For these reasons, some photographers highly recommend back-button focusing. And if you take multiple pictures in succession, your camera may try to focus again before each shot. If you press too hard, you might capture the shot before the focus is ready. This works pretty well, but cameras can be overly sensitive – if you press too lightly, the button may come unpressed and try to re-focus after you’ve already found your point of focus. Note that, to tell the camera to focus, you would normally depress the shutter button halfway before pressing it the rest of the way to take the shot.

In single-point AF-area modes, you can use the camera’s direction pad to select one of these dots, and the camera will always focus on that point (and that point alone). These are your focus points, and they show you where in the frame the camera can lock focus. When you look through your viewfinder, you should see an array of little dots or squares laid over the display, like this: To specify the focal point yourself, switch to a single-point AF-area mode. However, with more complex compositions, the camera can get confused and try to focus on the wrong thing. Most of the time, modern cameras are pretty good at this, particularly if the subject is prominent in the frame.

Photographers often leave their cameras set to an auto AF-area mode – one that tells the camera to decide automatically what part of the picture should be in focus. A slight miscalculation in the focus can throw the subject completely out of the focal plane, or give you a subject with perfectly sharp earlobes and blurry eyes. Some photographers even go so far as to listen to their breathing and heartbeat, taking care to fire the shot between breaths and beats for maximum stability.Įven if you’re using the perfect handholding technique or a rock-solid tripod, if you focus in the wrong place, you’ll end up with blurry pictures anyway.įocusing carefully is especially crucial when using a wide aperture (because you’ll have a razor-thin depth of field!). Tuck your elbows tight to your chest and use the viewfinder rather than the Live View screen (holding the camera to your face will help keep it steady). Support the camera with your left hand by holding the lens from underneath, and use your right hand to grab the grip and gently press the shutter button. Stand with your feet slightly apart, one staggered forward, and firmly planted to stabilize your body right to left and back to front. Bad camera-holding techniqueįor the best stability, practice the official photographer position: If a tripod is too inconvenient, consider a monopod, which is a more compact, flexible option.Īlso, when you use a tripod, image stabilization is not necessary and may even be counterproductive, so it’s a good idea to get in the habit of turning any IS off when you put your camera on a tripod. It’ll keep your camera completely steady even as you dial in exposures of one second or longer. If you’re experiencing camera shake and you can’t use a faster shutter speed (due to low-light conditions), or you don’t want to use a faster shutter speed (because you’re purposely trying to blur something in the frame), then you need to steady your camera another way.Īnd I highly recommend using a tripod. (The longer your lens length, the more camera shake is magnified, so telephoto lenses require much faster shutter speeds.) So if you’re using a 60mm lens, your shutter speed should be 1/60s or faster. Your shutter speed should be the reciprocal of your lens’s focal length.

When handholding your camera, remember this rule of thumb to avoid blur caused by camera shake: In fact, most folks can only handhold a camera down to the 1/160s to 1/80s range (though this can fluctuate, depending on the focal length of the lens, as well as the size, the lens technology, and the level of magnification). You might think you can hold perfectly still for half a second, but I assure you there are very few people in the world who can. Your shutter speed is too slowĪ too-slow shutter speed is the number one culprit of blurry photos. Let’s dive right in, starting with the biggest reason why your photos are blurry: 1. Odds are, if you can address the problem, you’ll be taking tack-sharp images in no time at all. I want you to carefully go through this list. I’m going to list the 10 main reasons why you’re ending up with blurry photos. The truth is that blurry pictures are caused by many factors – so if your photos are blurry, it’s often difficult to pinpoint the exact problem. It’s a common question, and one that doesn’t have an easy answer.

Cropit photos blurry