Camera Shake... Blurred Photos

Today we will discuss a little about Camera Shake. Common mistake made by newbies.

Basically, blur photos are caused by either by out of focus or by camera shake.

Camera shake is caused when we are not able to hand hold the camera while we are capturing the photo causing blurred photos.

Back in the days of 35mm (which I started with) you don't have unlimited digital images to capture. You are limited by 36 shots... of which you are not even sure how it will turn out till you develop it 2 days later.

So every shot... must count. You cannot afford to make simple mistakes like camera shakes... period

To the most of us, we use the Reciprocal Rule, which minimizes camera shakes.

The Reciprocal Rule states that you can safely handhold the camera if your shutter speed is faster than the reciprocal of your effective focal length

Example:
Focal length is 120mm* equiv: Shutter speed should be faster than 1/125s
Focal length is 28mm* equiv: Shutter speed should be faster than 1/30s

As you can see, the longer the focal length, the faster you will need the shutter speed to be.

*Please note that I have written the focal length in the equivalent length because, most digital camera come with a crop factor of 1.6 times. Meaning you have to take whatever focal length you have and times it with 1.6. I will explain more about the crop factor next time.

By following the simple rule, you'll be able to minimise your mistakes. Of course as you get better with photography, you'll know what is the slowest speed that you could hand hold at.

I personally was able to hand hold at 1/5s at 105mm with IS. That was probably a lucky shot, but it is not impossible. With your digital camera, you could just practise and practise.

Most of the new Canon Lens comes with the Image Stabilizer (IS) feature which will greatly help with camera shakes. It will allow you to hand hold up to 3 stops slower.

The photo is very sharp. Object is in focus and there is no indication of a camera shake.

Shutter Speed: 1/13s
Aperture: f5.6
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 114mm equiv
IS Mode: ON

The photo is extremely blur. There is a very severe camera shake, then again, it is almost impossible to hand hold at that speed.

Shutter Speed: 3.2s
Aperture: f32
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 114mm equiv
Lens IS Mode: ON

Picture is blur. It is obvious that there is a slight camera shake and not out of focus. Look at the cat's left ear, you'll see an double image confirming the camera shake.

Shutter Speed: 1s
Aperture: f18
ISO: 1600
Focal Length: 127mm

What is Exposure?

One of the most important thing that you need to understand about photography is exposure. Exposure represents the correct amount of light required to correctly capture the scene. Photography, by definition is actually the act of capturing light onto film, but in the digital age, onto your light sensor instead :P

I know it is a little hard to visualise, how do we measure how much light is required for the particular scene. So to makes thing a little simpler for you, can you visualise a cup of water instead?

To have a correctly exposed shot, it is the same as making the perfect cup of coffee. First, you'll need to have 250ml of water. Too much and it will be too diluted, too little and your coffee will be too thick.

Just like photography, if you have too much light, your picture would be overexposed, and if you have too little light, it will be underexposed.

The photo above, shows a correctly exposed (left photo) shot of a milk carton. The underexposed shot (right top photo) looks a little too dark, while the overexposed shot (right bottom photo) looks too bright, till details of the carton are loss.

So, how do we control how much light is required. All cameras have the ability to control the amount of light, either through the shutter speed or the aperture. Aperture basically controls how much is allowed onto your sensor, while shutter speed controls the time the aperture is kept opened.

Think of it like controlling your water tap. If you keep your tap open longer (longer shutter), you'll have more water through. Either that or, if you have bigger tap head/pipe (big aperture) you'll get more water in the same amount of time.


The photo above, shows a lens with its aperture set. As you can see, in the first photo, it has the aperture wide open, allowing the maximum light through, while the second photo, shows only a tiny hole, thus allowing minimal light through.

How I Started Photography?

I started photography because I was fascinated by all the beautiful photographs I have seen all over the Internet. I was also amazed by my friends photos, those he captured with his SLR.

So, being an Google person, I spent the next month studying all the technical stuff required to be a photographer. That was 7 years ago. So many years have passed, the good old days of film are gone, and we have moved into the digital age. Post processing used to be a done by pros, but today it is done by everyone.

I bought my first SLR, a Canon EOS 3000 which was about $500AUD. It was the most value for money camera that I could afford at that time. I still remember, in the days of the film, you only had limited shots, since each roll of film has only 36 shots. And you had to wait 2-3 days before the film could be developed. If you had missed the moment, you would have missed the opportunity forever.

Fast forward to today. In the digital age, everybody has a digital camera. Whether it is a 2mp camera in your phone, digital compact camera or a DSLR, everybody has a digital camera. Whether you are at a wedding, or at Sunday lunch, you are bound to see somebody with their digital camera firing away.

What I would be doing in my blog is to write articles, where it everybody can relate to. It will simple technical stuff, where anybody can use to improve their photography. You'll be surprise what simple stuff you could do, to improve your photos.