Thurso, Scotland.

How to Create Motion Blur in a Landscape Photograph 

A top tip on how to make the sea look creatively soft, sometimes even cotton-wool like. 

Here is a photograph from a few years back.

It was shot on a Medium Format Camera - that means a big camera - in this case using slide film/transparency to capture the image. 

So this was old school - every shot cost money. 

Before looking at the how, you might ask why I took the shot.

I was travelling along the North Coast of Scotland (well before it became as popular as it is today) and whilst travelling Eastwards, about dusk time, I noticed the seat, abandoned, lonely on the beach, just at the water line.

The clouds were looking threatening.

It wasn't quite dark enough to shoot a slow exposure (sufficient to creat blur).

So I got out of the car, grabbed my tripos and camera and marched towarsd the sea.

The attraction was simply the solitude of the empty seat, lookimg out to sea (as a lot of us like doing).

Now to the How.

How did I make the Sea in the photograph appear blurry

As I mentioned above I had :-

1. A Tripod: which for the non-photographers out there is a three legged support, on which you place your camera - it basically keeps the camera steady (and away from sand); and

2. A graduated filter - with a colour tint - this filter works by having a darker half and a non-tinted half - so it will reduce the light in (in this case) in the top half of the photo. Leaving the bottom half unaffected. 

 Slow shutter to blur the sea. Filter on to add interest to the sky. Camera on tripod to steady it. Used a remote shutter release so that I wouldn't disturb the camera for the pic. One of the most popular pics in the gallery.  Seat was just there. Didn't move it.