Cam­era Move­ment

Anoth­er seem­ing­ly obvi­ous bit of advice is to not move the cam­era while tak­ing the pic­ture. The small size and live view LCD screens on point and shoot cam­eras make it a chal­lenge to hold those cam­eras steady. While elec­tron­ic inno­va­tions such as Image Sta­bi­liza­tion (to be cov­ered lat­er) are extreme­ly help­ful and work well, mov­ing the cam­era can and will reduce the sharp­ness of your pic­tures. Take pos­i­tive con­trol and keep that cam­era still.

Shut­ter speed can over­come cam­era move­ment and will be cov­ered in anoth­er post.

Com­pos­ing the pic­ture on the LCD screen on the back of the cam­era seems like a great idea. But hold­ing the cam­era out at arm’s length is an unsta­ble pos­ture. And then you push on the top of the cam­era to take the shot. Grav­i­ty, mass, bal­ance and iner­tia are all work­ing against your efforts to keep that cam­era still and cap­ture a sharp pic­ture.

One solu­tion is to use the view find­er, if you have one. Plac­ing the view find­er to your eye adds a point of con­tact and helps steady the cam­era. If your cam­era does not have a view find­er, well, I sug­gest you look for one on your next cam­era.

Oth­er­wise, steady your arms by lean­ing against any­thing, put your elbows on a table, or your shoul­der against a wall. Keep your arms close to your body.

DSLRs have more heft and are eas­i­er to hold steady, that is unless you have been shoot­ing all day, then it feels like a lead weight. I rec­om­mend using live view only when you need it, like to shoot over the heads of a crowd using that fan­cy swing out and swiv­el LCD screen. Oth­er­wise, use the view find­er to get that extra con­tact point. Keep your arms close to your side. Lean against some­thing, espe­cial­ly when using slow shut­ter speeds. Prop the cam­era itself against the wall too for an addi­tion­al con­tact point. One foot for­ward is more sta­ble then side by side. The more sta­ble you hold the cam­era, the slow­er the shut­ter speed you can get away with and the low­er the ISO you can use.

Even your breath­ing can cre­ate cam­era move­ment. That is what makes the biathlon an Olympic sport. The ath­letes con­trol their breath­ing to steady their aim. Pho­tog­ra­phy is not yet an Olympic event but to get every ounce of sharp­ness, think about your breath­ing while shoot­ing. Just before tak­ing the pic­ture, take an easy breath, let half out, hold it and snap the shot.

The mes­sage here is to think about how to steady your cam­era with every shot. It is some­thing you can con­trol. Do not rely total­ly on Image Sta­bi­liza­tion, auto focus, high ISO and a fast shut­ter speed, not if you are aim­ing for the sharpest pic­ture you can get.

More focus to come…