Hand Held photography with long shutter speeds
This article is about breaking the old rule of thumbs that says you can't shoot at shutter speeds slower than 1/focal length.
If I get really inspired some day, I may even add some illustrations, but not today.
When I started photographing 18 years ago, image stabilizing wasn't around. And I, being 15 at the time, couldn't possibly afford it if it had been available. Since I loved to shoot at night, and didn't own a tripod, I started to practice shooting hand held at really long shutter speeds. I got a few tips from a cousin who was into shooting rifles and I practiced without film in my room for hours.
Canon EOS 5D, EF 200mm 1:2.8, T: 1/30s
What can you achieve
That depends, but now, under fairly good conditions, I get a decent hit rate at one stop below the rule, and it's not too bad at two stops either. I am not well known for a steady hand, it's shaking like everyone else's, but I have managed to find ways to work around it.
Your chances of getting a sharp shot depends on many factors.
- Your physical shape. And how fast your pulse is when you shoot.
- Your mental state. How calm you are.
- How much time you have to prepare the shot.
- How many tries you have before your motive disappears.
- Weather and temperature.
- The weight of your equipment
If you practice, you will get a feeling of where your limits are. I have had success with a 100mm at 1/2s, but I don't count on it. Usually I feel safe down to 1 stop below the rule of thumb, and I don't hesitate to try as low 2.5 to 3 stops below.
Where to start
When I write this, I assume you own a camera with a optical viewfinder. I use a SLR with changeable lenses. To practice, go find your camera and put on a lens with a focal length between 100mm and 200mm. Much of the practicing won't require you to look at any pictures. Just look through the viewfinder to get a feel of it.
Stay comfortable
Wear comfortable cloths. Make sure you don't get cold and drink enough water. Wear stable shoes with good grip.
Calm yourself
If you have run, or even walked fast, take a moment to calm yourself down. Assuming you have the time of course. Try to get your pulse below 80 beats pr second. You can use this time to study your motive, but don't raise your camera too much, or your arms will get tired.
Holding the camera
This is important. If you study your camera manual, you see a drawing of a person holding the camera with the right hand, and holding the lens with the left. Learn to hold the lens from underneath, don't grip it with your fingers over the top. The goal is to keep your elbows as close to your body as possible.
Looking better, but still room for improvement. I find that I easily get small twitches in my arm muscles when I grip the lens. With todays auto focus cameras, it is not really necessary. Instead I form an inverted tripod of my thumb, index- and middle finger. The index- and middle finger supports both sides of the lens, while the thumb supports the camera base. This should balance your camera, and your right hand grip should be loose. Now, push your left elbow into your stomach, and your right elbow into your side. You're ready to shoot. For vertical shots, turn the camera to the right, so the shutter button is towards the ground, and press it with your right thumb. Twisting the camera the other way will prevent you from pushing your elbow to your side. Ignore this if you own a vertical grip.
Plan your shot
If you have enough time, plan the shot. Find your composition, set the exposure and plan your focus. You can either prefocus in manual mode, or you decide on what part of the motive you should point the AF sensor at. Once you are ready to shoot, you should focus and recompose within a fraction of a second.
Find the calm moment
Now it gets more interesting. You're holding your camera right, you know your composition, and you have the focus sorted out. Lower your camera to your chest and take a deep breath and let it out slowly. Another breath, and think through your plan one last time.
The last deep breath should be even deeper. Now you raise the camera to your eye. While you breathe out slowly, you focus, recompose and fix your elbows into your body. When all the air is out, you keep your breath and concentrate on keeping the image still. You should now have between 1 and 5 seconds before you muscles start to twitch and you need to do the process over again.
This little moment of extra calmness is a result of your deep breathing saturating to blood with oxygen, and the meditative effect of calming down. It's easy to see when this moment is gone when you look through the viewfinder.
Squeezing the shutter
Practice to squeeze the shutter without yanking the camera. When I shoot, I push the release as long as I can, and when I take the picture, my finger show no visible movement. Don't release the shutter until after the picture is taken. When you get more practice, you can set your camera on continuous mode and release your finger, but it increases the chance of camera shake dramatically.
Talking about shutter releases, my Canon 5D is the best I've ever used. All other cameras I have tried has a shutter button that clicks when you push it, not the 5D. The button only gets a little bit harder from half pressed to release, but no click. It's so much easier to squeeze it without yanking. This may be the reality on most pro cameras, but I haven't tried any, so I wouldn't know.
Take more shots
You should be aware of your own success rate when shooting under difficult conditions. If you know that you usually get one out of 3 shots sharp at a given shutter speed, take 4-8 pictures. Shooting on continuous is usually not a good idea. The subsequent shots are seldom sharp. If you're getting pretty good at this, you can still squeeze in two or maybe three shots on a single calm moment.
In a heartbeat
If you're really hardcore, and don't mind practicing a lot, you can also try to figure out your own heartbeats. Between each beat, given that your pulse is low enough, you will find a fraction of a second where your hands are almost completely steady. That's when you want to shoot.
Being successful at this requires you to pay much attention to your own body. Feel your own heart beat while looking through the viewfinder and notice the time between the beat and when your hand is still. Now find the rhythm and try to squeeze the shutter at the exact right moment. It is important not to chase that moment. No stress, just find your rhythm and calmly time your trigger. When I find my calm moment (the breathing exercise) I usually have 3-8 heartbeats before it's gone, so you don't have much time. But rushing it leads to certain failure, so think you have all the time in the world, but chose to do it pretty fast.
Call for support
Don't forget that your primary goal is to produce a sharp picture. There is no use in proving our ability to hand hold if there is a better solution. If you have a tripod, use it. If there is a tree or wall or anything to lean against, go ahead leaning.
Conclusion
If you want to get good at this, there is no way around practice. Once you understand the technique, you will use it more or less on instinct, and you can even do candid shots with great success.
The picture at the beginning of this article was taken on a very dark day. I used ISO3200, f/2.8 and 1/30s. The camera a, Canon EOS 5D, and the lens an EF 200mm 1:2.8L II USM. I managed to shoot 8 shots on the approximately 7 seconds I had available. Four of them showed little or no motion blur.