Hey, it’s Exploring with a Camera time! This month we are continuing our discussion of Artistic Blur, talking about adding blurry effects in post-processing.

My little break from routine, ditching my planned schedule to take a hike with our new dog Zoey yesterday morning, paid off in more ways than one. It was an opportunity to get out of the house and get to know Zoey a bit more, but it was also a foggy morning — wonderful for photography! I didn’t take too many photos, as I was more focused on working with Zoey on the leash, but I did capture a couple. This morning I processed this lovely image of trees in the fog, and it’s serves as an example of creating blur in post-processing for artistic effect.

Post-processing is a great way to get artistic blur, either by enhancing blurry effects we created in-camera or transforming a perfectly focused image into something altogether different. Let’s look at the different possibilities…

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Textures

Artistic Blur is, at some level, about imperfection. One way to add some imperfection is to blend a photograph with a texture. The photograph takes on variations in both color and texture from the image it is blended with. I think this may be the most common way to add artistic blur in post-processing for many of us.

The image of trees in the fog, above, was blended with a couple of different textures as well as an artistic filter, “Chalk” from the AutoPainter II app. Another foggy tree image, below, uses a texture to further obscure the trees in the background. There is also some edge blur and vignetting, adding to the blurry effects.

The blending mode and opacity you choose when you combine a texture will have a strong impact on the final image. Do you find you use the same blending modes all of the time? Experiment with different modes, trying them with different types of textures and images, to see how they work. You can get some fantastically interesting effects just by varying your blending mode.

To use textures, you will need a software program that allows you to blend multiple layers. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements when I’m working on the PC and the Image Blender app on my iPad. You will also need texture images, which you can create yourself or download from the web. Here is a great link to a list of places to find free textures. What’s your favorite source? Share in the comments.

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Multiple Exposure

If you can’t create multiple exposure images in-camera, you can creating them through blending after the fact. You can use either disparate, unrelated images, or similar images. For the tree image below, I blended three slightly shifted images. The clouds behind the tree were moving quickly, so my goal at the time of capture was to keep the tree in a similar place but mainly catch the motion of the clouds relative to the tree. The shift of the location of the tree within the frame made for an interesting form of artistic blur, when blended.

Here is another example of blur created with multiple exposures, although in this case the different exposures were created in post-processing as well. The original image of the tree was processed through the decim8 app, creating different versions where the branches were shifted relative to each other. The different versions were blended back onto the original, to create a digitized, blurry effect.

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Blur, Blur and more Blur

Of course, there are all different types of blurring effects you can do in post processing. The standard allover blur effect is typically achieved using gaussian blur filter. From there, you can find many variations on the “blur” theme.

Gaussian blur, blended back with the original image, is often called “diffused glow.” It creates a very soft, dreamy effect:

Radial Blur which mimics zoom blur captured in camera:

Motion Blur mimics the impact of a long shutter speed with movement:

Edge Blur mimics a foggy or plastic lens:

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Combining Effects

In many cases, combining both in-camera and post-processing blur effects create a wonderful artistic image. They both add different types of imperfections. I often will combine soft, foggy images with a texture, as shown above in a couple of examples. Another combination I like to use is a slow shutter in-camera combined with textures and/or painterly filters, in as the tree image below.

Tree branches blurred with a long exposure, almost become blowing grasses after painterly effects are applied:

The combination of multiple types of blur creates something artistic and truly unique.

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One advantage of blurring effects added in post-processing is the ability to control the blurry effects. You often have options to mask regions of your photo from the effect, change the strength of the effect or move the origination point of directional effects. That can be nice, serving your artistic vision. The disadvantage is the blur can look mechanical because it is applied so consistently. So much for the imperfection that makes artistic blur so great! That’s why you have to try both in-camera and post-processing to create blur, to see which you like best. A combination of the two may even be your favorite way to add artistic blur.

It’s time to experiment! This month I encourage you to try at least one new type of blur in your post-processing, along with reviewing your favorite types of blur already. Share with us the results of your exploration!

