Join Now
Join ePHOTOzine, the friendliest photography community.
Upload photos, chat with photographers, win prizes and much more for free!
Upgrade to e2
Tired of clicking to see a large version? Upgrade to e2 to browse all photos automatically at their largest size.- View Normal
- Vote
Join to Vote
You must join ePHOTOzine to vote. - Comments
-
It's been a while since I posted anything here. I spent much of the summer in the USA and, since I got back, most of my ePhotozine time has been spent in the critique gallery. Time to get posting again!
I've been spending quite a lot of time in the woods, recently, tramping around and trying to find interesting photographs. This one was inspired by a photo by Ste_Bo that I saw in the critique gallery and an article by Don Smith that I had, coincidentally, read at around the same time.
There's no digital manipulation here, beyond the usual tweaking of levels, curves and saturation. The blur is achieved entirely by moving the camera through the slow-ish exposure. If you want to try this yourself, shutter speeds of between about 1/20s and 1/10s seem to work best. Smoothly raise the camera and press the shutter release as it's moving. Take lots of shots, in different places. You'll probably find that they mostly look the same and, if none stand out, bin the lot! I took about forty shots to get this one and the selection instantly boiled down to either this shot or another very similar one that I took a few moments earlier.
All comments and criticism welcome.
Dave.
Thursday, 16th September, 2010.
50mm, f/2.8, 1/20s, ISO-100.
| Camera: | Canon EOS 400D |
| Lens: | Canon 50mm f/1.4 |
| Recording media: | RAW (digital) |
| Title: | In the woods |
| Username: | 
DRicherby |
| Uploaded: | 7 Oct 2010 - 12:30 PM |
| Tags: | Blur, Esholt, Flowers & plants, Forests, Jerrison wood, Motion blur, Specialist / abstract, Trees, West yorkshire |
| VS Mode Rating |
99 (0% won) These stats show the percentage of wins and the rating score that your photo has achieved. You can go to the VS Mode by clicking on this icon. Signup to e2Signup to e2 to see which photo this has won or lost against in the vs mode |
| Votes: | 47 |
| Modifications Welcome (Upload a Modification) |
Comments
mesmerising work... I think I'd like to have a shot at this myself... nice to see you posting again too.
Al.
A lovely fluid image, Dave; I like this a lot!
Carol
PS: I see that you were a "lucky" winner of the "pigeon poo" camera too!!! Have you used it yet? I haven't as I need to buy some film!!
I do like this Richard, it makes for a fine abstract. As a bit of a novice it is reassuring to hear that it took 40 attempts to get this.
The histogram is heavily bunched to the left and I wondered if this was done deliberately to achieve your desired look?
Anyway, I thought I would try a mod and see what happens. All I have done is a simple level and curves adjustment to increase contrast which I think brings out the texture more. The increased contrast pushed the colours a bit much so I desaturated.
Your feedback would be appreciated.
Phil
Thanks for the mod, Phil!
The original is quite dark and, at the moment, I'm using a laptop that seems to have a rather bright screen so it may be that I misjudged the levels. The darkness was deliberate and, on my screen, I prefer the richness of my version, though I had considered lightening it to give something more like your mod. When I get my usual laptop back, it may well be that I find that my version is too dark, in which case a re-processing will be in order and I imagine I'll end up close to your version. 
One minor thing about your mod is that I find the bright streaks about half-way up the left-hand side to be a bit distracting, now. But it should be fairly straightforward to tweak the curve to stop that happening.
It will be interesting to see what you think on your regular laptop but I still think you will find my version too bright. You are right about those streaks, they do need toning down.
Now you need to get back to the critique gallery and comment on my upload!!
Phil
Something I am looking forward to trying---I read about this in Tony Sweets book FINE ART DIGITAL NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY--- have been waiting for the trees to become more naked-- or rather the brush in front of them to be mowed down---
this is a good reminder for me!
Interesting colours here make this a pleasing image to look at - Chris
Nice creative image, i like it
Good to see you back on here.
Ricky.
There was also an article in last month's Practical Photography (I think, or possibly Digital Photo) on doing this. All of their examples seemed to be in portrait format. Possibly they think it looks better having the motion in the direction of the longest edge of the photo. Gives it some room. Just my guess, as they didn't mention a preference.
Funny, they didn't mention the failure rate though.
Not really my thing, so you won't have any competition from me (as if!!), but I do like your more muted shot. The PP ones were all taken in bright sunlight.
Hehe. So I'm even less original than I thought — preceded by a photo here, an article I saw and an article and a book I didn't see! 
Portrait is a possibility and works well, as Willie's mod shows — as you say, there's more room for the blur. The main reason I avoided it in this case was that the woods were quite dark and panning any higher than this brought in lots of overpoweringly bright streaks of sky at the top of the frame.
I've not managed to get any good autumnal versions of this shot. The wood I was in is mainly conifers but there's a mostly deciduous wood about half an hour's walk from home that I intend visiting again this week. I'll also be going back in the spring when the woods are carpeted with bluebells.
A CC point from the great Dave Richerby, an honour indeed!! Cheers matey.
I wouldn't worry too much about originality. Let's face it. Photography's been going for well over 100 years, so anything you can think of has probably been done before.
It's how you shoot it that matters. Just because an idea's not original, doesn't mean it can't be an improvement. As I said, your's differ from the usual (as far as I've seen) in being muted rather than strong colours & bright lights. So you did bring something different to the party. 
Tried this myself last weekend, failed miserbly! Excellent work wonder what it would look like with a faint glow?
Scott
very interesting image (thank you for help with my upload)
Great shot, works so well. Think I read an article on this in PP recently too.
Thanks for the comments on my images too, very helpful.
Steve
I remember Ste_Bo's image in the Critique gallery. I very much like the abstract feel of this one. Would have liked to have a bit more light on it, but other than that, my kinda image. (Philo's mod ups the levels a tad and this helps imo).
Reminds a lot of the effect I get when I do vertical pans with my Lensbaby at a good bend. That also ends up looking very abstract in nature.
Anne
Add a Comment
ePHOTOzine, the web's friendliest photography community.
Upload photos, chat with photographers, win prizes and much more.
Related Content
Join Our Free Newsletter
Awards
Current Competitions
Olympus 'Portraiture' Competition - Win £1000 Worth Of Gear!
30th April 2013 - 31st May 2013
This month, to celebrate the launch of Olympus' new micro site Olympus Image Space, Olympus are giving you the chance to win £1000 worth of Olympus gear!...
Featured e2 Photo
May's Photo Month
Check out ePHOTOzine's inspirational photo month calendar! Each day click on a window to unveil new photography tips, treats and techniques.
