Justin J. Wee, a Malaysian-born Australian photographer based in Brooklyn, creates portraits that are alive with movement. His portraiture has appeared in The New York Times, where he captures subjects including Lorde, Peter Dinklage, and Max Harwood in full flight, limbs blurred, features aglow in slowly exposed auras. “I love creating images with a blur because it can be a great narrative device,” he says. “Not only does it evoke movement, but it can emotionally represent anything from joy to confusion to mystery.” You don’t even need a fancy camera or a team of assistants. Justin will show you how using the in-app camera in the Lightroom Mobile app.
Move with your subject.
“I definitely don’t condone riding a bike while trying to take photos, but it was necessary to achieve the blur here. I brought the ISO all the way down and the exposure all the way down. Then I used a lot of trial and error to figure out the longest shutter time that would give me a blur, but not be overexposed.”
Express yourself.
“I used a tripod for this image. To achieve this effect, you just have to experiment with how fast you move your body, and how slow you set the shutter speed.”
Shake it up.
“Blurring a photo can be a great way of breaking up the cleanliness of your Instagram feed and timeline. It’s fun to experiment with different ways of sharing your experiences. I know that we all want to look hot on the internet, but don’t be afraid to mix it up. Maybe it’ll become a part of your artistic expression.”
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