How do I create images with motion blur underwater?

Motion blur is a really fun creative technique you can experiment with underwater. It relies on artificial light from your strobes to freeze the motion of your subject, combined with a long exposure and some form of camera movement to create motion blur around your subject.

There are multiple ways to do this, but the critical component is a long exposure shutter speed and flash sync.

Flash synchronization or flash sync for short is important in long exposures with flash added. There are typically two choices: front curtain sync or rear curtain sync. Front curtain sync means that the flash fires when you hit the shutter button, and rear curtain sync means the flash fires at the conclusion of the long exposure. One rule of thumb is to use front curtain sync when you are moving the camera and the subject is stationary, and rear curtain sync if you are stationary and the subject is moving.

Try somewhere between 1/4 and 1/15 of a second to start. Because of this slow shutter speed, you’ll have to compensate with your other settings to avoid completely blowing out the scene – so make sure to lower your ISO and close your aperture. If ambient conditions are too bright, it might not work even with these adjustments and you may need to wait for a cloudier day.

Once you’ve dialed in your long exposure settings, try photographing a still subject and creating motion with your camera. One popular technique is the circular blur. Try this by rotating your camera while the exposure is happening, as smoothly as possible. It doesn’t take a lot of movement to create the blur, just a partial turn of the camera. Check your images frequently and adjust your strobe, ISO and aperture values!

I think it’s easiest to start with a static subject, but after you’ve got that down, try a panning shot with something in motion, like a turtle or a school of fish. Try taking the picture and then panning at the same speed or a touch faster than the subject while the shutter is open.

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Morgan Bennett-Smith

Morgan Bennett-Smith is a field research scientist and photographer. He completed his B.A. in marine science at Occidental College in Southern California, and his Master’s Degree in marine science at the Red Sea Research Center in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, where he studied coral reef symbiosis. Along the way, his photographs have won numerous international competitions and been featured by organizations such as Smithsonian, the Guardian, and Nature, and been commercially licensed over 3,000 times.

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