Motion blur does not take very long exposures. Strat with a 1/4 second exposure. Of course you will need to have a sturdy camera support like a big tripod.
Look at the affect you get at 1/4 second. Then if you want to double the effect use 1/2 second or 1/8 the reduce the blur by 1/2. with most camera you simply retate the dail to set the exposure but camera will have limits.
Some more advanced techniques require a stobe. The flash will frees the subject and the amient light will superimpose some motion blur.
Flash will freeze the subject if the sync is a fast enough shutter speed, probably won't freeze a helicopter rotor, maybe not even spokes on a wheel.
You don't need anything nearly as slow as 1/4th sec. to give motion blur (1/20th sec will do fine for shooting people on a dance floor if you only want some motion blur, slower will give more blur), but it depends on how slow the subject in motion is moving and how much motion you want. Best to use burst mode too, then you'll more likely get a preferred shot from the sequence. Don't need a
big tripod, anything other than something completely flimsy will work, and be lighterweight when traveling... unless you are subject to undue vibrations when taking the pictures, or perhaps windy/gusty conditions...in which case, you maybe out of luck even with a big/sturdy tripod if you are using a longer telephoto lens.
funny story...i forgot to bring the manual to college with me
Hey, that's not funny; write home and have it sent to you. D/l the manual, they suck in pdf format, it will take you forever to read through them...even if you have 3 30" ACD's with 2pgs per ACD...well it might go a little faster/easier with that, but a hard copy is much easily to flip back and forth through when you're trying to learn a lot of things that are new to you.