Welcome to the first Exploring with a Camera of the new year! Over the last few months, I’ve been very attracted to more impressionistic photographs. I’ve been enjoying them both as an end product that is a photograph, and as the starting material for digital paintings. Since I’ve been exploring how to create these “fuzzy pictures” (as one friend called them), I thought Artistic Blur would be the perfect Exploring with a Camera topic to dive into.

For this exploration, I’m defining “blur” as anything that gives an impression of softness in the edges of the photographic elements. It may not be “blur” as defined technically in a software program like Photoshop. Artistic Blur is creating this softness on purpose, for artistic effect, either in-camera or in post processing. This month, we’ll look at the ways you can create Artistic Blur in-camera. Next month, in Part 2, we’ll cover creating Artistic Blur in post-processing.

There is a fine line between the a good result with Artistic Blur in-camera and a mistake. Blur due to incorrect focus, camera shake or similar problems would usually be considered a mistake and not an artistic effect. When a photograph is intended to be sharp, it should be sharp. If it’s slightly blurry, usually it just looks wrong. Intentionally creating blur to look artistic takes a lot more effort, and trial and error, than the type of blur you typically get as a mistake.

There are quite a few ways to intentionally create blur in-camera. For all of these, experimentation is the key to success. Playing around with camera settings and approach will be required for each subject and situation to find something that works well. Sometimes you’ll get something great on the first try. Don’t worry if that doesn’t happen! Be prepared for many, many failures to get one photograph where it works. But when it works — WOW! It’s wonderful.

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Long Shutter Speeds

Movement during a long shutter speed, either of the camera or in the surroundings, is the most common way to create blur. You can move the camera with your hands, zoom during exposure or capture movement happening around you. Using shutter priority or manual mode, set the camera to a long shutter speed. (If you don’t know how to do this in your camera, download my free Digital Photography Basics eBook to learn more.) You will need to experiment with what shutter speed gives the “right” amount of blur for an artistic look, but start at 1/6s of a second and go from there, adjusting up or down as needed. I’ve found that shutter speeds shorter than 1/6 will tend to look more like mistakes than something intentionally created.

Below are a few ways to generate the movement during the exposure. I’m giving the camera settings here to help you understand how I created the image. I’ve noted if it’s a mobile image; more on that later.

In addition to long shutter speeds, some cameras or apps have the ability to overlay multiple exposures in-camera. When you move slightly between each exposure, you reduce the definition and overlay multiple edges in the final image. My dSLR doesn’t have this feature and I’ve yet to play with any apps that do this, so no examples for you! More on combining multiple exposures in post-processing in Part 2 next month.

Mobile Photography Note: You don’t have the control of camera settings on a camera phone like you do with a traditional camera, so you have to find apps that allow you to achieve the same effects. For the iPhone 5 images above, I used the Slow Shutter Cam app.

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Out of Focus

Intentionally unfocusing can create dreamy effects! Turn your lens to manual focus, and then play with different amounts of “out-of-focus-ness” (not sure if there is a term for that). Also adjust your aperture setting. Both focus and aperture settings will affect the size of the bokeh generated by any point light sources or highlights, like these Christmas lights.

I haven’t played with using out-of-focus blur to create artistic images in my iPhone yet, so I think that’s my personal challenge for the next couple of weeks as we explore this topic. Check back! I’ll share what I learn.

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Shooting “Through”

Another way to create in-camera artistic blur is to photograph through something else that provides the blur. This can be through rainy windows, atmospheric effects like mist and fog, or even something held over the camera lens, like plastic. A few examples:

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Reflections

Reflections can be a great source of artistic blur! When you have water on a surface, you can get distortion from the underlying surface and elements, often creating a blurry effect. I love this! Any rainy day you can find me running around in parking lots with trees, looking for interesting images in the puddles.

Glass also provides reflections which can be an interesting source of blur, basically another form of shooting “through.” While the camera is in focus, the out-of-focus reflection creates an interesting interaction in this image.

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So what do you think? Are you ready to explore creating Artistic Blur with your camera? If you haven’t done this before, have a great time experimenting, and then come back here and share your results. Feel free to share any new or archive shots of artistic blur created in-camera, through the end of the month.

Now, go! Explore!