I have always been a bit intrigued by images of birds and other wildlife that show the subject blurred and the background streaked to indicate movement. These images can be beautiful when done correctly but it can take some knowledge and lots of practice. You even need to be a bit lucky at times, but I always say that luck is just preparation meeting timing. It is a technique that is not just for birds but can also be applied to other wildlife and water.When creating Pano or movement Blur images the one most common factor that we require is a slow shutter speed.

 

This means that we will need to be shooting in low light conditions. Low light gives us the one most important factor in creating these images and is almost a must in most shooting scenarios. You can accomplish these types of images in light that is stronger but you have to introduce the use of neutral density filters to offset the effect the brighter light will have on achieving the required slow shutter speed. You can purchase Neutral Density Filters in different strengths, for example, a 0.9 strength neutral density filter blocks three stops of light and is an ideal choice for many circumstances. There are also variable Neutral Density Filters which allow you to change the strength of the filter (the amount of light stops being blocked) by simply turning the adjustable ring on the end of the filter.

 

A fine example of one such product is the Singh-Ray Vari Neutral Density Filter. This amazing filter allows you to vary the strength of light from 1 2/3 stops all the way to a full 8 stops of light. It also has a built in warming polarizer. A warming polarizer will soften the intensity of light.

 

Panning Blurs are by far the most common type of blur photography attempted and sometimes successfully created by photographers from beginners to professionals. This technique requires a very steady hand and the ability to find your subject in the viewfinder and smoothly track the subject while shooting. Panning requires a steady hand and smooth tracking of the subject. It is really similar to regular bird in flight shooting techniques, just find the subject in your viewfinder (remember the one eye open that is not looking in the viewfinder to help speed up successful tracking of your subject).

 

You should have the subject acquired and already be tracking the movement before you decide to press the shutter button.Which shutter speed to use will depend on a number of factors and how much blur you are attempting to create, the faster the shutter speed, the less blur you will achieve in the final image.

 

The angle of approach, distance and the speed of the subject will all go into determining which shutter speed to use when making a good blur image. When your subject is farther away from the background the shutter speed can be a bit higher than when the subject is close to the background. This is because the more distance between the subject and background the easier it is for the camera to render the background blurry.Usually, and I emphasize usually, we want to try to render the subjects head with some degree of sharpness, allowing the viewer to see the eyes and or some detail in the subjects face and head area, leaving the body and background out of focus.

 

We can create very interesting and sometimes dramatic motion blurs without having the head or eyes in focus but typically, a motion blur is more successful when there is a degree of sharpness in the eyes and head.Let’s look at the functions of creating the motion blur image.

 

We will need to have our cameras in the Manual Setting to have control over our Shutter Speed, F-Stop and ISO. The shutter speeds that you need will vary, likely from about 1/8 of a second to 1/60 of a second. It sometimes will require some trial and error on your part to get the correct shutter speed. Since we want to keep the shutter speed low, we will want to keep the f stop higher, allowing less light to the viewfinder. Don’t worry; we are shooting blurs so this additional F-Stop will not create too much depth of field. Also, keep the ISO at its lowest setting again, to let less light onto the sensor. Once we have selected the shutter speed, F-Stop and set the ISO all we need now is our subject to fly in front of us so we can track it, acquire focus and fire a few bursts. I find that the best focus point to use is the single center focus point.

 

You may need to adjust this point depending on how large your subject is in the frame but typically, the center point works best. As you track, acquire focus by tapping the shutter release until you see it lock focus and then fire a burst of frames while continuously tracking the subject. Do not stop panning; follow the subject right through while shooting all the while trying to keep the center focus point on the bird’s eyes.

 

Stand with your feet at least shoulder width apart to help stabilize yourself while following the subject.Remember to check your exposure and make sure that you have your settings correct not to over or under expose your image. This may take some tweaking the setting of the shutter speed, F-Stop and ISO.Do not expect to have a whole lot of “keepers”. This is a very challenging type of bird photography but when you get it right, it can be a very pleasing result.