Shake
From Nikonians Wiki
Shake, often referred to as shutter shake, is unintentional movement of the camera either because of poor camera technique or because of a too low shutter speed, which results in blur.
In general, for 35mm film, the rule of thumb is that, to avoid shake when handholding the camera, the focal length of the lens should not be longer than the inverse of the duration of the exposure. More simply, it means that the shutter speed number displayed by the camera should be the same or higher than the focal length of the lens, ie, for a lens of 50 mm focal length, the shutter speed should be 1/50 or faster, for a lens of 200 focal length, the shutter speed should be 1/200 or faster.
With digital, using DX format, the shutter speed number should be 1.5x the focal length, to take account of the crop factor.
When shooting at very high resolution, shake will be more evident than when shooting at ordinary resolution.
Shake can be largely avoided by
However, for low shutter speeds, such as 1/5, the action of pressing the shutter release and the motion of the mirror flipping up in a single lens reflex camera can also create shake. This can be avoided by
- Using a cable release or other shutter trigger, or using the camera's timer and
- Using mirror lock-up, if available on the camera
Shake can also be limited by using Vibration Reduction lenses, but this cannot be used in conjunction with a tripod. A monopod can also be used to reduce shake, especially when capturing fast action.
Motion blur can also be caused by the movement of the subject. None of the above approaches will assist this, but panning and faster shutter speeds will help substantially. A flashgun or studio strobe will assist if the subject is close enough, but this is not usually the case when shooting sport or wildlife, two situations where the subject is often moving.
- This page was last modified on 31 December 2008, at 00:16.
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