handheld technique! ooo-er!

The_TailGunner

The_TailGunner

The_TailGunner

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afternoon all

im having difficulty with my handheld photography, and i wondered if you folks could offer some tips?

i tend to be somewhat shaky-handed and for some mad reason i almost always have the horizon/verticals wonky. yes, i am apparently quite 'special'.

any tips or advice would be appreciated. on a similar vein, how useful are monopods?

thanks for your time (and inevitable mockery)

:D
 
I taught myself by literally holding the camera and focusing on a lightswitch (this is just what was a fair distance from me, it could be anything static) then concentrating on the central point and trying to keep it in one exact place. You'll probably notice just how much you move.

Also, rest your finger on the button and don't jab it, smooth light press is all that's needed otherwise you'll always get blurry photos from the camera moving due to a jabby finger.

Wonky landscapes: Just move your eyeball around the framing before taking the shot, eyeball up the distance of the ground from either edge. Also, check to see if your horizons are always wonky in one direction, it could just be that you've got comfortable holding the camera a certain way and it's just not straight. I had this issue and had to constantly remind myself to rotate the camera a tiny amount until I got used to it.

Also, a grid viewfinder can be bought that replaces the standard viewfinder in the camera, if you like grids then they're excellent.
 
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my posture from the start was pretty good - holding my breath was the trick for me. sounds stupid but until i was told about it i just couldnt figure out why i was blurring my handheld shots.
 
Rough rule of thumb is try to maintain a shutter speed of at least 1/focal length of lens

eg 50mm lens minimum shutter speed 1/50th second, 300mm lens minimum shutter speed 1/300th second etc.,

Tends to work reasonably well.

The other trick is to brace yourself against a wall, tree or fence
 
Take your time and get a few deep breaths. Breathe in and then half breathe out and hold it there.

Keep your elbows in close.

Squeeze the shutter button rather than pressing it.

If necessary, take the camera off single shot and take 3 (or so) shots. You'll find the second and third are generally more stable.

Alternatively, get IS ;)
 
Stand with feet about a shoulders width apart, one foot slightly infront of the other. Tuck elbows in. Wrap camera strap so it's tight across your shoulder, use the tension of the strap to stabilise the shot. Breath in, then out half-way. Hold. Fire.

I find if I do all of this right it's easy to handhold 2/focal length of lens. Of course usually I don't mess with the camera strap but I would if I need the extra stop advantage I can get.
 
thanks for the replies folks! i'll be giving your advice a whirl (apart from the IS thing- im determined to get the basics right first- im also skint :p)

i assume the 1/focal length rule is after having multiplied the focal lenth by the crop factor? (so 1/(55*1.6) for example )
 
Andy90 said:
Rough rule of thumb is try to maintain a shutter speed of at least 1/focal length of lens

eg 50mm lens minimum shutter speed 1/50th second, 300mm lens minimum shutter speed 1/300th second etc.,

Tends to work reasonably well.

The other trick is to brace yourself against a wall, tree or fence
Click to expand...

This is probably not what the OP wanted but anyway I will expand.
This assumes you are working on Full Frame, you must take the crop factor into account.

It also assumes you are average person with average stable hands and you only want a high probability of photos to be sharp, not a very high probability.

So For a Canon crop camera, 50mm would require 1/80s to get about 90% of photos sharp for the average person. To get 95% of photos sharp you might need to shoot at 1/120, if you are also have mild Parkinsons you might need to to go to 1/200 for a 50mm lens on a crop sensor to get 95% of photos sharp. On the other hand (pun not intended), good technique with stable hands you could drop much slower. 1/20 s for the light 50mm prime on a crop body should be acceptable for some lucky people.

If you are a military marksman you can hand hold long lenses much better than the average person....

The PDF (Probability Distribution Function) is an S curve, so getting towards 100% probability of sharpness requires massively faster exposures than the rule of thumb would dictate.
 
The_TailGunner said:
thanks for the replies folks! i'll be giving your advice a whirl (apart from the IS thing- im determined to get the basics right first- im also skint :p)

i assume the 1/focal length rule is after having multiplied the focal lenth by the crop factor? (so 1/(55*1.6) for example )
Click to expand...

