Last week’s shoot with my friend Jenny was an absolute blast with lots of laughs and lots of trying new things all at my in-home studio setup. 

I’ve always wanted to attempt motion blur with my Canon 5d mark iii camera and actually attempted to do so with a couples shoot last week at sunset. Spoiler alert: wasn’t successful that time, but I will get to that. 

1. In-Home Studio Portraits

I LOVE doing shoots in my home and I can say I have upped my game recently because the first in-home shoots I did, I covered a mattress with a shoot, put it against my door, and balanced my camera on pillows to make the photos happen. Hey, when you’re on a budget and trying to do photography work you do what you gotta do! I’m still waiting on buying a remote control to take self portraits photo and it will be a glorious day when I do it because moving back and forth to focus and start the 10-second countdown is… tiring haha. 

Back to the point -> I absolutely loved doing this shoot with one of my personal friends who has an infectious smile and is so sweet!! We started with a more casual sweater look for some headshots and some goofy shots, and then switched it up to a mock neck look as well, starting with my LED lights on white and ending with them colored for motion blur. We tried a variety of poses to test photos out, some more successful than others. Take a peak below, and to see more visit my Lifestyle/Portraits page here on my website and my Instagram page! 

2. Motion Blur Mode - Activated

As I mentioned, the first time I tried motion blur it was a total fail! But the opportunity to try again this shoot was too tempting.

Therefore, when the time came last week and Jenny and I had a little more time at the end of her portrait shoot capturing photos of her in two different outfits, I decided to let loose with creativity and she obliged me. I changed my two Aputure MC mini led lights to one changing color and the second at a stationary blue, and so it began. With flash on my camera (and the batteries starting to die), I directed Jenny to move around, have fun with it, and throw her hair back and forth… a LOT. At one point I switched up to both Aputure MCs on a bright blue color and we carried on. 

What were my settings to capture motion blur while also using flash,

you might ask? 

-Shutter Speed: 1/25

-Aperture: 5.6

-ISO: 250

The shutter speed is key here. If you’ve worked with motion blur and know what you’re doing, all is well and you need no numbers from me but if you haven’t, trying settings around the ones I provided will get you started :) 

And I have to tell you, I got tired from moving my camera around so much back and forth in small movements, but it was totally worth it. Check out some of the resulting shots below, a funny reel I made which you can also see on my Instagram page here, and more shots I took from the shoot on my Lifestyle/Portraits page here. My friend also laughed at the grunts that came out while I was attempting the whole thing. It was quite the scene. 

Thanks for popping by to my Grow Where You Are Planted blog and stay tuned for a blog on couples shoots I’ve done recently!