Zoom Blur Basics Tutorial

Arthur Morris · Aug 6, 2010

At the request of Judy Howle in Out of the Box (http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?69717), below is a free excerpt from "The Guide to Pleasing Blurs" that Denise Ippolito and I are working on right now. We hope to have it finished by the end of August 2010

It will be available through BIRDS AS ART.

I am hoping to do at least one more Antarctica trip before I buy the farm. Several of our landings were at spots that rank right up there with the planet's great wildlife spectacles. I created this image with the handheld Canon 100-400mm IS L lens and the EOS-1Ds MII. For the zoom blur effect, I always use central sensor One-Shot AF and start at the long end, in this case, at 400mm. I usually work at either 1/4 or 1/5 second but here, there was too much light, even at ISO 50, to get slower than 1/8 sec. (Either a polarizer or a neutral density filter would have enabled me to go slower.) When I press the shutter button I zoom the lens out fairly rapidly. It often helps to practice the zooming motion before you make any images so that you can get an idea of where you want to be at your widest. Once you have the motion down pat, make lots of images. Again, each image will be different. Getting a nice zoom blur effect s harder than it might seem; the first few times that you try it you might see little or no effect of the zoom. After a few more attempts you will get the timing of the shutter release down pat. The big key to success is getting the final framing as you want it. And yes, you guessed it: You need to practice and to make lots of images. ISO 50. Evaluative metering +1/3 stop: 1/8 sec. at f/32 in Tv mode.