Why your photos are blurry (with image examples)

One long time mystery amongst people who take photos is “why are my photos blurry?”. The answer is much more simple than you probably realize but will take a moment to explain.

Photo from December 2010 😉 – camera settings this photo was taken at are listed later in this article.

There are 3 major components which determine how your photographs turn out.. one of those components is what your shutter speed is.

What is a shutter?
Picture a stage with curtains that open and close. This is, essentially, what a shutter is. It opens and closes (this is a video of a shutter opening and closing). The shutter is the sound you hear when you take photos – you can hear it open and close. Sometimes it opens and closes very fast and sometimes it opens and closes very slowly. When the “curtain” (shutter) is open, it captures ALL movement in the photo up until it closes. Hence, when it opens and closes fast it “freezes” the moment and does not capture any blur; when it opens and closes slowly, it captures a lot of movement.

The shutter is responsible for 2 things:

1. It contributes to how light or dark the photo is

2. It is the reason your photos turn out blurry or not blurry (*from motion blur – Photos being out of focus can make them blurry in an “out of focus” way which is not due to the shutter).

If you are getting motion blur in your photos there is one simple answer for it: Your shutter is staying open too long.

So, what causes the shutter to stay open for too long?

Low lighting.

Now that I’ve said that you’ve probably realized that most of your blurred photos were taken indoors or at night.

Why does it stay open long in low lighting? Because the longer the shutter is open, the more light it lets in. Photos NEED light. If there isn’t much light, your camera needs to do things to make sure it gets enough light, otherwise you will be left with a black photo.

The photo at the top of the page was taken at the following settings: f/3.2 ISO 640 Shutter speed 1/8 (aka too slow!!!!).. that means it was open for 1/8th of a second which sounds fast but it isn’t fast enough for kids who move around. I usually try to stay around at least 1/100, and ideally a little higher, when photographing kids (what speed you set changes based on your lens and what you are photographing; things that are sitting still can be photographed at a lower shutter speed but you still have to shoot fast enough to avoid camera shake from your hands unless you are using a tripod).

How to Avoid Motion Blur in Your Photography

The easiest and most simple way to avoid motion blur in your photos is to get more light! Take your photos outside or closer to a window. You can also just turn more lights on inside but then you might want to be aware of your white balance because a lot of photos taken indoors will have an orange/red tint due to incorrect white balance (<– article about that tint and how to avoid it).

The last option is to use your flash. Most professional photographers will agree that the flash built into your camera is not good and actually hurts your photos. My rule for using in-camera flash is only use it if the alternative is a super blurry or black photo. A photo with flash is better than a blurry or dark photo. The other option for flash is to buy an external flash – one you can take off the camera and diffuse it. This is the ideal option if you need to use flash (I will write more on this later!). I try to shoot outdoors as much as possible :).

If you own a DSLR there is another option for eliminating motion blur: Set your own settings and tell the shutter what its speed needs to be.

There are two modes in which you can do this:

TV Mode. TV mode is found on your dial and it is “shutter priority mode”. Shutter priority means that all other settings are formed around your shutter speed.. so you tell your camera what your shutter speed needs to be, and it figures everything else out for you. It is a good setting for people starting out with their DSLRs – however there can be consequences to this such as your camera may bump up your ISO, causing your photos to be grainy, or shoot at too high or low of an aperture, losing the “blur” effect or giving you too much of a blur effect.. however you can guarantee they won’t have motion blur 🙂 and sometimes you have to made decisions like that (ie I’ll have a grainy photo instead of a blurred photo) because when there’s not enough light, something’s gotta give.

M Mode (Manual Mode). This is ideal. This is the mode most professional photographers shoot in. You tell your camera exactly what the settings need to be and it shoots at that regardless of what it would want to do in auto mode. You set the shutter speed (if you’re getting motion blur you increase the shutter speed), you set the aperture, you set the ISO.. you can understand what is happening in the photo and what the outcome of the photo will be based on your settings, however it requires more knowledge than TV mode so it’s perfectly fine to start with TV mode and keep working towards M mode.

