How To Hold Your Camera Correctly and Prevent Camera Shake

Making sure you hold your camera the right way is one of the best things you can do to prevent camera shake.

Have you ever taken a photo and it just came out kinda fuzzy? Your settings were fine, the lens was clean, so what was the problem? It could be that you weren’t holding your camera in the best way to reduce camera shake. Camera shake is just what it sounds like. And it happens when the camera is moved, even just a little, while taking a photograph. Besides buying lenses with image stabilization built in, there are a few things you can do to reduce camera shake and get sharper and clearer photos. Contact points are the places where your arms (which are holding your camera) come in contact with your body. The more contact points you have, the more steady your camera will be. Keeping your body steady is another thing you can do to reduce camera shake. So here are some tips to help you hold your camera correctly and reduce camera shake.

Holding the Camera

Where you place your hands matters!

So first things first, you need to make sure you are holding your camera the right way. If you’re like me, when you first started out you had at least one of these things wrong. And if that is the case, switching it up now is going to feel really weird! But it’s worth it to get sharper images. Right Hand If you’ve held a camera before this one is pretty straightforward. Your right hand will hold the right side of the camera where the grip is. Make sure you have a firm but comfortable grip and that your index finger can reach the shutter release button. Left Hand Now this hand can get a little tricky. Sometimes people like to use their left hand to hold the lens on the side, but that isn’t supporting the camera or the lens. The correct way to place your left hand is underneath the lens. An easy way to remember this is that your fingers on both hands should be close to each other. This adds support and helps to prevent camera shake. It also makes it so that both your elbows are close to your body. Which takes us right to the next point.

Elbows You want your elbows to be as close to your body as possible. This goes back to contact points. When taking a portrait orientation photo it can be more difficult, but as much as possible you want your elbows tucked in and pressed against you. This adds stabilization and again, helps prevent camera shake.

Extra Support

This is a great graphic showing some ways you can get extra support while trying to get that perfect shot.

Okay now you know how to hold the camera, but guess what? That might not solve all your problems. There are some other things you can do to add extra support. If you have the ability to, lean up against something. A building, a tree, a railing. Leaning against something stabilizes your body which means you won’t be moving too much when you try to take the picture. If you are sitting down to take the photo, rest your elbows on your knees, well actually your thighs. You don’t want your elbow to be right on your knee because that joint isn’t a sturdy enough contact point, but rest your elbows just a smidge above the knee and you’ll be golden. If you are crouching you want your feet to be flat on the ground. So if you can’t pull this one off, it's probably best to sit or stand, not crouch. But okay, you’ve got your feet planted flat on the ground. And now just like sitting, you’ll put your elbows just a little above the knee to create that steady contact point.

Breathing

There are other things besides hand placement that can help you prevent that camera shake.

Who knew there was a right way to breathe, right? Well in photography there is! There are 2 techniques that you can try out that could just help you prevent camera shake. Technique #1 Before you take your photo take a deep breath in. Then hold it while you take the shot. Once you’ve taken the photo release your breath. Make sure you compose your shot and get the focus where you want it before you breathe in, otherwise you’ll be trying to hold your breath for a long time and that could cause more shake than normal! Technique #2 This is the exact opposite of #1. In this technique you breathe out, and then take your photo. After you have taken your shot, breathe in again. But again, make sure you compose the shot and get your focus otherwise it’ll take too long. Using either one of these techniques helps eliminate your body rising and falling from breathing, which in turn will help prevent camera shake. Making sure you know how to hold your camera correctly and learning tips to prevent camera shake can give you a real edge over other photographers. People don’t generally like to look at images that are just a little blurry, so getting sharp and in focus photos every time will help you out!

Have you tried any of these tips out before? What works for you?