Intentional camera movement (ICM)

[DanK]

Bill has another thread with an ICM image, and Andre asked what ICM is. Rather than hijack that thread, I decided to start a new one.

I've played with ICM a little bit for several years. I've seen lots of truly beautiful ICM images, but most of my efforts have been flops. IMHO, there are two difficult parts. One is deciding what blur adds to the image you want. The second is actually making it work: estimating how much movement and how fast to do it, and coordinating that with shutter speed.

To illustrate the first point, here is one of the very few of mine that I didn't discard right away. It's a photo of the water lily pond in front of the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown MA. I threw out almost everything I took that day. I eventually decided that I needed to preserve focus on the horizonal axis for the sake of the vertical stems, so I tried to use only vertical motion, pivoting on a ballhead. Most of the images I captured in that manner failed for one reason or another.



On an entirely different topic, this is one of the few images that I have printed on matte paper, for obvious reasons.

[billtils]

Thanks Dan - that's a delightful image! Beautifully soft and impressionistic. Now that I've actually tried it (rather than just reading about it) I totally agree with your "there are two difficut parts" and if I get images anything close to yours I'll be a very happy chappy.

[pschlute]

Yes Dan, you are "right on the Monet" with that shot !

I have seen some superb ICM shots and they really add a new dimension.

[billtils]

... you are "right on the Monet" ...

[Chataignier]

Great image Dan - this technique is one I've been promising myself to work on, but so far nothing worthwhile to report.