Impressionist reflections: new technique

[DanK]

I've dabbled a little with ICM (intentional camera movement) to create vaguely impressionist paintings. This evening I tried an alternative. I took some shots of reflections of fall leaves, bracketing two shots, on a day with a bit of wind. I took one pair and did an HDR merge in Lightroom with no masking of areas that didn't align properly--essentially, letting the wind do ICM for me.

Here's my first image of that type. Would love to get C&C.

Best to view in lightbox/lytebox/whatever.

[James G]

Dan, I love the concept.. would never have occured to me to try the way you have. Definitely in my toolbox from now on.

I also like the choice of suject, and the actual effect you have generated. I suppose, were it my shot, I might expeiment with an additional blur to maybe make it a bit 'dreamier' and also maybe an increase in vibranceto accentuate the colours.

But, as it stands it is fascinating!

[Manfred M]

Every time I see a well done intentional camera movement image, I say to myself; "I'm going to have to try that".

So far I have said that many times and haven't tried the technique yet. Perhaps this time. Your variant on the technique is definitely giving you an interesting result.

[pnodrog]

It looks good and has been noted. Thanks for sharing your experiment.

[Shadowman]

Nice one.

[DanK]

Thanks, all. James, one of the limitations of this technique, I saw from this image, is that you lose control over the amount of blur. You'll see that the trees on the left aren't blurred--they didn't move in the wind. With ICM, you control the amount of blur, although I am inexperienced enough that I can't foresee the amount and often have to try many shots to get what I want. For example, I posted the ICM shot below a few years ago. For those who know New England, this is the lily pond in front of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, which not entirely coincidentally is the home of an outstanding collection of impressionist paintings. I would have to check my files to recall exactly, but if I recall, I took well over 40 shots to get one I wanted.

[Tom Barry]

Great idea and well worth trying.

[mugge]

Love the idea. I will definitely try out this.
Cheers Ole

[John 2]

That, I like. By the sounds of the comments above, you may well have started a trend. BTW, I like the second one as well.

[DanK]

Thanks, folks. It would be interesting to have some posts of this sort on the forum. It's not a technique I have used often, but it can be interesting. The second one I recently printed on canvas to make it more like a painting.