The fun part of understanding how the shutter affects your photos is that you can use it to intentionally capture motion blur and make some interesting photos! Leaving the shutter open on purpose is called Bulb Photography.

To do bulb photography you must put your camera on a tripod so it stays perfectly still (otherwise there will be camera shake which will hurt the photo) and then have the subject move around while you leave the shutter open and capture all the movement.

Here are some examples of the camera being on a tripod with the shutter left open:

f/3.2 ISO 6400, shutter: 1/25.

Notice in the bottom right photo you can see 2 red streaks in the background – those are the taillights of a car :).
Settings: f/11 ISO 500, shutter speed 4 seconds (shutter was open for 4 seconds).

Settings: f/11 ISO 500, shutter speed 7 seconds (shutter was open for 7 seconds). I was wearing all black to minimize being seen and did additional editing to completely “disappear” from behind the sparkler otherwise you would see me as motion blur in the background :).

(My white balance is off in this photo which is why it has a red/orange tint).

Most photos of the sky at night are done on a tripod with the shutter left open.. it allows the camera to pick up many stars. When I do exposures like this, the camera “sees” many more stars than I can.

—–
Fast shutter speed:

Just to contrast these photos with slow shutter speeds, here is an “action shot” frozen because of the fast shutter speed

ISO 100, f/9.0, shutter speed: 1/320 Please ignore the harsh lighting :p I only posted to show a photo taken with a fast shutter speed 🙂 she is mid-jump and there is no motion blur! At a low shutter speed there would be a ton of motion blur.

-Christine Ann
Duluth MN Senior Photographer Website
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Neckstrap vs Hand Strap – And How to Use Both Simotaneously

When we start out taking photos, most of us will use the standard neck strap that the camera comes with. As you get more and more into photography and start exploring what kind of accessories are out there you will stumble upon a hand/handstrap. Most people will buy it and try it and some will prefer it and some will yet still prefer the neck strap – it’s all personal preference.
For me – I like both. They both serve different purposes. Since a camera only has 2 slots to attach a strap to (top left and top right) you may think you need to choose one or the other however you don’t :).
I have both attached to my camera and use them interchangeably (photos below as to how this works).

Advantages of the neck strap:
*Do not have to worry about dropping the camera
*Camera is accessible at a moments notice
*Allows you to carry the camera around for long periods of time
*Keeps camera in front of you making it safer (unless you sling it over your shoulder to the side).
*It distributes the weight of your camera/lens across your neck or shoulder making it feel less heavy

Disadvantages:
*Large/bulky
*It can get in the way of both what you are doing  and also in front of the lens, blocking your shot (if it’s not around your neck)
* It can get uncomfortable (this can help be avoided by buying a padded neckstrap – links below for help deciding which to buy)
*You can underestimate how big your camera is or forget about it all together and bump it on stuff as you pass it by

Times I use the neck strap are when I’m on a walk or at an event and need the camera accessible but am taking a break from using it, when other people use my camera I make them put it on (haha), or if I’m worried I may drop the camera and need extra assurance of its safety.

Advantages of the hand strap:
Makes the camera more stable/less camera shake
Camera is easily accessible
Good for short breaks
It looks professional (not a major point here, but worth noting)

Disadvantages:
It puts the camera more at the side of your body while you walk, making it less safe/easier to bump
It is less safe/reliable than a neck strap (this is especially important to me the times I hand my camera to someone else.. I feel confident putting the neckstrap on someone but my heart races a little if it’s just the hand strap)
It can start to feel very heavy in your hand/arm
It gets in the way of the battery door – not a big deal and you do not need to remove it to access it (at least on my camera) but I do have to loosen it and swivel it around

I use the hand strap every time I am taking photos for stability and also to keep it safer. I also use it while we we move from spot to spot in short distances (long distances I use the neck strap or camera bag) – it gives me extra assurance it will not be dropped.

