Ahoj, this is Zdenka.
Nobody likes blurry photos.
New photographers
can get very frustrated, especially if they're submitting their photos
to stock agencies and get frequent rejections over blurry photos.
And this can happen with any camera, even with a smartphone.
I felt exactly the same way when I was starting 16 years ago.
So in this video, let's go through 11 reasons why
you most likely end up with a blurry photo and how you can fix it.
Also, winner from last camera challenge will be announced
in today's video and new creative camera challenge
will start today where you can win $50 Amazon gift card.
This is not sponsored by anybody.
This is coming strictly from me.
Number 1 reason for blurry photos
is usually a low shutter speed.
We all think that we can hold the camera steady
in low shutter speeds, but reality might be quite different
once you look at the photo on a computer. This is a sound of a fast shutter speed,
and this is the sound of a low shutter speed,
which is very difficult to hold steady.
So how do you know what shutter speed you should be using?
Well, that will depend on the lens you are using
and also on your personal minimum shutter speed.
Let's talk about the lenses first. Obviously
shutter speed will depend on the creative result
you are going after.
But the general rule of thumb is that the longer lens
you are going to use, the faster shutter speed you have to set.
If I'm going to be using this 50 millimeters lens,
I will set the minimum shutter speed to 1/50th.
If I use a 60 millimeters lens, I'll set it to 1/60th.
If I use 200 millimeters lens,
I'll set it to 1/200th minimum.
The longer the lens, the more shake you will get.
So with telephoto lenses, you need to have faster shutter speed
unless you have a lens with electronic stabilization
built in. This 70 - 200 millimeters lens
has that, so I can go way slower with the shutter speed,
but I still need to be very cautious how low I can actually go.
They say that you can go up to five steps slower,
but I would still take a test
photos. Series of photos to know for sure.
In fact, you should test your personal minimum shutter speed,
I'd say with all lenses you use. Take test photos
at different shutter speeds. Start with high shutter speed and then go low.
Look at the results on a computer and see where it starts to be a problem.
My hands might shake more than yours.
It depends on how many cups of coffee I had that day or if I didn't have any,
If I'm way too tired. Moving on to the reason number two,
and that could be just as simple as holding the camera incorrectly.
How many times I've seen people holding the camera
like this. One hand here, a second one under the lens,
elbow tight and close, very solid
stand, feet apart.
If you are using a viewfinder, bring it close to you.
You will get that third point of stabilization.
If you use screen like me, still keep the elbows close and tight grip on the camera.
If you use camera straps, that'll also help to stabilize the shot.
In low light, you can use something like a wall to lean on.
When I take a shot, I usually hold a breath as well,
especially if I want to get a very steady shot.
This applies to smartphones as well.
How many times I've seen people walking around, taking snapshots like this,
just snapping away. Hold it with both
hands. Tight grip with both cameras,
like this.
Especially if you are taking photos above a pool.
Because I lost lens in the pool.
Long story.
Moving on.
Another reason which is very obvious,
before I get to other reasons, like wrong focus
is simply not using a tripod when you should be using a tripod.
Low light or when you're trying to be creative
and you need intentionally use a lower shutter speed or long exposure.
For that reason, you should always have a tripod
in your kit. I know, carrying around extra things like tripod can get annoying.
You can also option for lightweight monopod,
which can give you more freedom as it is easier to move around with it,
but it will certainly help in reducing camera shake and blurry photos.
Let me return to smartphone. On this iPhone,
there is something called automatic night mode.
For that, you definitely need a tripod.
Now, I tested it a few times.
I was taking the photos handheld and it always turned out blurry.
Now many people don't realize they can actually turn it off.
So if you don't have a tripod
and you are taking a photo at night and he always end up blurry,
make sure that you actually turn that night mode off.
Then you can take a quick snapshot.
Blurry photos can also be because you are focusing on the wrong thing
and on top of it, you might have the wrong focus mode,
which will make you focus on the wrong thing while you are trying to focus.
Are you confused?
Just teasing. Let's talk about this camera here and smartphones as well.
When you buy a camera, the default autofocus setting is usually auto area.
What is that?
When you have pressed the button, you will see many squares popping up everywhere.
The camera will automatically select what it thinks it is the best to focus on.
If I move the camera a bit and keep pressing the button,
you will see that the squares will pop up somewhere else
pretty much every time. This mode is okay for most of the general photography,
but if you are going to use a very wide
aperture like F/1.8,
where you will have only a tiny portion sharp and everything else blurry,
this focusing mode will cause trouble.
Or if you will have an object placed at the edge of the frame,
it's going to be very difficult for you to focus on
what do you want.
There are two more focusing modes you need to get familiar with.
One is AF-S spot AutoFocus
and the other one is AF-C Continuous AutoFocus.
Spot AutoFocus is used for still objects.
When you use this, you will see a little square.
When you see that square on what you want
sharp, half price and hold the shutter button and then recompose the image.
Once you are ready, finish the shot by completely pressing the button down.
Continuous autofocus is used to track movement throughout the frame.
If you take photos of a person moving through the frame,
this is the one to use. On a smartphone
I see many people take photos like this.
They just press the shutter button.
They just point and they shoot.
Tap on the screen and select what do you want and focus.
You can lock it as well by pressing and holding,
and then you can still recompose the shot the way you want.
