Experiments with blur lighting

I don't know Trevor, I think these shots do work for me. For me the blur effect--especially the zoom blur look isn't about motion so much as it is about selective focus and softness of colors. To me its like an impressionist painting where you just get the feeling for the background without seeing it. The zoom blur tends to draw your eye toward the subject with the radial lines pointing inward. For this to work the subject should be (as it is in Alex's photos) centered as opposed to classical rule-of-thirds composition in order to place the subject in the sharp part of the picture. I think you could get a similar effect with a lensbaby if you could figure out a way to house and control it.

BTW. I also like the diver example as well, more for the content than the color. The color doesn't bother me because I'm looking at the diver and the eyes are in focus. The blue reef just helps to isolate the subject. But it would be nice to see an example similar to this one with the flash filters. In the other examples that you show the subject is either very close to the background (with the background lit by strobes) or highly blurred so you can't really tell what the background is.

I'm also excited about the possibillity of a complementary magic filter, but not only for motion blur In my last trip I had a chance to experiment a bit with filters, using a simple CC 40 Red filter and manual white balance that I bought for $1. I was very impressed with the results even while white balancing with strobes. I'm sure the Magic filter would do even better. This way you could get good color in very wide angle reef scenics and CFWA, while adding fill flash to brighten a close subject.

Make sure they are DS125 compatable.

The wratten 38A would be a decent flash filter to try with the Magic Filter:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...tlist&sku=26397

Although these aren't water proof and at $151 bucks a time from B&H I don't think there will be many takers.

Alex

First pic and last pic are my favourites. Especially the first picture really creates some dynamic space due to the rotating kind of movement. Too bad Canon doesn’t allow 2nd curtain sync with manual triggered strobes. Beside that, it is interesting to see how the blue strobe filters work with the magic filter. The 38A is expensive. IMO cheaper filters would do it as well because they don’t have to provide good optical quality when used with strobes.

Julian

I have not been able to find a 38A as a lighting gel (cheaper and in larger sheets than optical quality filters). But there are ways to imitate one...

Alex