There is honestly no black and white answer to which is better. A lot of professionals use the hand strap and a lot use the neck strap (though if they use the neck strap they mostly invest in a padded neckstrap – more on that in a moment).  You’ll probably have to try both for yourself to determine which you prefer. I think there is a slight sway towards the hand straps but maybe hand strap users are just more vocal about it 🙂 who knows, but either way they are both common and both well liked by their users.

As for me I use both. Someone asked me how I am able to use both so I took some photos of my camera to help give a visual aid as to how my hand strap is designed and set up so that I can keep both attached for their different uses.

This is what my camera looks like with the neck strap and hand strap attached:

Camera attachments explained and analyzed

So as you can see from the photos the hand strap attaches to the top right neck strap insert and screws into the tripod socket (and the strap mounts into the strap insert attached to the hand strap hardware).  The neck strap then attaches to the top left neck strap insert on the camera and the strap insert attached to the left side of the hand strap – the best of both worlds!

Lastly I said I would link to some nice, reputable neck straps to upgrade from the default one that comes with the camera.  They are cushioned, padded, have pockets for memory cards, well designed and make it much  more comfortable to use a neck strap.  Here is one article that discusses the top 6 neck straps, tested and rated click here.  The two names I see the most are Black Rapid and Op Tech.

-Christine Ann
Duluth Photographer Website
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How to Capture A Sparkler’s Movement Tutorial (/How to do bulb photography).

With 4th of July recently coming and going, you may be seeing photos around of people drawing pictures with a sparkler and wonder how it is done.

What you need: a tripod, a camera on which you can leave the shutter open for various lengths of time, a remote clicker, and a black outfit (if you don’t want to be seen in the background).

Set your camera on the tripod, set it to BULB mode (different on all cameras, you will have to refer to your manual if you do not know. One typical way is that you set your camera to M and then make your shutter speed as slow as possible.. once it gets maxed out to “as slow as possible” it will say BULB. My camera has a B setting on the settings wheel to get there, so all cameras are different). Once the camera is on the tripod in bulb mode, determine exactly where you want to stand. Mark the spot! Set the camera to Manual Focus, then manually focus on the spot you are standing because the camera will have a hard time auto focusing in the dark). Once the focus is set, then press down on your remote clicker, do a few trial runs to figure out the best settings. My settings for the above photos were around f/16, ISO 640, 4 second shutter speed. I also worked at f/11 ISO 500. Other settings will definitely work too that’s just what I chose to do. My camera also handles high ISOs quite well so I don’t get scared to bump it up though as a general rule I prefer keeping it much lower. Once the camera is on the tripod, the focus is set, and the settings are right, stand in the spot, activate the shutter and move the sparkler around in the shapes you want and when you are done let go. That’s it!

When a shutter is open it captures all movement that occurs while it is open (this is why it needs to be on a tripod! If your hands move at all the camera will capture the movement of the camera). The tricky part is that while it is open it is also absorbing light.. so if you leave it open too long the photo can be blown out if you have streetlights around you especially.

You see in the lower right photo there is a red light streak behind it, that is the taillight of a car driving by.. so this idea works for lots of different things!

Oh and I recommend wearing black because I was wearing pink at first and you can see me pretty easily standing behind the sparklers (as you can see in the lower left-hand corner photo). I later changed to black and the problem was solved. The other adjustment I made is I was initially working with a streetlight behind me and I later figured out was sort of ruining the photos. I moved to a spot about 10 feet away and it solved that problem 🙂 .

My favorite shot of the night I ended up compositing 2 shots together 🙂 and then editing a couple little blurbs in the background so that it all looked totally black/dark.

Remember if you are writing a word you have to write it backwards! 😮 . It is both easier than it sounds AND harder than it sounds haha.

Oh and if I have one more tip for everyone.. buy the big huge sparklers and maximize your time much better!

-Christine Ann
http://www.christineannphotos.com
“like” me on Facebook 🙂 ! https://www.facebook.com/christineannphotos
Duluth Minnesota Photographer