Ready, Steady…shoot!

Ready, steady…shoot!

By: Marc Henderson – MBP Staff Photographer.

We’ve all seen and taken blurry photos, some are from being out of focus, but I’d bet that most were from camera shake. Camera shake comes from having a too slow a shutter speed, for the conditions, to make a sharp exposure.

When there’s plenty of light, like on a sunny day, camera shake doesn’t happen that often, but when it’s overcast or the photo that you want to take is in a very shady spot or even indoors, then camera shake can be a bit of a problem

We could attach our cameras to a tripod every time we take a picture, but who wants to do that? You can also activate the flash, but that’s not always appropriate in how you might want to capture the image.

My general rule of thumb, in natural light with a handheld camera, is hold the camera firmly and steady.

When I say firmly, I not just talking about holding the camera with a firm grip, but also bracing your arms against your body, your head making contact with the camera as you compose the photo through your viewfinder. Also, keep your left hand under the camera with the lens being supported with the part of your hand between the thumb and fingers.

You can see what I’m talking about in these two photos. In the first example, you can see the fella just standing there with the camera at his face. His elbows are out, face is not against the camera and his feet are side by side.

In second photo, his arms are firmly against his body, face is against the camera and his right foot is behind his left.

Ah..See what I’m getting at? Just those few actions can really steady things and help you get that sharp photo that you’re wanting.

This kind of stuff will become second nature after a while.

Have fun.

Till next time…