# Motion Blur with D90



## muzzybananas (Jul 26, 2010)

Hey guys,

I have a D90 with the kit lens; 18-105. What i want to do is basically capture motion blur in my photographs. I want to know what settings in the camera can make me achieve this. It would be helpful to know what menu the settings can be changed from. Im new, so this would really help.

This image is an example picture. I want something like or close to this. 

Thanx for the help. Appreciate it.


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## Derrel (Jul 26, 2010)

Tripod-mount the camera. Set the lens to f/8 and the shutter to a long, fixed speed like 30 seconds. Set the ISO as low as it will go. Trigger off a shot,and wait while the cars go by. After the shot is done, review it, and see if it needs to be dimmer, or brighter.

If the headlights coming toward your camera, as on the left above, are too bright and burned out, you need a smaller lens aperture.

The time component, the 30 seconds, is required to get enough,different,individual cars into the frame. If the exposure is not long enough, not many cars come by. THis is a situation where an "equivalent" exposure of say f/8 at 30 seconds might get 10 cars, but f/5.6 at 15 seconds would get 5 cars coming by, and another equivalent exposure, say f/4 at 8 seconds would see only 3 cars come by...the shots need some "time value" to pick up enough automobile traffic to create the effect.

I mention using f/8 because it's a good all-around,beginning f/stop for night-time work, and it has good optical performance usually, and it's easy to estimate times at f/8 at night, and it allows in a "moderate" amount of light: as with the TIME component, the QUANTITY of light entering the camera in night/fireworks photography is critical: too wide of an aperture, like f/4, and it's very easy to over-expose bright light sources; too small of an aperture, like f/16 or f/22, and then light sources register as very dim, weak streaks of light.

By starting at f/8 at 30 seconds an low ISO (100 to 200 ISO) you stand a good chance of getting a decent result that you can refine a bit, depending on how heavy the traffic is....if there are not many cars, you would do better to leave the camera open more TIME, and adjust the ISO and or lens opening size a bit to compensate.

I hope this helps.


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## muzzybananas (Jul 27, 2010)

Hey Derrel,

What you have explained, sounds like should do the trick. The problem I am having is implementing those settings. I dont know where these settings are based on the D90. Could you help me with tht. I want to know what menu these options fall under. 

And when u mention 30 seconds, do you mean Self-timer or shutter speed or both. 

Thanx.


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## SellPhotosOnline (Jul 27, 2010)

I have a D90 with 18-270 Tamron lens and belive me after a few trial end error you will get some great photos, you must definetelly read the manual that came with the camera, I have a movie with the menu of the D90 but i don't know how to sent it to you, search on google for D90 and set the search for video, you will learn faster this way. Derrel gave a great example for night phootography. Set your camera to A (aperture priority), left top of the camera is a dial. With 30 seconds, he ment the shutter speed, and it is set automatically when you are in A mode. To increase or decrease The aperture use the dials. If you wan't full control then swith to M(manual mode), and you have 2 dials on the right side of your camera, one controls The aperture and one the shutter.
The key is to experiment...try using in the future a flash, that fires at the end of the exposure, and put something in the foreground that will be freezed in a motion picture


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## Goontz (Jul 27, 2010)

muzzybananas said:


> Hey Derrel,
> 
> What you have explained, sounds like should do the trick. The problem I am having is implementing those settings. I dont know where these settings are based on the D90. Could you help me with tht. I want to know what menu these options fall under.
> 
> ...



Reading your owners manual can help you become familiar with the controls and settings of your camera. When Derrel mentions 30 seconds, he's talking about shutter speed.


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## muzzybananas (Jul 27, 2010)

Thanx guys. Ill have a look for the video, and shall read the manual. If there are any tips and tricks, please do share. Thanx again. When i get the result i want, i shall post it online.


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