Normally you would expect a skilled photographer to deliver clean, well exposed images, but with intentional camera movement (ICM) the aim is to make the images look a bit more abstract by introducing a deliberate camera movement while the shutter is open.
There really are no rules when it comes to ICM and you can develop your own style and expression. The classic way of doing it however is to move the camera along lines in the subject, so that you emphasize these and blur details. For example, in a wood with tall trees you would move the camera up/down in a vertical movement, whereas a landscape image with a horizon, you want the movements to follow the horizon left to right or the other way round. You can also move the camera more freestyle, for example try to follow a wave as it comes to shore. The possibilities are infinite and you can really develop your own style and expression. In the example below I have moved the camera in circles to get the effect.
The way to do ICM is to make sure your shutter is open for say 1/2 to 2.0 seconds. You may want to go down to 1/10th or up to 5 seconds, but start with 1/2 to 2.0 second just to get you going.
You can do this by putting your camera in shutter priority mode and simply ask the camera to leave the shutter open as you see fit. The camera most likely will put the camera in base ISO (say 100) and minimize the aperture to whatever the lens allows, say f/22, but you may find that this will not do and the picture is over exposed. This could happen if your are shooting a sunset or a bright scene. In such cases an ND filter is needed. An ND filter is basically a pair of sunglasses you put in front of your lens to minimize the amount of light that gets through. I use a variable ND filter that takes between 3 and 11 (!) stops of light out of the equation.
Don’t be discouraged if you come home with a lot of images that are no good. This is only natural, also for experienced photographers. You may find that out of 2-300 images, there are only a few if any that works. Keep going and eventually you will succeed! Best of luck!
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