Digital Photography Tip - Avoiding Blurred and Shaky Photos

Taking sharper and blur free photos first time, every time would be great. It would certainly avoid disappointment when you come to view your pictures on your computer screen and you find a few of them (and it always seem to be the important ones) turned out rather blurred. And you probably didn't notice they were blurred by looking at them on the LCD screen at the back of your camera either.

Let's examine some reasons why photographs turn out blurred and what can we do to avoid it.

Auto Focus Failure

You see a photo opportunity so you get out your camera and press the shutter all the way down to take the photo. Unfortunately the camera's auto focus failed to lock on and the result is a blurred photo - well, out of focus to be exact.

Auto focus cameras find it difficult to focus on a reflective surface, a very dark surface or something that has very little contrast. The best way to ensure the camera has focused in on the subject is to press the shutter half way, give the camera time to focus and lock on to the subject and when you get the green light, usually accompanied by a beep, press the shutter button the rest of the way down to take the picture. If it fails to lock on using this technique, release the button to cancel the focus lock and try again on another part of the subject until successful. A Focus Assist Lamp will help your camera focus on a subject in dark conditions so if you camera has this function, ensure that it's switched on.

Shutter Lag

You would think that once you press the button on your digital camera to take a picture that would be it - job done, and you move your camera away to see the picture on the LCD screen, but guess what? All you have done is taken a photograph suffering from severe motion blur because the camera was still capturing the image as you moved the camera away, half a second after you pressed the button.

All digital cameras, the less expensive ones in particular, suffer some degree of shutter lag. Once you press the button, especially if you press it fully first time to take the picture, the camera has to work out the exposure, focus the lens, process and display the image falling on the imaging sensor, charge and fire the flash if necessary and save the processed data as a file onto the memory card. The better cameras have powerful chips that can do all this very fast. Not only that, but if red-eye reduction is on, there will be pre-flashes which take up much time too.

(The less expensive cameras may also suffer from a poor screen refresh rate which means whenever you pan the camera to the left or right, even just a little bit, the screen at the back becomes all blurry as the processor tries to catch up with the ever changing image falling onto the CCD imaging sensor.)

So if you camera suffers from shutter lag, put simply, the time taken from the moment you press the shutter to the time the camera takes the actual picture, you should try these steps: Ensure you have fully charged batteries in the camera. This will help the flash charge quicker and the electronics to run that bit faster. I know this isn't always an option, but where possible get ready to take the shot by pre-focusing the camera. By pressing the shutter release half way down before you take the picture, you have given the camera time to work out the exposure, charge the flash if necessary and focus the lens. Thus when pressing the shutter fully, most of the hard work has already been done. Another way to speed things up is, if your camera supports it, use a faster memory card such as the Sandisk Ultra, or the even faster Sandisk Extreme.

Mode Selection

Selecting the correct scene mode on your camera for the situation you are in may not be the best option if you want to avoid blurred pictures. Take my Nikon Coolpix 7900 for example, if I have friends visiting in the evening (dark outside, with the lights on in the house) and I wish to take a few candied pictures of them (as you do when having a party), if I set the camera to the Indoor/Party scene, I find the colors are balanced well for the tungsten lights, but to compensate for the poor light, the camera takes the picture at a very slow shutter speed and my pictures always come out very blurred. If the camera had Second Curtain Sync the motion would look more natural, but it doesn't so it looks terrible. In Full Auto the warm colors are not there but neither is the motion blur.

Another example of the scene setting was when I was took my little girl to the fairground. I found the best setting to capture the lights and her as she passed on the ride was Full Auto with Flash, and when my little girl was passing, I panned the camera to match the speed of the ride when taking the picture. It was tricky getting the panning right and needed a few tries. You can't use Red-Eye Reduction because of the time wasted with the pre-flashes. Also the Sport scene setting with no flash (as long as there are plenty of bright lights) gave good results. The camera automatically set the shutter and ASA/ISO to a fast setting.

Moving Away Too Soon

This is the biggest mistake most new and a lot of not-so-new camera users make. When capturing a picture with a digital camera, you need to factor in shutter lag (see above) once you press the button fully. When you press the button you need to hold it there for a second to allow the camera to do it's thing. Once it's beeped, made the artificial shutter sound or the final flash has gone off when in anti-red eye mode, then you can move the camera away. Probably the worse modes or scene to be in is Indoors with Red Eye Reductions and the focusing mode set to continuous. You will have to wait for the camera to focus in on the subject, charge the flash, fire off the pre flash, fire off the final flash, and then you still have to hold it still for a second or two more as the shutter speed is so slow!

Shaky or Unsteady Hands

Good old "camera shake". If you have unsteady hands your pictures may come out blurred if the shutter speed is slow. This is exaggerated when using the zoom. The more you zoom in, the more likely your pictures will be blurred. This is why more and more digital camera manufacturers are adding stabilization technology to their cameras.

Steady Yourself

If you can use a tripod, then use one. If not, try to lean yourself against something steady. Better still, hold the camera against something steady such as a post, a tree or on top of a fence. If the subject isn't moving, try putting your camera onto something and using the self-timer to get a steady shot.

If there is nothing to lean on, stand with your legs slightly apart, and with your camera up at your face to view your shot, tuck your elbows into your sides. Take the shot being as steady as you can.