Helpful Hints/D.I.Y.: Is a fuzzy old world: London Blurred , an ongoing study!

[Ivan Garcia]

This is London's Bayswater district.
The image was taken last night, is intentionally blurred and is part of an ongoing project.
I hope you like it.

Canon EOS 1Ds MKIII + EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS @ 60mm f/14 - 25 sec exposure- ISO 50

Please feel free to comment in ways to improve my blurring technique.. this is an ongoing goal for me so I am open to all suggestions to make it the best I can.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Ways of getting Creative Blur in a Photograph!

This is London's Bayswater district.
The image was taken last night, is intentionally blurred and is part of an ongoing project.
I hope you like it.

Canon EOS 1Ds MKIII + EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS @ 60mm f/14 - 25 sec exposure- ISO 50

Please feel free to comment in ways to improve my blurring technique.. this is an ongoing goal for me so I am open to all suggestions to make it the best I can.

I like the project. The lower part of the picture is especially intriguing, creating a mystery of what might be there. I had initial reservations about the bright lights which demand so much attention. Still, these might make the unknowns in the darker parts of the picture even more impressive. I will return to this later and deal with the confounding parameter of composition in this which will help to control the relative importance of your subjects.

Blurring the Photograph: There are many ways of getting blur and each has its own characteristics. Some of these might mask others and may only bee evident in large versions of images. You can always blur images in software, but lets leave this for the moment and just deal with getting the image recorded blurred at the focus plane.

1. Diffraction: With such a fine sensor you are likely resolving the diffraction caused by the tiny aperture. This should yield a fine subtle blur to a sharply focused picture. If you are going to do this, the depth of field is now too deep for a general blur effect to be seen as a small size print!
   
   To see this blur, one would need a 100% cut out. If it's not evident at this magnification, then it wont be seen in a small size print. So this method of blur is going to be, to my estimation, dependent on output size and viewing distance.
   
   
2. Misfocus: Now one can focus on a nearer object, and add more blur, due to getting objects out of focus. Likely, then, the diffraction blur will now be lost.
   
   
3. Optics: The wider the aperture, the more shallow the depth of field. what's not in focus will be blurred. There are classic, (and unfortunately, costly), lenses which are designed to give blurred images with special character. These lenses were created to soften the sharp focus of the increasingly brilliant optics provided to photographers at the beginning of the 20th Century. People didn't want to be seen accurately, but rather in a soft glow. Some of these lenses has inserts with multiple holes. Others like the Pinkerton and Smith Visual Quality or Hermangis, Soft Focus, from France, relied on a large aperture, perfectly ground center of the lens and the periphery designed to put hard light into the bright parts of the focused image, but slightly out of focus.
   
   Jim Galli is a master user of these beauties.
   
   
4. Cheap lenses: Use scratched cheap optics.
   
   
5. Sand paper plastic lens: Want to get in a blur of the object and a mask of indefinite cloud of fog, try that!
   
   
6. Zone plate/mesh/pinhole:Replace the lens of your camera with a lens cap, (available commercially) already fitted with a zone plate. This consists of concentric black rings of black on a clear plastic film; a series of clear holes on black or vice vace. Expect to pat $14-45 for these.
   
   
7. Movement:, use a longer exposure and chose the character of the movement and its periodicity to attain the character you want, crude and directional or fine and subtle. For this, a drink or two beforehand, might be helpful, LOL:

• Handhold
• Swing/rotate the camera during exposure
• Put your cell phone on vibrate attached to the camera with an elastic band, (I just thought of that, LOL).
  

I trust that others will add references/modify the quick outline I have made so that this will be a nice resource.

Thanks for including us in your long term quest. This has great potential for everyone.

Asher

Ivan, I'll move this to "Riskit!" as this is a serious long term personal project around your own vision.

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Turn off IS unless you want several sharp images within the blur. It tries to correct through out the exposure.

Mike

 

[Ivan Garcia]

Hello Asher.

Wow! what an impressive and thoughtful response, thank you.

At the moment I am using the "Movement" technique. This is the technique I am more inclined to be using but, I have taken several of your points and will try a few to see what will best serve my vision. For now I really like the vibrating phone idea.

The small aperture was a necessity of sorts as I needed the exposure to be on the other side of 20 seconds and I didn't have an ND filter. The lengthy exposure helps with making the ghostly images of people moving in and out the frame a must for my projected vision.
The project will involve taking blurred images of major London landmarks in a way that they are still recognisable.

I will be posting images in this tread regularly to keep a record of my progress.

@ Mike.

Good Idea, I did have IS on for this image (I was slightly tipsy and forgot to switch it off).I shall make a note of turning IS off for future images.
Keep the ideas coming I am open to all suggestions.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Hi Ivan,

I've been thinking a lot about your photograph with movement. It seems to be that it demands for what is there to be shown in a different way. Here's my approach which is brighter and makes more of the mysterious center where the figures are Brueghel sketches just where the figures might be put! The top was cropped of as it takes away from the lower balance, left to right.

Ivan Garcia "London Blurred: Bayswater"​

Hope you like this,

Asher

 

[Mike Shimwell]

I'd be really interested to see how this works in print. The medium is often different to the screen shot, but I can imagine it making an interesting piece of art.

Mike

 

[Ivan Garcia]

Hi Asher.
Thank you very much for taking the time to work on the image.
I really like what you have done, the lighter approach really brings out the ghostly figures. Also, the frame you have used adds impact and presents the image beautifully.
I will be working on this series over the coming months, I shall keep you posted on my progress.

Mike.
Thank you for praising my work.
I think this has potential, and I am very excited about working on this project. As I said I will be posting some images here as I work towards refining the original idea.

 

[Mike Shimwell]

Ivan

I look forward to seeing this work progress.

I am somewhat amused at the idea that you may need to wander around London 'slightly tipsy' brandishing a 1Ds3 - it should help with the motion blur though

Mike

 

[Ivan Garcia]

Right.. I've just seen Alain's work. It looks like he beat me to it.
Let me assure you all... I had no previous knowledge of what Alain was up to.
Alain.
If you are not happy with me doing this series, I will comply and stop the study.

PS: Asher.
Did you get my PM yesterday?

 

[Asher Kelman]

Right.. I've just seen Alain's work. It looks like he beat me to it.
Let me assure you all... I had no previous knowledge of what Alain was up to.
Alain.
If you are not happy with me doing this series, I will comply and stop the study.

PS: Asher.
Did you get my PM yesterday?

Ivan,

Your job is to express your own ideas into the photographs you want. That engraving into the picture must be done according to your own preferences for expression using whatever tools you find appropriate. I cannot fathom how you might imagine that Alain would the slightest differences in this view! He has his own style that is not in any way in competition with anyone else's!

BTW, blur being valued in images is almost as old as photography! Once the image could be made sharp and clear, people realized that maybe, that definition was too hard. Some obfuscation was need for mystery, freedom of thought, dreams and beauty!

Asher

P.S. I received your PM and answered it!