

The way you are suggesting above...if I photographed the train coming at me, to capture the locomotive frozen and the cars blurred...wouldn't your method give me the reverse effect because the locomotive would pass through and it would freeze the cars instead?????

2WheelPhoto · Jan 6, 2012

keep it simple.

Rephargotohp · Jan 6, 2012

With second/rear curtain, The flash fires just before the Shutter Closes, Which is the opposite of what normally happens.

So lets set up a senario, We have a camera on a tripod and the lens takes in a 12 Foot section of side walk in front of us. There is suffcient ambient light to light the scene with a long exposure.

We have a woman on the left of the scene walking from Left to right. We have an exposure time long enough for her to walk almost to the end of those 12 feet

In a convention set up (first Curtain Flash) If we made this exposure, You would see the flash Freeze her when she starts walking and then ghost trails IN FRONT of her. This looks unnatural.

By using second Curtain, You will see a ghost trail of her all across the scene and if you time it right just as she gets to the end, the flash fires freezing her at the end, with Ghost Trails now behind her. Which will look more realistic

Now say you were shooting that train, Depending on your angle to the train ( you probably don't want to shoot head on to it, but depending on how much ambient light and the length of the exposure, You "Probably" will see ghosting of the engine's headlight behind it, and then blurred cars behind the locomotive.

It's going to take some experimentation, t find the right shutter speed. You need to frame a fixed length and then how long does it take the train to travel that distance, and then what Aperture and ISO will expose correctly the light at that time.

You should probably work on getting a good Motion Blur shot and then add the flash.

Not to disagree with Panning, But what panning does, is Freezes an Object in motion and then show motion on the Background. I'm not sure that is the effect you were talking about. But I could be wrong

Rephargotohp · Jan 6, 2012

And just remeber that duinrgbthe exposure your mirror will be locked up so you can view the scene thrugh the view finder so you need to pick marks on the scene itself that you know are in the frame of the lens as start and stop points

NyGregg · Jan 6, 2012

Rephargotohp: THANKS so much.. Perfect, great information and easy to understand. I really appreciate you taking the time to go into detail. It really makes it easy and now, I have a new trick I want to try thanks to you!! I think your woman scenario is a cool idea. Almost like she is walking and vanishes! That's gonna be awesome! Yes, you were right on, I am going to go experiment in the day to learn and then apply your ideas at night after I learn by trial. Timing, exposure, etc. I agree with your last statement as well. I plan on doing panning with some subjects as well. I just wasn't sure if it applied to my "dream" shot.

On a different subject.... I'm not into forums much. Is there a way to follow you or add you as a "friend" type of thing so I can learn more from you? Ya really helped me out and I'm excited to go play with my new camera now...have a great day.

Rephargotohp · Jan 6, 2012

Gregg, you foundthe friend part so

I think this really could eb great fun and it is something that many people NEVER do. So you could really have a lot of fun with it and make images that people rarely show. I can't tell you positively the results with a train because I have never tried that. People or cars I have. But you may even end up with something you never thought of. Which really is the fun part of this all.

If after this, you want to try something even more unique, Look into "Stroboscopic" effects with your flash. People NEVER use this feature (it fires multiple flash at timed intervals) which stops motion at differenet points acrosss the scene.

Go experiment and most of all have fun, be creative.

NyGregg · Jan 6, 2012

Cool.
I am planning on trying the unusual. I live where George Eastman is from, and Kodak. So, needless to say, there are a lot of photographers here. We also have a world renowned photography school, School of Photography at the Rochester Institute of Technology. RIT does this thing every year called the "Big Shot" where they have a number of cameras set up at night and they have hundreds of people come and "paint" the object with light. It's coming up soon, so I will go to that to learn more. Should be fun, some of their past results are amazing!

Big Shot

Edsport · Jan 6, 2012

There's a couple ways to get this blur effect, one is to keep camera stationary and long shutter speed then a flash to freeze the moment using rear curtain sync, the other way is panning but as stated above, panning blurs the background/forground...