In the quest to make images sharper, optical engineers have created clearer glass, extra-low dispersion elements coated with fluorine and nano-crystal integrated coatings. Software engineers continue to develop newer, better ways to take those millions of bytes and turn them into clear images. But sharpness and clarity aren't everything. Ansel Adams once said, "There are no rules for good photographs. There are only good photographs."
There are those times when sharpness gets in the way, when the photographer wishes to express what he sees in a different way. For me that often includes blur and softness. Whether it's a portrait photographed at such an aperture that the eyes are all that are in focus, or in the case above, a racing cyclist spinning down Mendocino Avenue, the out-of-focus elements make the image. The background is unrecognizable; the spokes are a whirling blend of blur. Only the cyclist's head is sharp. The feeling of speed comes from the marriage of both sharp and unsharp elements.
To create such an image the photographer has to be still. He uses a slow shutter speed, say around 1/10th of a second, and he moves the camera at the same speed as the subject. If he's lucky, the subject will be sharp and the stationary background blurry caused by the camera moving (panning) as the shutter is depressed. It's not easy.
But there are times when blur is created in a camera kept absolutely still.
This Japanese Maple is right across the street from my house.
I photographed the Japanese maple tree yesterday in a rainstorm, using a telephoto lens, a neutral density filter, and a tripod. The camera was still, the mirror locked up, and I chose an exposure of two minutes. The trunk is sharp, the rest a blend of varying sharpnesses. Leaves farther from the trunk, blown by the wind, are softer. I wanted to create a painterly like photograph. You can do this with software, too, but I like this effect better.
Slow shutter speeds sometimes can create both sharpness and blur at the same time. In this image there are sharp lines in the blue and white shirts and in the number 22, but the whole photograph is fluid and blurry.
University of California National Champion Rugby Team
I can't compete with sports photographers, their 12 frame-a-second motor drives, and 600 mm lenses, and primo seats down on the field. From the stands I can use a moderate lens and a slow shutter speed. Out of every fifty shots or so I manage to capture the feeling through a photograph that equals through blur and motion the razor sharp faces created by sports photographers. The image above captures all that I feel when I watch rugby. So does this one.
Similarly, in football. Again, at UC Berkeley.
Fourth Down
And one of my favorites. I entered this in a contest once, and it finished almost dead last. Digital Photography Review, which sponsored the contest, added a new one for people whose photographs finished close to last in previous contests. Again, mine was at the bottom. It doesn't always matter what others think.
CA 1976. A scan from an Ektachrome slide.
And last...sometimes unintentional softness doesn't ruin an image. If the photographer is lucky enough, the strength of his subjects transcends all common photographic ailments, including sharpness. I was riding on a train in England around 1970 when I came across this couple. I just assumed that they were mother and son. Their faces, especially the mother's, describe the English in ways my words couldn't.
