Shake Your Booty – Not Your Camera
There are many reasons why a photograph may look fuzzy and out of focus. I believe the most common one is camera shake. To get a sharp photo the camera must freeze a passing moment in time. The movement of the subject and of the camera must be minimized as much as possible to provide the sharpest image.
We don’t necessarily have control over the movement of the subject. On the other hand we actually have a lot of control over the movement of the camera. And the more we can do directly to stabilize the camera, the better our chances of a sharp, shake-free photo.
Here are some tips on keeping that camera still…
Hold the camera with two hands. This was less of a problem with film cameras. They had eye level viewfinders that pretty much required you to bring the camera right up to your face. With the development of digital cameras and their viewing screen on the back, people tend now to use that screen for framing when taking their photos. This removes the camera from your face, which was a stabilizing position. Then people got really daring and started taking one-handed photos with the camera suspended out in space. So we now have a flying camera bouncing around out there in space, suspended by one hand on an extended arm.
Let’s get back to the basics
Grab that camera with both hands. Pull it up against your face and use the eye level viewfinder to frame your shot. Now you have some stability–camera in a firm grip, pressed lightly to your face for additional support.
Next, hold your breath. Right before pressing the shutter release take a breath, let it out, and hold. This stops one more movement, and further stabilizes the camera.
Now you can squeeze the shutter release button. Just like with a firearm, squeezing the release (trigger) minimizes the movement in the action of pressing the release. This minimizes another movement of the camera.
So, to get sharper photos we now know we have to:
- Hold the camera with both hands, and press it against our face.
- Stop breathing when pressing the shutter release.
- Squeeze the shutter release.
These three actions will dramatically improve the sharpness of your photos. Try them, practice them, make them part of your picture taking.
