Impressions

Blurring of images dates back to styles of painting which include both the Impressionists and the Futurists. Impressionist painters such as Monet, Renoir and Pissarro captured an “impression” of a scene with quick, short brushstrokes intended to capture the light falling rather than the actual small details in the scene. Some futurist painters such as Duchamp and Balla also tried to capture movement by introducing the blur of multiple impressions of moving people and objects.

I’ve always admired these art movements and Intentional Camera Movement is a way of producing an image with a blurring effect. This introduces an abstraction and a sense of mystery which echoes back to these earlier styles of painting.

Technical Details:
All ICM is achieved using a slow shutter speed. The method I favour most is to use a shutter speed of about 1 second. I tend to hold the camera still for half a second and then use an upward flick of the lens in the second half-second.

If you're using an Olympus camera as I do, then the body stabilisation is so good that a 1 second exposure will normally give you a completely sharp image, so the lens movement does have to be quite severe in order to introduce blur.