Intentional camera movement - colour and simplification

Intentional camera movement (ICM) causes the image to be smeared in the direction of movement. The amount of smear depends on how long the shutter remains open and the speed of movement. With most scenes this smear results in the loss of fine detail and the mixing of colours that were adjacent at the original scene. If ICM is successfully done, both effects can be desirable strengthening the final image. Photographers often compose an image to achieve simplification, the general aim being to remove anything that does not support the main idea. Everything that remains should support the main idea. The ICM loss of detail can achieve this and the colour simplification means that colours in the final image can bold.

Lochan, Cambus O'May

Yesterday I went for a short walk at Cambus O'May. The sun was shining and the air was warm - enough to be glad of the shelter of the trees and make me believe that summer had arrived. These ICM images were both captured at the start of my walk through the trees. The path goes up a slope rising above a small loch, so you must look down to see the loch through the trees. 

Footpath, Cambus O'May

The images were captured using a 3 stop ND filter and CP filter, ISO 100, small aperture f/18 or f/20 and long shutter speed 1.3s or 2s.

"One does not photograph something simply for 'what it is', but for 'what else it is'."
Minor White

Intentional Camera Movement

The genre of Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) is not to everyone's taste, but the ICM images of Chris Friel and Valda Bailey are some of the most exciting photographic images that I have seen.

Over the last couple of years I have spent a few days exploring some of the possibilities of ICM. Despite the perception by some that ICM is "just waving the camera around" it really isn't that easy.

Classic starting points for ICM include groups of trees (slow vertical pans) and beaches (slow horizontal pans). It is relatively easy to get some pleasing images with these well-worn subjects, but my efforts with fully hand-held ICM (no tripod) have achieved a poor success rate. I have fired the shutter several hundred times in front of birch trees and now have three of four images that might be considered OK.

The nature of ICM means you do not have full control over the end image. There is inevitably a large element of chance in the end result. Control over the images is achieved mainly through the choice of appropriate shutter speeds, and appropriate camera movements while the shutter is open. Depending on the circumstances, shutter speeds between say 0.5s and 10 seconds might give optimum results. Post processing is also important, but this does not have to be complicated. Post processing can often be limited to careful cropping, and adjustments to white balance, contrast and clarity.

A few months ago I took some ICM images at Aberdeen railway station. I revisited the railway station a few days ago. Here are some of the results.