Best way to avoid camera shake

Wez

Basically, I've been running good auld neopan 400 at 200 to drag out the exposure and get a bit of movement in my pics, but I accidentally left the camera at 200 when I put in another roll, went into town and didn't bring my tripod and a lot of my pics are taken at 1/30 or even 1/15 and I had to try keep a steady hand..

So I was wondering, what's the best way of avoiding camera shake when forced to take slow shots and can't rest the camera on anything? I find that if I exhale and take the picture they tend to come out alright, but this seems to have mixed results sometimes..

Anyone got any good tips to try?

Karoma

Use the hand-string (if) provided + tension + two hands + control breathing(as you said above) = OK -to an extent. Alternatively, a very long string + standing on it. This is not something I've tried for photography(Only binoculars-and it works).
Long exposures require a tripod, monopod, or beanbag - you can get small solutions that can be carried reasonably easily & carried around with you most of the time.

Fajitas!

As Karoma said, use the strap. Wrap it around your right hand, until the camera fits into your palm, and it's pretty tight.

Find something, anything to get your legs steady, crouch if needs be.

I don't pay much attention to breathing though, I'd rather lean against something! You get good at it. I can shoot at 1/6 of a second without shake during gigs!

One last thing...you can alsways underexpose by a stop and recover it in the darkroom...

Karoma

I don't pay much attention to breathing though, I'd rather lean against something! You get good at it.

A good point, which I neglected to state... possibly due to my silly choices to lean against in the past... >_>

Wez

Some really good ideas there lads, never woulda thought of leaning against something, woulda just tried resting the camera on something, but I'll give it a shot!

That 1/6 is pretty impressive! Whenever I have to go to around 1/30 or longer I always use the smallest focal length possible to try cut out shake, prolly the only 'trick' I've picked up! I'll give some of those tips a shot! Cheers lads!

Roen

Drink beer,
it reduces hand tremor. Two members of the Bulgarian pistol team were disqualified in one the 70's Olympic games for having a pint or two before the competition to reduce any hand shake they may have had.
I'll try dig up details.

leinsterman

Roen wrote:

Drink beer,
it reduces hand tremor. Two members of the Bulgarian pistol team were disqualified in one the 70's Olympic games for having a pint or two before the competition to reduce any hand shake they may have had.
I'll try dig up details.

Yes ... good old Bill Bill Werbenuik use to drink 10 pints before a match to steady his "hereditary hand tremor" ... and he was ranked in the top 10 snooker players for much of his career ... he also smoked 40 fags a day and took drugs ... and was 20 stone ...

of course ... he's dead now ... died an early death ... not sure why ...

mloc

Low-dose valium (diazepam). Snipers use it. It's great.

Ah no but seriously, practice I guess.

Oriel

Roen wrote:

Drink beer.

That's why my concert photos turn out ok!

Merrion

Hold something that weighs more than the camera at the same time - a 2 litre bottle of water is a good one for example.

Or make yourself into your own tripod by bracing your elbows tight in to your side and pushing the camera against your head.

Wez

Merrion wrote:

Or make yourself into your own tripod by bracing your elbows tight in to your side and pushing the camera against your head.

Sounds like something from Blue Peter! lol

Good idea though, some great ideas from pretty much everyone that posted, cheers! I know stopping shake comes after taking pictures for a while, I'm not all that bad now, but when it comes to slightly longer exposures, I'm not as good.

JMcL

What I do is wrap the strap once around my wrist then hook the strap around my elbow, making sure it's tight. It works quite well.

Other than that, if you can find something to lean against to prevent you swaying (or to counteract against all that beer Roen made you drink )

Huggy Bear

A rule of thumb would be to Invert the focal length and that's your Shutter speed you set the camera to ...
i.e lens focal length 200mm ... shudder speed of 1\250 s will negate shake ...
works the majority of the time ...

joolsveer

Huggy Bear wrote:

.............shudder speed of 1\250 s will negate shake ...
works the majority of the time ...

How do you set the shudder speed?

Huggy Bear

'tis the way you say it "shutter"

that's what ya get for not re reading what ya type :eek:

Valentia

Best advice I ever got was to breathe OUT and hold then fire. Not IN. Makes a big difference. Just remember to start breathing again;)

Paddy@CIRL

Stop reading message boards and practice ?

Roen

If you're breathing out and holding it make sure to only let half your breath out and then hold, rather than breathing fully out and then holding.

elven

I wish that 1/focal length worked for me. I'm a wreck. At 125 with the 50mm in low light it's soft as a marshmallow...

kuroino

elven, it may be caused not by motion blur, but by something else (noise, being out of focus etc.) or by motion blur created due to movement of the object. and of course you have to hold camera well by two hands, press your elbows against your body and put your feet in a steady stance before shooting.

Fionn

i've done some shooting - like weapons and that and competition target shooting stuff too (well a little - long long time ago)
so some of that should apply here too
Obviously any aids to stability are a + like leaning against something or laying down etc. but thats not always possible so heres some the the scoop on what the marksmen
stance: the whole idea is to form as much of a triangle as possible with the camera and the body
Standing - one leg bent the other rigid, shoulder width apartbent leg leading, weight mostly on the straight one. Left elbow tucked into the left hip (classic target shooting pose)

Kneeling don't put your elbows on your knee (too much wobble) get the arm over the knee and force down, other elbow should be tucked down against the body as much as possible.
Holding aming and shooting
The camera should be held firmly not too tightly (too tight will cause shuddering) with opposing preassure from each hand this will lock the grip somewhat.
Target shooters keep both eys open, the thinking behind this is the focusing eye takes in the right amount of light to aim properly,
breathing should be restricted on the outward breath but not before the lungs have fully exhaled
Finally practise the trigger finger (shutter finger pressing) so that only the finger moves and not the hand.

oh BTW i would challenge the beer thing!! i've tried that - sure doesn't work for me!!!

kuroino

> Finally practise the trigger finger (shutter finger pressing) so that only the
> finger moves and not the hand.

That is really important. Apart from the motion blur, improper way of pushing the shutter button can result in pictures where the horizon is not in fact horizontal (irrespectively to the shutter speed of course).

Huggy Bear

After all that advise, and using the advise in this thread, if you still get camera shake try this ... put the camera into continuous shooting mode ... take three continuous shots of your subject or scene and keep the middle one ...
The first shot may have shake on the pressing of the shutter release button, the third may contain shake as a result of removing you finger from the shutter release button, while the middle fame should contain the minimal amount of camera shake!!! Digital is great as this technique costs nothing...