Zoom bursts are a creative technique in photography. They can bring life to a relatively dull subject or give the sense of high speed towards or from an object. Zoom bursts create blurred streaks originated from the centre of the photo, the centre being the subject of focus.

Neon signs and inanimate symmetrical objects with strong colour such as flowers are great subjects for zoom burst effects, however people, distant objects and also buildings can be used as the subject matter.

How to create a zoom burst

Firstly, if the subject is static, and you can easily make use of a tripod, then use it, else an extremely steady hand is needed to ensure decent sharpness of the subject. If you have an image stabiliser then this will help.

The following guidelines assume that you have an SLR camera with an adjustable zoom lens:

Set the camera in shutter speed priority mode and select a slow shutter speed, 1/4 to 1/2 a second for example, if the photo is not being taken at night. With digital photography you can adopt a trial and error technique to get the exposure time right.

You can either start with the lens zoomed in or out on the subject you want to "freeze". When the shutter is depressed you have whatever exposure time you have selected to zoom in or out on the subject to create the burst effect.

The example photo is a zoom burst of a neon sign taken in Paris at night. For this shot the camera was positions on a tripod and an exposure time of 5 seconds selected. The lens was retacted fully at the start of the shot to zoom away from the sign and a remote shutter release used to avoid risk of destablising the camera. On releasing the shutter the lens dial on the camera was steadily rotated over the course of the exposure time to zoom in on the subject. A couple of trials were necessary to arrive at the final shot.

For objects in motion either indoors or at night where there is a decent amount of background lights, say for example musicians on a lit stage or a bumper car ride at a fairground, a flash plus a longish exposure time is required to achieve a decent zoom burst effect. The flash "freezes" the subject, allowing the photographer to extend or retract the zoom throughout the rest of the exposure.