Just what it says on the tin – you move the camera on purpose. In ‘normal’ photography the aim is generally to keep the camera still – that’s why we use tripods on long shutter speeds because no human hand is that steady and so over multiple second shutter speed, you’ll see camera shake…
In ICM you don’t want to see camera shake either – the effect is created by deliberate, planned movements – sweeps, shakes, judders, pans, glides…
What lens do you use?
It varies… or it should. Here’s the thing…the longer the focal length the less movement you need to make create any movement.
The general ‘rule’ of shutter speeds is that you need to have a shutter speed at least as fast as the length of your lens if you are to avoid seeing camera shake… So if the lens is 200mm you need a 1/200 minimum shutter speed to avoid seeing any camera shake.
This is because the longer the focal length the more sensitive the camera is to any movement – think of it like a lever and you’re trying to keep the end point still the further away it is the more sensitive it is to any movement of your hand.
In a nutshell….Longer lens = less movement needed to create ICM images… Sounds useful but on the other hand it gives you less control and it can be harder to create the effect you want…
My go to lens for ICM is the 55-200mm if I’m in a large open space like the beach watching surfers or boats or people at a distance. If I’m on the streets it needs to be a wide angle or you lose the environment you need to tell the story…. Then I’d have the 18-55mm on (I’m on a cropped frame sensor mirrorless camera) so that’s more like 30-80mm (Ish)…
I say I should use different lens – what I’ve realised is the problem of always using the same lens – you find when you switch to something else you’re all clumsy and back to square one trying to get the movement right for the lens. If you drive a manual shift/gear car you might agree (or might not) that you get used to your clutch, then you drive another car and it takes a little while to adjust… but if you drive two cars in the family both manual shift your mind sort of knows how to adjust between them…. Lens control in ICM seems to work the same way. If I switch between lenses regularly the muscle memory is there – so, there you go… just my experience for what it’s worth!
The above image was on the IPhone camera just tinkering about when an opportunity presented itself early one morning…in this one I ‘walked into’ the movement as the subject was moving towards me…which creates the effect.
What about controlling the light?
The beauty of ICM, aside from it’s aesthetic beauty, is you can shoot anytime anywhere. The only slight caveat is if it’s a very bright day you’re going to need to control the light – but I always think better to have to try and suppress it than create it because one is infinitely easier than the other…
If it’s bright – drop your ISO to the lowest setting you can and push your f/stop up to the highest. Now the downside of the f/stop being at f/22 or whatever is – you’re going to see dust spots like you’ve never seen them before… and secondly there is also a minor issue of the lens being well past it’s ‘sweet spot’ for shooting although with ICM I never noticed the difference (to be honest, I never noticed it anyway but thought I’d better mention it..)
And it’s still way too light. Yep, a big problem on a bright day.
Grab yourself some ND filters – that’s neutral density filters.. these filters reduce the light entering the camera without affecting the colour balance…
I don’t buy expensive ND filters because I’m devil for losing them, scratching them from shoving them my pocket and all sorts of other crimes against camera equipment. I just don’t want to be worrying about expensive kit…
My favourite (so far) ND filters have been Urth and Neewer.. I like the ones I can rotate around… and these fit the bill. I know the older ones can create a x effect in the middle of the image, but I’ve not had any trouble using the Neewer adjustable ND filters – perfect for the ICM because for me I don’t want to be taking kit on and off the camera in the field…
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bye for now, with all good wishes,
