REWORK BASED ON COMMENTS
ORIGINAL
Played around with ICM in a park nearby my home in Malmö, Sweden.
Any comments are welcome!
Olympus PEN e-p7, 75 mm lens (150 mm equiv.), f/22, ISO 100, 4 sec.
As always with ICM images, contrast, luminosity and vibrance adjusted in post-processing.
This is really fascinating! I love the painterly, Monet-inspired look you’ve created with the multiple exposures here.
I would suggest a slight crop in from the left to help balance the darker trunks a little better within the frame (though, to be honest, it still sort of works as is).
Something else I suggest (which is more my personal way of dealing with colour) is bringing in a little more blue to the shadows, which are looking a touch brown. But again, to acknowledge various ways of approaching colour here, the brownish tones can help with creating the impression of a brown ochre underpainting, which is something many oil painters will use as a base on their canvas.
Suffice to say, there’s a couple of things I’d do personally, but the image also still works great if you left it as is!
A nice impressionistic but not very basic- icm impression. Appropriately unclear without covering the subject and beautiful colors as if from a painting. Maybe I would crop a little from the left because there is an empty area and I couldn’t really think of any function for it
I love the watercolor, Monet feel to this, Ola. A terrific scene and a wonderfully successful ICM technique. Well done.
Lovely image Ola. At 4sec you really are painting with light. I haven’t shot many if any, handheld ICM images at that length. Inspiring.
So lovely Ola! As others have noted, this has a great impressionistic/Monet like quality. I would have assumed this was a double exposure. Really intriguing at 4 seconds. It has my mind thinking about some possibilities for my own ICM work. I agree with Ben on a crop to help focus on the tree trunks. Great work on this image!
Beautiful Ola. Definitely a impressionistic feel. Would love to understand how you achieved this wonderful affect. Very nicely done.
Ola, I have to ask…is this just a single frame because it looks like multiple frames stacked on top of one another. I will say that this is VERY Monet like and if done with a single exposure it truly is incredible what you’ve pulled off here. Please tell us the technique.
I really think this could use a crop from the left as the blue/greens area is large and pulls the eye and there is not much going on in the section of the frame. Other than that. I absolutely LOVE this image. It’s probably my favorite image posted in a Monet like way so far on NPN. I would be very proud of this, Ola!!!
Here is the crop I was referencing. Take it for what it’s worth. 
Quite a wonderful image…though I would lean towards agreeing with several other commenters suggesting there is a bit of imbalance in the shot. But while others have suggested cropping to cure that, I’m not sure that wouldn’t create a different imbalance (pushing the 3 trees further left).
As opposed to a crop, I would consider manipulating the colors along the left…in particular in the lower left corner. Push them towards a warmer palette similar to that in the right 2/3(+ or -). Approached in that fashion would allow retention of the same/current aspect ratio while providing some added color balance.
Beautifully seen and done, Ola. Really love the painterly look, and personally, I like the composition as is.
@AndreDonawa, @David_Bostock, @Alfredo_Mora, @David_Haynes, @Benjamin_Maze, @jorma, @linda_mellor, @rjWilner and @J_Fritz_Rumpf thanks for your kind comments and valuable advice. I will look at cropping and hue change and post a rework later on if I decide upon any changes.
ICM METHOD
Normally when taking ICM photographs the shutter speed is rather slow, but still only a fraction of a second or so, and you start the camera movement before the shutter release is pressed and keep on moving the camera untill the shutter has closed.
I have experimented with longer than normal shutter speeds (1 sec. or longer) with the purpose to having more control over the ICM movement, both the speed and the direction (vertical, horisontal, diagonal, back & forward, “letter” movement as explained by @Lon_Overacker in another post, rotate the camera or zoom in/zoom out), and how to adjust the movement based on inspection of the image shown on the LCD screen. I have even used ND filters to achieve long enough shutter speeds.
I will soon also use the geared three-way tripod head I recently bought by @David_Bostock to get even more control over the direction of the movement. Yes, I know that this strive for control, according to some people, is not fully in line with the artistic vision of ICM photography. But I also sometimes just let everything go and swing my camera around more whimsical based on emotions and feelings.
One other advantage with a longer than normal shutter speed is that you have time to carry out more than one activity during the exposure, e. g. first moving the camera vertically, then zoom out and finally rotate the camera (just a somewhat crazy example!).
For the image above, during the 4 second exposure, first I held the camera still, then I made a primarily vertical movement and finally held the camera still once again. So, just one exposure but since I had two stand stills I achieved a similar effect as a double exposure.
The points are mainly made up of leaves laying on the ground in front of the tree trunks, this field of leaves where photographed during one of the stand stills. The second stand still included the tree trunks. The movement introduced the blur.
Great technique, Ola. Thank you for sharing with the group.
Ola,
This is fabulous! Monet impression for sure - even a novice like me could make the comparison…
I do agree with a slight crop just to reduce the heavier presence on the left, but that’s rather minor I think. I do really like @David_Haynes cropped version.
Thank you so much for sharing your technique! I had not considered the multiple “stills” during a much longer exposure. Yes! essentially a blurry (especially if handheld…) in camera multiple exposure. And it’s one thing to just move the camera slightly during that exposure… but when that movement contains basically 2 different scenes (ie forest floor of leaves PLUS the trees) combine for pretty much a double exposure. - Note: Filed away in my tool box.
Wonderful imagery Ola!
Lon
Based on comments I have made an update:
Looking forward to see postings in the future!