YES, get the effective focal length first, and round up also. Better to have a faster exposure than the rule of thumb suggests.
 
D.P. said:
This is probably not what the OP wanted but anyway I will expand.
This assumes you are working on Full Frame, you must take the crop factor into account.

It also assumes you are average person with average stable hands and you only want a high probability of photos to be sharp, not a very high probability.

So For a Canon crop camera, 50mm would require 1/80s to get about 90% of photos sharp for the average person. To get 95% of photos sharp you might need to shoot at 1/120, if you are also have mild Parkinsons you might need to to go to 1/200 for a 50mm lens on a crop sensor to get 95% of photos sharp. On the other hand (pun not intended), good technique with stable hands you could drop much slower. 1/20 s for the light 50mm prime on a crop body should be acceptable for some lucky people.

If you are a military marksman you can hand hold long lenses much better than the average person....

The PDF (Probability Distribution Function) is an S curve, so getting towards 100% probability of sharpness requires massively faster exposures than the rule of thumb would dictate.
Click to expand...

you know, my hands are very stable (i paint warhammer 40k models and whatnot.), but when taking pictures, its like I have uber-flappy-arms-syndrome.
 
A rigid monopod will obviously reduce camera shake but a variation on this is to achieve the same affect using a foot strap connected to the bottom of the camera. Basically you have a length of flexible strapping with a loop at one end. You put your foot in the loop and the other end of the strap is tied to the camera, via the bottom fitting or wherever. Now the strap is just long enough such that when you put the camera to your eye, you either pull the camera up or you slightly depress your foot, the strap becomes tight and thus virtually eliminates vertical shake and helps to reduce horizontal as well. The benefit is you can take this anywere in your pocket and use when needed.
 
Bubo said:
A rigid monopod will obviously reduce camera shake but a variation on this is to achieve the same affect using a foot strap connected to the bottom of the camera. Basically you have a length of flexible strapping with a loop at one end. You put your foot in the loop and the other end of the strap is tied to the camera, via the bottom fitting or wherever. Now the strap is just long enough such that when you put the camera to your eye, you either pull the camera up or you slightly depress your foot, the strap becomes tight and thus virtually eliminates vertical shake and helps to reduce horizontal as well. The benefit is you can take this anywere in your pocket and use when needed.
Click to expand...

genius!
 
Bubo said:
A rigid monopod will obviously reduce camera shake but a variation on this is to achieve the same affect using a foot strap connected to the bottom of the camera. Basically you have a length of flexible strapping with a loop at one end. You put your foot in the loop and the other end of the strap is tied to the camera, via the bottom fitting or wherever. Now the strap is just long enough such that when you put the camera to your eye, you either pull the camera up or you slightly depress your foot, the strap becomes tight and thus virtually eliminates vertical shake and helps to reduce horizontal as well. The benefit is you can take this anywere in your pocket and use when needed.
Click to expand...

I've read that a few years ago, but not very practical if you have to move around constantly as it takes at least a few seconds to get the height correct.
 
D.P. said:
This is probably not what the OP wanted but anyway I will expand.
This assumes you are working on Full Frame, you must take the crop factor into account.

It also assumes you are average person with average stable hands and you only want a high probability of photos to be sharp, not a very high probability.

So For a Canon crop camera, 50mm would require 1/80s to get about 90% of photos sharp for the average person. To get 95% of photos sharp you might need to shoot at 1/120, if you are also have mild Parkinsons you might need to to go to 1/200 for a 50mm lens on a crop sensor to get 95% of photos sharp. On the other hand (pun not intended), good technique with stable hands you could drop much slower. 1/20 s for the light 50mm prime on a crop body should be acceptable for some lucky people.

If you are a military marksman you can hand hold long lenses much better than the average person....

The PDF (Probability Distribution Function) is an S curve, so getting towards 100% probability of sharpness requires massively faster exposures than the rule of thumb would dictate.
Click to expand...

As I said it is a rough rule of thumb.

All of the techniques highlighted by everyone here will assist in taking shake free pictures. One of the best advances recently is the advent of Image stabilisation, but there is obviously a cost fact in that

Practice is the main thing :)
 
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