Have you ever thought about experimenting with Shutter Speeds on your camera? You can achieve some interesting effects by using slower than normal shutter speeds. Unfortunately not all camera’s are able to do it but most SLR’s and higher end compact camera’s can. You will need a tripod or stable surface to keep your camera nice and still.
You can achieve some very interesting patterns and effects by using slower shutter speeds than normally required to capture the action. Lower light conditions are usually required to achieve the slow shutter speed effects. The image above was taken from a stair case at twilight in a large crowd.
The lower light enabled me to use a slow shutter speed to blur the action. The faster movements are more blurred and ghost like and the movements not quite as fast, have slightly less blur to them.
You may have seen a similar technique used on photographs of moving water, such as a waterfall or stream. It can produce some very interesting dreamy looking effects.
The image to the right is a photo I did late in the afternoon of a small waterfall at a nearby park. I used a shutter speed of 15-30 seconds to create the effect of the softly blurred movement of the water. Because there is no movement in the rocks they remain nice and sharp.
You can also combine slower shutter speeds with a burst of flash to show both movement and capture detail in an image.
The following image is at a Christmas Concert at twilight. My son had a light up candle that had various colours within the light. We had a wonderful time experimenting with shutter speeds of around 1/10th of a second, and using a burst of flash to capture more than just the light trail.
The slower shutter speed enabled the light trail to be captured, and then a quick burst of flash allowed the image of my son at the end of the exposure to be nice and sharp. The light trail shows because it is brighter than the surroundings and it appears on the image first, with the darker elements needing the help of the flash to be seen on the image. The quick burst means it is nice and sharp.
You can do some wonderful light trails just using the slower exposure without the flash. Because the bright object such as this candle or sparklers is so much brighter than the surroundings, it makes a trail on your image leaving the rest of the exposure dark. Experimenting with shutter speeds is a lot of fun. I encourage you to do it, because it teaches you a lot about the effects of light on your images.
Beautiful whites with splashes of red and shabby with an altered art flair. The Be My Valentine Digital Scrapbook Kit is perfect for scrapping your loved ones, sweetie, best friend or baby. Gorgeous and romantic hearts, altered paper elements, chic stenciling and dreamy clouds. The Be My Valentine Digital Scrapbook Kit is available in my Etsy store and Clikchic Designs store.
Dreaming of White is now available in my Etsy Store. Dreaming of White features beautiful winter tones with splashes of red to add warmth and wonder. Lovely Rowan Berry Branches and Wreaths, beautiful icy elements for scrapping your winter and Christmas photos. Dreaming of White is available in my Etsy store and Clikchic Designs store.
You can produce some interesting selective blur effects with the Lens Blur filter in Photoshop. It is a technique originally created with a specialized camera and sometimes used in advertising images. Following is a quick tutorial on how to create a similar Lens Blur effect in Photoshop. Photoshop gives us a lot more control after the image is taken and how the blur is applied. It is a very effective technique great for emphasising a focal point or drawing the eye to a specific area of your photo.
First, create a selection on you photograph with the Elliptical Marquee tool. (situated on the rectangular marquee button).
Now feather the selection using Feather Selection in the Select – Modify – Feather Selection.
Type in 80 as a feathering range. (can vary depending on photo size)
Click on ok. Your selection may not change much on the screen but it will now be a feathered selection.
Click on Filter – Blur – Lens Blur. This will bring up a window for adjusting your lens blur settings.
Within this window you can adjust your settings. Select invert so that the outside of your subject is blurred. Below are the settings I used, you can adjust yours and experiment with your own settings to get an effect you are happy with.
And here is the final image. I love this effect and I am sure you will find many uses for it as well.
The Merry BRRR Christmas Digital Scrapbook Kit Clip Art features beautiful rich and warm tones are perfect to warm you up through winter and prepare you for the festive season. Get your Christmas cards ready and last years Thanksgiving and Christmas photos scrapped with this versatile and ornate digital scrapbook kit. Merry BRRR is now available in my Etsy store.
Check out some layouts I have done with Merry Brrr
Each month at DSP I hold a Graphically Challenged Challenge! It is a great way to get those creative juices flowing to make graphic style or blendy layouts. I have always loved doing ‘blendy’ layouts and there are several Tutorials at DSP to help you out. Here is one I wrote on using Blend modes in Photoshop. Here are some tutorials on doing graphic style layouts for various different programs. Completing Your First Graphic-Style Page [PS] [PSP] [PSP12] [DIP]
If you want to give graphic style layouts ago, these tutorials are a great place to start. Experimenting with blend modes can bring an extra dimension to your digital scrapbook layouts.
For the monthly Graphically Challenged I usually post an inspiration piece or tutorial to get you started on the challenge. For November the challenge is to incorporate hearts into your layout.
How gorgeous is this inspiration??? I love it’s grungy goodness!
This is my take on this months inspiration and topic. Not quite the bokeh effect shown on the inspiration piece but I loved the idea of blended hearts of the layout.
I used a background paper from my Citrus Funk Page Kit and hearts from my Mocha Dreams Page kit, but used lots of blend modes so they don’t quite look like they do in the kits!
Like the idea of blendy style or graphic layouts? Check out the November Graphically Challenged at DSP!
I had lots of fun doing the Digital Scrapbook Day Speed Scrap marathon today. I managed to do three layouts which is more than I normally do in a week, actually 2 weeks!!! I really need to do more speed scraps, it is such a great way to get some layouts done! Anyway, I thought I would share what I got done with you.
The first layout I did used this as the inspiration piece, so my layout was a loosely used inspiration for this one. I used my Tweet Chic Digital Scrapbook Kit to make the layout with. I think it took around 38 minutes all up.
The next one I did was for my scheduled speed scrap. I had already chosen the inspiration piece and had an idea of what photo I wanted to use once I chose the inspiration so it was easier for me to do it quickly. I find that finding the photos is the most time consuming part, especially when you have thousands and thousands of them on your hard drive. I have started tagging the photos I want to scrap so they are easier to find when I need them.
This is the inspiration piece I chose, I loved the word art and loved how it formed a ‘line’ down the middle, although I did adjust the idea for my own layout. After choosing the piece I remembered this photo of my son being a frog and thought of the Galoomp song, what better words to use for the word art?
I had a lot of fun doing this layout and have had the song in my head all day!! I used one of the papers from my Monodrama Digital Scrapbook Kit and changed the blend mode on the photo to bring the texture through from the background underneath. I also used some grunge brushes to soften the edge of the photo under the word art and the clone tool to add some remnants of the concrete print under it as well where the photo ended.
I did this one in 27minutes! I guess it helps to know the inspiration ahead of time so you can plan the photo you want to use.
For the next scheduled speedscrap I did this was the inspiration. I found this one tough to think of something at first, but had a browse through my photos to scrap and found some I wanted to use. Another loose use of the inspiration, but hey that is the way I roll. he he! I once again used my Monodrama Digital Scrapbook Kit. I keep coming back to this kit so I think it would have to be my all time favourite kit to scrap with!
If you have never tried a speed scrap, I totally recommend it to get those creative juices going.
This is my adorable 3 year old niece being silly at the park. I had so much fun doing a similar layout of my daughter that I just had to do another page packed with flowers.
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