Challenge 88 features “Creative Blur.” When we learned photography, the very first lesson was how critical it is to hold the camera steady so everything will be sharp. Most of the time we choose equipment and techniques to achieve perfectly sharp images.

But the right kind of blur can make an image far more interesting. The biggest difference between a sharp image and one with creative blur is that the sharp image is frozen in time (and thus “dead” in a sense) whereas the blurred image has motion and life.

Some people think of creative blur as an element of the painting style known as “Impressionism.” Creatively blurred photos can capture not just the subject but some of the viewer’s emotional response to the object. A blurred shot of a bird in flight shows us the bird but also preserves the excitement we might feel while watching that flight.

Creative blur can be achieved in several different ways. All will be acceptable in Challenge 88.

The easiest technique is to select a shutter speed slow enough to freeze most of an object while allowing some elements to be blurred. Think of a photo of a baseball pitcher whose body is sharp but whose pitching arm is blurred.

A popular example of this type of blur is an image of moving water where everything is sharp except the water. Moving water (such as waterfalls or rapids) is often photographed to render the water a milky look. A slow enough shutter speed can even give a dreamy blur to lakes or oceans. Similarly, nighttime photos of amusement park rides use blurry light to dramatize motion.

Choosing a relatively slow shutter speed is the most common way to achieve creative blur. If you have a person or animal in your shot, you usually want the eyes (at least) to be sharp even though the rest of the image can be blurry.