How do you get sharper photos?
Well.....there's no one, simple answer to that question.
There's a whole lot of reasons why your photos may or may not be sharp.
So welcome to "How to avoid camera shake."
Part 1 of my how to get sharper photos series.
Don't go away.
Hi there. Barry Callister for Barry Callister Photography
Giving you hints, tips, and tricks for better Nature Photography.
Now I'm assuming that because you've searched for "how to get sharp photos" that you understand what a sharp photo is
Just in case you don't, let's talk about that for a minute.
You've probably heard photographers throwing around terms like sharp-as-a-tack,
tack-sharp, crisp, and other things like this to describe their photos.
Now what does it mean?
Basically it means that they've been able to use their camera to capture an image
that is pretty close to what the human eye would see,
in terms of how defined the edges of things in the photo are.
So let's take a look at an example...
so that you can see what I mean.
So if we look at these two photos here of a female King Parrot that I took.
These were taken on the same day, at roughly the same time; 9:16 in the morning,
one second apart, as you can see....so
If I zoom in here to 1:2,
I can instantly tell that this photo on the right here is sharper than the one on the left.
You may not be able to see that on the video but all these feathers here behind the eye
back here on the back of her head are a lot more sharp,
the lines are a lot more defined than they are in
the feathers over here on the one on the left.
And if I centre them and I zoom in to 1:1,
you should be able to see that. Here,
nice, sharp, crisp edges...here, blurry.
Same around the eye, the feathers here
behind the eye. Nice and sharp here...
little bit blurry and soft over there.
So that's what a sharp photo looks like.
Now of course these days, we have all these fantastic programs like Lightroom and Photoshop
and the list goes on...that can help us to sharpen our
photos after we've take them. But if you
don't get it right in-camera to begin with
then that process is going to be a lot harder.
So, the first thing that can affect
the sharpness of your photos in-camera is what's called camera shake.
Now this is where, if you're hand-holding your camera...
you are shaking, a little bit. You may think that your hands are
quite steady but they're really not. And if you're using a very
long zoom lens, or a very long prime lens
that shake is going to be much more defined.
So they way to combat this is of course to put your camera on a tripod.
Now I do have a video about ways to steady your camera
without a tripod. I've linked that up in the cards above my head
right now. So go and have a look at that and come right back.
If you have to hand-hold your camera, say you don't have a tripod at all,
or you just don't have one handy. The thing that you can do,
is to brace your elbows into your rib cage like this.
This gives your camera a lot steadier platform to rest on
your arms aren't just flailing around in mid-air
So you're not having to rely on your muscles so much. It's a lot steadier,
and it should eliminate a lot of your camera shake
If it doesn't, what your gonna have to do is choose a higher shutter speed
and that will get rid of the shake. You may have to adjust your other settings.
You may have to adjust your ISO, maybe even your Aperture
but this will help eliminate that camera shake.
Now, the other thing that can cause camera shake...is...
a...an over-excited shutter finger! (laughs)
Now, if you're
holding your camera correctly to begin with,
but you are..
slamming away at that shutter button, you can see
the front of my camera is moving quite a lot.
So that is an unnecessary amount of force on the shutter button.
You need to just lightly press the shutter...
The buttons are designed to be super-sensitive so that you don't
have to apply a lot of pressure. So don't be slamming away at that
shutter button, or you will get camera shake.
Now in order for you to know whether or not you're getting camera shake in your photos,
you kind of need to know what it looks like.
So I'll take a couple of shots here of this log....
First-of-all, I'll take one off-tripod so I
get a bit of camera shake. And I'm using a fairly low shutter speed
I'm gonna use....
Um, that's 1/40th of a second, I might go...
drop my ISO a little bit and just go up to
1/25th of a second
And I'm gonna press the shutter button fairly firmly so I get...
a little bit of shake in there.
And then we'll take a shot on-tripod,
so that the camera should be steady. It'll be a fairly
fairly similar angle, maybe a lot lower of course but....
and these are the....
same settings......(shutter click)
Now we'll take those into the computer and...have a loot at the difference.
So here I have the two example shots of the log in the computer.
I actually had to take a second shot
of the camera shake example because it didn't....
work properly, I didn't have enough shake in it for you to see that.
So it's actually on the right, the tripod shot is on the left.
So if I select both of them and I....
put them into Compare View and....
I'll swap them around here
First-of-all we'll have a look at this section of the log.
So remember on the left...we have...
our camera shake example. On the right we have the tripod photo.
And you can see, instatly...
the one on the right is a lot sharper,
this one's a lot blurrier on the left; this is our camera shake example.
And if I go to this area up here.....
where the Ferns are, it's immediately apparent.
That my friends....is camera shake.
There's been an awful lot of movement there
and it's severely blurred the photo.
Now make sure that when you do put your camera onto a tripod
if your lens has Image Stabilisation, or Vibration Control, Vibration Reduction,
or whatever it's called on the lens.
Switch that to off, because that will affect the sharpness of your photos.
especially at slower shutter speeds.
So there you go, that is camera shake and a few ways in which you can avoid it.
Part one in my series of how to get sharper photos.
Make sure you watch the second video in the series,
when it's done it will be linked up on my left here,
on your right-hand-side of the video.
Currently, it's not done yet but as soon as it is, it will be over there
so make sure you go and check that out and that'll lead you through to the
other videos in the series.
Be sure, before you leave, if you liked this video give it a Like,
hit Subscribe if you want to and ding that little notification bell.
Also check out the video description underneath
for links to where else you can find me online.
Down there is a link to my Facebook page
(address on the screen right now),
where you can find loads of my Nature Photography.
If you like Nature Photography, please check that out.
Until next time.....
I'm Barry Callister for Barry Callister Photography.
Get out there. Take some wicked shots
And I'll see....you....soon.