How To Avoid Blurred Photos

How to avoid blur in photos - After my post Tips for Sharp Picture and Some Causes of Blur Photos in previous posts, the following is my post how to avoid a blurred picture. These posts are very related.

There are two main factors causing blurry photo:

1. The shutter speed setting is too slow compared to the focal length

Generally to avoid blurred photos due to hand shake you should use the Shutter Speed reference:

Shutter speed = 1 / focal length

For example, if you use lens with 100mm focal length, your camera shutter speed should be set at 1/100 second or faster.
This reference available to DSLR with full frame sensor. If your camera has cropped sensor (APSC), such as cropped Canon camera uses factor 1.6x, Nikon Sony, and Pentax use factor 1.5x, Olympus and Panasonic use factor 2x.
So if you have Canon DSLR camera with cropped sensor and use 100mm lens, the save minimum shutter speed from blurred due to hand shake is 1/160 second.
The question is "Why longer focal length need faster shutter speed?" Because the longer focal length, the more sensitive sensor to capture the vibe.

2. The object you are photographing moved too fast

So that the shutter speed must also follow the rapid motion of the subject of the photo. For example, to freeze the motion of the person running a basketball player, you need a minimum of 1/500. For dancers and singers, usually 1/200 enough, and to photograph people who do not move 1/60 is usually pretty good.

How to prevent blur

There is technology in cameras and lenses designed to prevent blur. This type of technology is divided into two categories. The first one is in the camera, in the lens the other. The name varies, among other Image Stabilization (IS), Vibration Reduction (VR), Steady Shot (SS), Shake Reduction (SR) Mega OIS, Optical Stabilization (OS) and Vibration Compensation (VC). This technology can help you but can not help in total. For example, once you have to use a 1/200, but with the help of technology, you can use 1/100 or 1/60. This technology can not prevent blur when you are taking photos of people or objects moving quickly.

Another thing that can be used to prevent blur, among others, the camera holding technique and breathing techniques. By holding your breath while taking a picture, and put the body by meeting or leaning on walls, can help reduce the vibration that produces blur.

In addition to those mentioned above, there are still other factors that affect, among other things:

1. Direction of motion of moving subjects: Subjects were moving toward and away from the camera will be easier to freeze than the subject moves from left to right or vice versa.

2. The distance between the camera with a moving subject: The farther the distance, the more easily freeze the subject rather than a subject that is close.

In practice, we often can not use a high shutter speed to freeze the subject of the picture due to dark field conditions. Thus, by using these principles is our advantage.

If we are photographing people or objects approaching us from the front, then we can use the shutter speed a bit more slowly, so photographing subjects that are far from us. But be careful if your subject is near to us or movement from left to right / right to left camera, we need to increase the aperture / shutter speed if you want to freeze the subject movement.