CHALLENGE2:
IN-CAMERAMOVEMENT
Thefirstchallengehadtakenupquitea lot
of time,despitethequickincomingtide,so
beforeweheadedintotownfora biteto eat
priorto thesunsetchallenge,I suggested
nowwouldbethebesttimeto trysomeICM
images.Thelightwassofterandilluminating
thebeachmuchmoreevenlythanearlieron,
sowewalkedcloserto thepierandfounda
spotwheretherewerenopeople.
ICMworkswellat a rangeofdifferent
shutterspeedsdependingontheoverall
effectyou’reaimingfor,butsinceChrishad
nevertriedthetechniquebeforeI suggested
thatheswitchhiscameratoshutter-priority
modeat 1/10sec– a shutterspeedthat
alwaysactsasa greatstartingpointforthis
technique.In shutter-prioritymode,the
cameratakescareoftheaperturesoall
Chriswouldneedtodois adjustexposure
compensationasnecessary.
Chrisproveda naturalwithICMandit was
onlytooobviousthathewasenjoyinghis
firstattemptat thetechnique.Hebeganby
shootinghorizontalpansof thesea,which
is themostbasicformof ICMandpossibly
oneof themostpopular,too.Christooka
numberof shotslikethisandat onepoint
triedattachinghissix-stopNDfilterbut
foundthismadeexposurestoolong.Atthis
point,I suggestedheremovetheNDandtry
thecamerarotationtechniqueusingthepier
itselfasthefocalpoint.Thiswouldproduce
a completelydifferentresultwitha more
identifiablesubjectin thecentreof theframe
withmoremotionblurtowardstheedges.Within taking just a handful of frames, it
wasclear that this approach was working
welland Chris continued to fire off multiple
frames. ICM is very much a technique of
chance, and no matter how experienced
youare at using it, you’ll need to take many
shots to obtain one that you’re happy with.
So,with this in mind, we remained in our
chosen position for half an hour or so while
I suggested different camera movements
toChris with the intention of achieving a
variety of results so he’d have more options
tochoose from once he was back home
andin front of his computer.
We assessed the many images Chris
hadtaken on the LCD screen and scrolling
through it was clear that he had a number
ofshots that showed potential, among the
many that inevitably didn’t work. Happy that
'challenge two' had been both swift and
successful, we decided to head into town to
grabsome fish and chips so we wouldn’t be
hungry while shooting sunset. We set off up
thesteps talking about ICM and how Chris
would like to try the technique more in the
future because he’d caught the bug.The (^) Photo Workshop
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72 Digital SLR Photography December 2019
CONTROLLED BLUR
With the right combination of shutter
speed and intentional camera movement,
the result is an impressionistic delight.
Exposure: 0.5 seconds at f/22 (ISO 200)