Experimenting with blur to show motion... and emotion

[John David Cubit]

I wanted to catch some animation in these stills, so I tried shooting at a low shutter speed. Both pictures were shot with a Sony A99 and Zeiss 24-70. The drummers were in a Tumba Francesa band, which is part of the Afro-French culture in eastern Cuba (Guantanamo), where the photos were taken. These are crops from larger images.

1/20th, f/5.6, ISO 160



1/15th, f/6.7, ISO 160

[david antony]

Very nice JDC. Just the sound is missing. ;^)

[sury]

For me the second one conveys the intention: Motion and emotion better.
The first one would have been perfect had the artist's face is in focus or at most
a soft blur. My comments were predicated by my interpretation of the subject tag.

With best regards,
Sury

[Birma]

The motion blur is a great idea - I really like #2, especially the look on the drummer's face

[Dr. Harout]

Me like them.