Recently I discovered Olga Karlovac, a Croatian photographer who does abstract street photography using intentional camera movement. The images that she produces all have a spooky ghost like quality. Human figures become sinister blurs, elongated and distorted. She uses long exposure and then moves the camera during to create abstract images. The technique creates a uniform motion blur across the image which begins to look like brush strokes on a canvas. Her work is all monochrome black and white, high contrast, and grainy.
These photos instantly excited me and I felt like I wanted to try to recreate something in this style. I’m expecting that I may only create a hot mess but I still want to try as it looks like a lot of fun.
Replicating the style
In order to replicate the style I need to do it mostly in camera. To achieve this I used the settings listed below. I was shooting on a mirror less digital camera in raw so making the image monochrome was done after the fact when editing the photos.
| Variable | Setting | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Lens focal length | 24mm | Wide angle lenses are good for capturing street scenes |
| Shutter speed | 1/1.4 to 1” | Movement will become blurred but the subject should still be recognisable. It also lets in lots of light making the image over exposed |
| Aperture | f/22 | Wider depth of field but mainly it will compensate the image being too overexposed |
| ISO | 500 | Makes the sensor more sensitive which makes the image more over exposed but also add grain across the image. I should probably have turned this up higher to boost that grainy imperfection |
| Filter | Variable ND filter | Darkens the image by a variable amount. The main thing allowing me to shoot during the day time. |
| Focus | Manual | Less perfect focus creates a softer image, althought the small aperture will compensate this. |
| Technique | Intentional Camera Movement | Create motion blur across the full image in the direction of the camera |
Shooting
When I was out shooting it took me a little while, and a fair bit of experimentation to dial in the settings to something that I liked. But once I had it mostly figured out I would only be adjusting two things; the variable neutral density (ND) filter to get the correct exposure, and getting a feeling for moving the camera the right way.
The variable ND filter allows me to adjust how dark the image is. Because it is the only things that adjusts my exposure that isn’t digital it feels fast and intuitive. I am using a mirror less camera which shows an estimation of how bright the image will be with the current settings on the display. But even still I need to half press the shutter before changes to digital settings (shutter speed, aperture, iso) are applied making them feel a bit sluggish to change. If I was using an SLR or Range Finder camera I wouldn’t be able to see this until after taking my photo.
Moving the camera is something that seems to be much more instinctive and hard to explain. Move the camera too much and you can’t make out the image so less seems to be better. If I want to emphasise something in the image I can add a pause into the motion of the camera. And sometimes not moving the camera at all but letting the subjects move across the frame.
Review
Looking back at my photos I think about 90% of them are rubbish. It probably just comes with the territory. Half the challenge is in the review process, finding the good images amongst all the crap. And its extremely subjective. Things I think worked best was images with strong contrast with large blocks of light and dark areas, images that had some type of geometry in the scene, and camera movement that follows along the length of the subject matter.
When I am taking photos like this I am dead scared of a curious person on the street walking past asking what I have been shooting. What can I do? All I can show them is blurry photos. They would think I am a moron who has no idea what I am doing. In practice though this has never happened. I presume they all already know that I am a moron and they don’t need to stop and ask that in order to confirm their suspicions.
All up I had fun and will probably try this again in the future.
