Steady Camera

How to hold the camera correctly?

How often does one read about people having problems with camera shake, or people asking what is the correct way to hold the camera? I decided to add a short description plus a few pictures to help you holding your camera correctly. In addition to holding the camera correctly there is a basic rule one can apply to prevent camera shake.

On the picture to the right, my son is holding my E-410 to take a picture. This is a very common way of holding both a compact camera plus many people hold their SLR also like this.

The problem with this grip is the moment you press the shutter people normally tend to role the camera to face towards the ground. This downward movement creates a typical blur like movement in the picture. My advice is to never hold the camera like this, its the worse way possible to hold any camera.

Basic rule of using a camera:

The longer the zoom the higher the risk of having camera shake. If you zoomed in all 300 mm with the kit lens then you have maximum risk of getting camera shake.

For example Olympus has implemented a recent firmware update on the E3 and the E-510 to take in account the increased effect of zoom on camera shake. The IS will therefor work differently when zoomed in at 300 mm compared to 50 mm.

The general rule states that one should not use a shutter speed slower than 1 over the focal length. That means if I am zoomed in at 200 mm, then my shutter speed should not be slower than 1/200. This will help you understand why people always want a zoom lens with a low f-stop like f2,8

A low f-stop like f2,8 means that the aperture is wide open and lots of “exposure” can enter through the lens. If your lens loose one stop from the minimum zoom to the full zoom position then it means the exposure has halved coming through the lens. That can make it difficult to reach a shutter speed of 1/300.

What should you do if the shutter speed is only 1/60 at 300 mm. The only way to then ensure no camera shake is to use a tripod or to rest the camera onto a bean bag or something similar. No method of holding the camera will prevent shake at low shutter speeds.

A better way of holding your camera....

The picture above and the picture below illustrates how to hold the camera correctly. Use your left hand to form a platform the camera can rest on. You then physically place the camera on top of this platform. Taking away your right hand should let the camera stay on the platform without falling off.

Its not 100% comfortable the first few times you use this method of holding a camera and it takes a little practice and time. Once mastered you will be surprised at just how steady one can hold the camera like this.

The last thing to practice is pressing the shutter button. Please take care when “moving” the shutter downwards. Develop a feel in your fingers so you can feel the shutter button as it reach the focus point and then as you gently move it right through to the shutter being activated. Its when pressing hard on the shutter button that shake occurs.

Applying these techniques will help you to develop such a feel for your camera that you will be able to go down as much as a full stop when using the above rule. That means at 300 mm you could go down to 1/200 seconds without camera shake.




	Below is a short video with more info on how to prevent camera shake.