Strategies For More Steadily Handholding Your Camera

Japanese Hybrid Dogwood blossom.  A sure sign of Spring! (click to enlarge)

This post is primarily targeted for my fellow 'older' photographers but I think the information could help any photographer who finds handheld photography much more desirable than lugging around and setting up a tripod everywhere.

For a few years now, I've practiced a few techniques to better ensure my handheld images are sharp.  I'm now 70 years old (someone must have made a mistake on my birth certificate as I don't feel or act my age! LOL) and as I've aged over the past several years I began to notice something about my digital images.  I noticed that, on occasion, there started to appear a bit of a very slight blur in some of my image files.  Not enough blur to notice it when viewing an image at normal distance, but visible when viewing at 100% on my monitor.  A very slight blur only visible at high magnification isn't something most people would worry about but I do.  I'm kind of really OCD about my images.  Also, this slight blur doesn't seem to be the result of missed focus.  After analysis, I've attributed this to the occasional slight movement that evidently takes place when I press the shutter button.  As a result, I implemented a few strategies to mitigate this blur.  

First, if your camera has in-body-image-stabilization (IBIS), use it.  It helps.  It won't necessarily cure all your ills, but everything helps, especially at slow shutter speeds.  IBIS is a wonderful technological crutch on which we should lean whenever appropriate.  Same with in-lens stabilization.  Our cameras and lenses are technological marvels.  Take advantage of that technology to improve your art.

Second, I changed my stance when shooting.  I advocate standing in a similar manner as one does when shooting a firearm.  If you are unfamiliar with that, briefly, stand at a 30-45 degree angle to your subject with the left side of your body forward (there is a reason for this), with feet shoulder-width apart and your left leg slightly forward of the right.  Finally, tuck your elbows into your side.  The reason to place your left foot forward is so your left elbow presses against your left side and that allows your left hand to firmly cup the bottom of the lens.  That triangulation by itself helps a lot in steadying your camera., especially with larger lenses.

Third, when actually photographing, press the camera's eye cup firmly against your eye as the contact forms a solid connection to provide additional steadiness.  Holding your camera out in front of you and using the LCD to compose is counter to decreasing camera movement.

Fourth, I changed my camera settings to high speed frame advance.  In other words, when I press the shutter once, three exposures are made in rapid sequence before I let up on the shutter button.  This is one of the first things with which I experimented.  I found that the benefit of three exposures is that the second and third exposures don't have any potential camera shake due to downward pressure on the shutter button.  While there might occasionally be slight movement blur in the first exposure, I never saw it in the second or third exposure.  But this has a downside which I'll get to in a minute.

Fifth, and this is something we often forget, pay attention to what shutter speed is set in your camera before pushing the shutter button.  I mostly use aperture priority which allows my camera to select an appropriate shutter speed.  I can't tell you how many (hundreds?) of times over the past many years that I made photos only to find them with a bit of either subject or camera movement blur because the shutter speed was too long.  After many mistakes, I always glance at the shutter speed in my viewfinder before pressing the shutter button.

Sixth, if you have a mirrorless camera, set your shutter to "electronic front curtain."  That way, the shutter will open electronically and not with a physical metal bladed shutter moving across the frame then abruptly stopping, creating what is called 'shutter shock.'  Shutter shock is a real issue and your camera may or may not suffer from it at certain shutter speeds.  Hopefully, in most latest generation cameras, the shutter shock issue has been solved.

These techniques fully solved my problem.  However, using the 'three exposures' technique, the downside is that for every scene I photographed and every exposure I made, I now have at least three image files.  If your camera is one with a huge amount of pixels, the cost in extra space for file storage can become excessive.  Additionally, when uploading your images into your computer, you basically have tripled the time.  Looking at this particular technique is there another way to achieve the same result without multiple exposures?  Maybe.  I'm currently conducting an experiment to see if a viable alternative exists.  I'm now trying two things.

First, I am now setting my camera back to single shot frame advance.  This strategy only works for those conditions when the moment of exposure does not have to be precise (like in a wedding, sports, birds, wildlife, "Decisive Moment," etc.).  I now am setting my self-timer or exposure delay for 2 seconds.  How does this help when handholding?  When I assume my best stance, place my eye to the viewfinder, then press the shutter, there is a short delay before exposure, just as you would do if your camera was on a tripod.  Hopefully, that counteracts any camera movement resulting from pushing the shutter button.  So far, I find this works pretty well.  I’ll keep experimenting.

Second, I've tried 'rolling' my index finger onto the shutter instead of a straight down press.  That potentially removes much of the downward force.  I roll mine from the first joint of my index finger forward toward the end of my finger, not from the side.  I find this a bit unusual to get used to but I keep practicing.

So there you have it.  Six strategies and two alternatives to better handhold your camera and increase your chances of getting sharp images.

a) Employ IBIS if your camera has that feature

b) Adopt a better stance

c) Press your camera's viewfinder tightly to your eye to create three point contact for added stability

d) Set your camera to high speed advance and make three exposures with one press of the shutter

e) Pay attention to your camera's shutter speed before pressing the shutter

f) Utilize electronic first curtain shutter (or even fully electronic shutter if your camera doesn’t have the option of first curtain electronic shutter).  This may work only with non-fast moving subjects to avoid a ‘rolling shutter’ effect.

Two additional strategies are:

1) Even though you are handholding your camera, utilize exposure delay or the self-timer to allow you to fully steady your camera before the shutter fires

2) Practice 'rolling' your finger onto the shutter button instead of pressing it.

If all of the above fails, then drag that tripod out and use it!

I hope this is helpful.  We all want to make sharp, blur free images and it is a nasty surprise if we get home and look at our images on our computer monitors and they have a bit of blur, no matter what the reason.

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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