Hi and welcome to Episode 89 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode, I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
Before I go on if you have a question you would like me to answer just go to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start
Here is the answery bit
Camera shake is a term used to describe the camera moving faster than the shutter speed when you take a photo handheld resulting in blurry photos that cannot be corrected. Camera shake can be easily avoided by choosing a fast enough shutter speed, holding the camera properly and taking the photo carefully, or putting the camera on a tripod or other stable platform.
Camera shake gives blurry photos, but can easily be avoided.
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
Getting it right in camera
Right then. This is pretty much the first thing that we need to get right when taking photos handheld. You will hear the term getting it right in camera over and over, starting with this.
What actually is camera shake?
Camera shake is when you take a photo handheld, but the shutter speed is not fast enough to deal with the speed of the movement of the camera – the camera is moving faster than the shutter speed in effect.
Blimey – I had never thought about it like that but it makes perfect sense.
So I can’t fix this in Photoshop?
No. A blurry photo is a blurry photo. And taking a bad photo and fixing it later is not a good plan anyway – let’s get this right in camera.
Holding your camera properly
This is what I do. And to be honest I do this whenever I take a photo. This is good practice and should be one of the first things that you learn. This is what I do when I am shooting handheld.
Place your feet nice and wide, roughly below your shoulders. Turn your feet out slightly so they are pointing to say 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.
Hold your camera in two hands, the left hand cradling the lens and the camera body, with the right hand holding the grip with your finger above the shutter release button.
When you are ready to take a photo steady yourself, take a good breath in, roll your finger over the shutter gently and take the photo.
Breathe out and relax. And check the photo.
As I said, this is the best practice which should become second nature and be used every time you take a photo.
What shutter speed do I need to use?
1/60th second is generally considered to be the slowest safe shutter speed for taking photos handheld.
Focal lengths change this
This does depend on the focal length though. If you are using a longer focal length then you need to select a shutter speed which is greater than the reciprocal of the focal length.
The what?
I know, I hate this term. Basically, in English, if you are using a 200mm focal length then your shutter speed should be at least 1/200th second.
A word on apertures
The larger the aperture, the more light that gets into the camera. This can help you to get a faster shutter speed by choosing a larger aperture.
ISO
The faster the ISO, the more sensitive the camera sensor is to light (in theory), and the faster a shutter speed you can choose.
The exposure triangle
This is why you need to understand the exposure triangle as it helps you to make informed decisions about the camera settings that you need to choose.
Image stabilisation
In camera, in lens, these days there is all sorts of image stabilisation.
What does this do? Well if your camera has 4 stops of image stabilisation, you should be able to shoot handheld at ¼ second (1/60 second less 4 stops).
Practise
Whatever the numbers you need to practise. Find out what works for you. Take photos, and then check them on your computer – zoom in to 100% and make sure that you are taking sharp photos.
Tripods
Put your camera on a tripod and that is that sorted right? Yes, but there is one thing that you need to consider.
If you place your camera on a tripod and ham-fistedly press the shutter release button you will not get a sharp photo. But if you are very gentle you might. Better still use a remote release so you are not actually touching the camera. I use the camera self-timer.
Other devices
There are other devices these days that do the same job as a tripod – the point is that they stop the camera from moving when a photo is taken.
A very odd thing
I did have a look on Google to see what competition I am up against for this episode and was really surprised to find that the first search results were on how to add camera shake.
Why would you ever do that?
I know, I said that this episode was not from Google, but I do need to get more info and make sure that I am writing what people want to know about. But the base knowledge is all in my head ok?
And that is why you should stick with me because there is so much confusing advice out there.
What do I do?
I take every photo wherever possible on a tripod. I don’t use a tripod if I physically cannot do so, or if my camera is on top of a painter’s pole, held out of a window, that sort of thing.
And when I take photos with my camera on a tripod I simply use the camera’s 10-second self-timer – 10 seconds is plenty of time for any movement to stop after I have very gently rolled my finger over the shutter release button with my camera firmly fixed to my tripod.
The talky bit
Getting sharp handheld photos is a skill, but a skill that is easily learned.
As with all things in photography, practice makes perfect. Practise and analyse the results. See what works for you but try out all the things that I have told you in this episode.
But with care and attention, you can prevent camera shake from ruining your photos.
I love taking photos with a tripod, but when I have to shoot handheld I know what I need to do to get tack-sharp photos.
And that should be your aim – tack sharp photos. This is one of the fundamental starting points.
You cannot recover a blurry photo – I do not care what anyone says.
So avoidance is always number one.
I want to touch on ISO here. The lower the ISO the higher the quality of the image and the less rubbish and noise you get. The higher the ISO the more noise and other bad stuff you get.
But there is a balance here.
Some noise is better than a blurry photo. Some noise can be dealt with using software.
So if you have two options – blurry or noisy, choose noisy.
No one knows what noise is other than us photographers.
A mini tripod is a great thing, as you can place your camera on anything stable, such as the floor, a wall, a table, a car – anything that is not moving. So if you cannot afford, or do not want a tripod get a mini one and see how you get on. I use one for my travel photography.
One line summary
Camera shake can be eliminated using good image capture techniques and the right camera settings. With care and practice you can make camera shake very quickly a distant memory.
Related episodes
There aren’t any. I did look but nope, nothing that has anything to do with camera shake.
Next episode
Photography Explained Podcast Episode 90 – Do I Really Have To Edit My Photos? It Depends But Mainly Yes!
Now that is a great question. Do I really have to edit my photos? What do you think? What do I do?
Shout out
This space needs filling so get in touch and get your shout-out on my ever-growing podcast.
I’m done
Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out Photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
Brought to you by
This episode was brought to by water
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me 14 ½ (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.
Cheers from me Rick
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.
Let me send you stuff
I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.
And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
