What Is The Lowest Shutter Speed You Can Use For Handheld Shooting?
Once you start taking photos there are many things that become clear.
The first is that light is vital to create a nice photograph.
The second thing is that digital photography has made things much quicker and simpler.
Lastly, we understand that camera usage is crucial to getting good quality photographs.
As soon as these three things meet we can start to feel pleased with our images.
Once we recognize that various subjects and distinctive scenes need different adjustments, we can then go ahead to take beautiful shots.
Shutter speed and f-stop are the two main things we must concern ourselves when aiming for sharp pictures.
Shutter speed is responsible for the amount of time that the shutter is open.
Aperture is responsible for depth of field and light coming into the sensor.
Once you start exploring this closely you will soon realise that there's more to the shutter than letting light in.
If you are photographing at night, for instance, and you choose a shutter speed that is overly quick, then you will find your images will be very underexposed.
The shutter simply closes too fast to let any decent amount of light in.
Alternatively, if you choose a speed that is too slow, you may run the run the risk of over exposing your scene.
At times, when our shutter is too slow we can create blurry motion.
Blurring the motion is good for special effects, but not good when you want tack sharp pictures.
Shutter speed is one of the main factors to image clarity.
An unintentional blurry photograph is often because of hand holding the slr when the shutter is slow.
It is really difficult to take a photo with a slow shutter speed and get absolute sharpness.
You can have the best intentions in the world yet still manage to blur the shot just by standing there.
So what is the slowest shutter speed you can use when handholding the camera? In my professional experience it lives anywhere between 1/80th and 1/ 50th of a second.
I can quite confidently shoot at 1/80th of a second and see no blur.
A number of people I know can shoot at 1/50th of a second and see no blur.
You may be dissimilar.
Your neighbour or friend may be different to you and me.
This won't make it correct or wrong.
It simply means there is a cutoff point that we can go.
A useful way to develop the sharpness in your images, with no a tripod, is to position your shutter speed at the same number as your focal length.
If you are working with a 50 mm lens then try not to shoot slower than 1/ 50th of a second.
If you are shooting with a 200 mm lens then try not to shoot less than 1/200th of a second.
The further away your subject is the longer the focal length you will need.
The longer the focal length you will require a faster shutter speed is necessary.
This is due to the fact that the more you zoom in the more the image shakes and moves in the frame.
You will have to balance this out by choosing a faster shutter speed.
The smallest motion can totally distort your image.
This comes about simply from breathing or just standing.
If you are shooting with an SLR you'll be able to see what focal length you have by looking down the barrel of your lens.
Around your lens is a sequence of numbers.
If you have a 24 to 105 mm lens you will see a succession of numbers ranging from 24 right through to 105.
As you zoom closer into your scene you will see a little indicator next to the number.
For example if you see this small indicator pointing to the number 85 then you understand that you are working at 85 mm.
Matching the shutter speed and focal length numeric value is a good way to increase image clarity.
However there is a limit to this.
You cannot use this rule for very slow shutter speeds except you use a tripod.
For example if you are photographing a landscape scene at 20 mm then I can promise that setting your shutter speed to 20th of a second will not advance your clarity.
You need to be sensible about how slow you can go with your shutter speed before you need the help of your tripod.
Matching your shutter speed to your focal length to attain sharpness may not be observable right away.
You will not be able to see a massive change for the better when you take a look at the shot on the LCD screen on the camera.
Only when you get your photo into Photoshop or Lightroom is when you will observe the difference.
Once you zoom into your photo you will see variation in sharpness.
Once you see the sharpness is held throughout the image you will not need to over sharpen your images too much in postproduction.
The first is that light is vital to create a nice photograph.
The second thing is that digital photography has made things much quicker and simpler.
Lastly, we understand that camera usage is crucial to getting good quality photographs.
As soon as these three things meet we can start to feel pleased with our images.
Once we recognize that various subjects and distinctive scenes need different adjustments, we can then go ahead to take beautiful shots.
Shutter speed and f-stop are the two main things we must concern ourselves when aiming for sharp pictures.
Shutter speed is responsible for the amount of time that the shutter is open.
Aperture is responsible for depth of field and light coming into the sensor.
Once you start exploring this closely you will soon realise that there's more to the shutter than letting light in.
If you are photographing at night, for instance, and you choose a shutter speed that is overly quick, then you will find your images will be very underexposed.
The shutter simply closes too fast to let any decent amount of light in.
Alternatively, if you choose a speed that is too slow, you may run the run the risk of over exposing your scene.
At times, when our shutter is too slow we can create blurry motion.
Blurring the motion is good for special effects, but not good when you want tack sharp pictures.
Shutter speed is one of the main factors to image clarity.
An unintentional blurry photograph is often because of hand holding the slr when the shutter is slow.
It is really difficult to take a photo with a slow shutter speed and get absolute sharpness.
You can have the best intentions in the world yet still manage to blur the shot just by standing there.
So what is the slowest shutter speed you can use when handholding the camera? In my professional experience it lives anywhere between 1/80th and 1/ 50th of a second.
I can quite confidently shoot at 1/80th of a second and see no blur.
A number of people I know can shoot at 1/50th of a second and see no blur.
You may be dissimilar.
Your neighbour or friend may be different to you and me.
This won't make it correct or wrong.
It simply means there is a cutoff point that we can go.
A useful way to develop the sharpness in your images, with no a tripod, is to position your shutter speed at the same number as your focal length.
If you are working with a 50 mm lens then try not to shoot slower than 1/ 50th of a second.
If you are shooting with a 200 mm lens then try not to shoot less than 1/200th of a second.
The further away your subject is the longer the focal length you will need.
The longer the focal length you will require a faster shutter speed is necessary.
This is due to the fact that the more you zoom in the more the image shakes and moves in the frame.
You will have to balance this out by choosing a faster shutter speed.
The smallest motion can totally distort your image.
This comes about simply from breathing or just standing.
If you are shooting with an SLR you'll be able to see what focal length you have by looking down the barrel of your lens.
Around your lens is a sequence of numbers.
If you have a 24 to 105 mm lens you will see a succession of numbers ranging from 24 right through to 105.
As you zoom closer into your scene you will see a little indicator next to the number.
For example if you see this small indicator pointing to the number 85 then you understand that you are working at 85 mm.
Matching the shutter speed and focal length numeric value is a good way to increase image clarity.
However there is a limit to this.
You cannot use this rule for very slow shutter speeds except you use a tripod.
For example if you are photographing a landscape scene at 20 mm then I can promise that setting your shutter speed to 20th of a second will not advance your clarity.
You need to be sensible about how slow you can go with your shutter speed before you need the help of your tripod.
Matching your shutter speed to your focal length to attain sharpness may not be observable right away.
You will not be able to see a massive change for the better when you take a look at the shot on the LCD screen on the camera.
Only when you get your photo into Photoshop or Lightroom is when you will observe the difference.
Once you zoom into your photo you will see variation in sharpness.
Once you see the sharpness is held throughout the image you will not need to over sharpen your images too much in postproduction.