Especially if you use lenses like standard or telephoto
and you are fairly close to the object.
Tap on the screen what you want in-focus.
This lens has the widest aperture F/1.4
and the narrowest one is F/16.
If you set it too wide F/1.4
while you are trying to take, for example, a photo of group of objects,
this might be reason number five for blurry photos.
F/1.4 will give you a very narrow area, which will be sharp.
The rest will be blurry.
This is called a depth of field.
It is great if you want to take a photo of an object
which will be isolated and the background will be nice and blurry.
But if you want more area and focus, you need to increase the aperture.
If you take a shot of group of people, for example, at least F/5.6.
The more of an area you want in focus, the higher the number needs to be.
If you take photos with a very wide aperture, again, F/1.4,
there might be one more reason why you might end up with blurry photos.
And that could be reason number six.
You are way too close to the object.
Each lens has a minimum focusing distance. For example,
when I was taking photos of this flower with my other camera, Sony
and I had a 50 millimeters lens on it as I was too close to the flower,
the front of the flower was blurry and only the edges were sharp.
If I moved back a little bit more, I would have the front of the photo sharp
as now the lens would be able to focus.
If you try to take shots which are super close and again, you cannot get closer
because of this minimal focusing distance, it is better to get a lens
which is dedicated for that purpose, like a macro lens.
Learn more about the lens you are using.
Get to know your lens.
On the other hand, you might be simply too far away from the object.
If you are using such a low aperture setting,
you might not be able to focus correctly on the object.
You can be too close even when you are taking photos
with a smartphone with a lens like a standard lens, for example.
The closer you get, the more blur you will introduce in the background.
Try to move away to see if that is what you are looking for
in the shot. Or if you are too far away from your object,
move closer to focus easier.
I'm going to keep going with a F/1.4.
So if you have that aperture set on a camera,
you have your camera nicely sitting on a tripod and you are trying
to take a photo of a very specific area,
or even even if you are using a macro lens for example,
or you're taking a photo of a landscape in low light
and you can't focus correctly, you're not getting exactly what you want.
Ditch the autofocus.
Switch it to manual.
Use the focusing ring to select the area you want in focus.
And then take the shot.
Let's take a quick break and announce the winners of the last
creative camera challenge, which was the reset. Third place
goes ti this photo Golden Moody shot of trees.
Second place goes to this photo
taken by Samsung S9 plus and the winner
who is getting a $50 Amazon gift card is Janie.
The caption of this photo is: "because even though the house is old,
the sun still shines through it to make it beautiful
and give hope". Taken with Canon M50 and Sigma Lens, edited in Lightroom.
Congratulations! Let's continue. The opposite to too wide
aperture is too narrow aperture. The reason to blurry photos no.7.
If you shoot a landscape, you want more of an area in focus
so you will aim for higher numbers.
If you select F/16 and higher F/22, for example,
your shots might actually end up looking softer
because the little details in the shot will start looking blurry.
It's called diffraction optical effect.
What do you want is to select a little bit of wider aperture
like F/11 or F/12 for example.
Motion blur can be reason number nine.
If you don't want that effect. Well, what is it?
You have set a lower shutter speed.
You take a photo of an object which doesn't move.
But in a background, you have objects which are moving
like cars and they end up blurry.
Lots of times this is used intentionally
when you want to create an effect like that.
I love creating photos like that.
I love using that affect.
But if you don't want it, if you want everything sharp, then
you need to use way faster shutter speed.
Pop it up.
What ISO do you normally use when you take photos in low light?
Are you taking photos in JPEG or in a raw?
This can be reason number ten for blurry photos.
New cameras allow you to shoot in quite high
ISO while the photos will still look great.
But if you shoot in .JPEG and you have ISO way too high,
you're not going to like the results too much.
Once the camera fine tunes the photo with noise reduction,
it will be a bit soft. In low light
always shoot raw.
There will be more data in the image, certainly more detail.
Besides keeping your lenses and sensor clean,
and this applies to smartphones as well.
Grab the smartphone wipe the lenses once in a while.
I don't even want to know what some people have all over their lenses.
Another reason for blurry photos could simply be
outdated slow cameras and just low quality lenses.
Some lenses are simply soft.
They are sharp in the middle, but softer at the edges.
And I see it when I review lenses on this channel.
For example, this kit lens is absolutely bad compared to this prime lens.
It is slow, bad in low light.
This one is fast and great in low light.
Each lens is the sharpest at certain aperture setting,
so you should be paying attention
every time you are watching a lens review before you purchase the lens.
So you know
all the good things about the lens
and also, you know, all the limitations you are going to face.
I am going to list a whole bunch of videos I created in the past
where you can learn about focus and aperture.
You will find it below the video in a video description
for those interested. Creative camera challenge announcement time.
The outdoors season is just starting this year in Canada.
You have exactly two months until May 21st 2022
to capture any outdoor photos, which cannot be blurry.
They need to be sharp where it is intended to be.
Apply any of the tips you learned in today's video. Landscape, movement,
low light photos, objects, anything goes.
All need to be taken outdoors.
The most interesting shots will win $50
Amazon Gift Card.
Feel free to comment what gear you are using and camera settings.
You can upload your photos to ZD Camera Challenge Facebook group.
The link is below in a video description. Best of luck.
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Cau..... Ahoj....