It's a very simple concept yet people try to avoid using it: the tripod.
Yes, it's annoying to carry around, it's annoying to take the time to put your camera on it but motion blur is even more annoying.
Using a good steady tripod, especially in situations with low light will always help your photography.
I'll go into motion blur more in the article I write about the shutter. For now, just know that moving the camera when the shutter is open will cause motion blur just like if your subject moved. That means that putting your camera on your tripod will reduce or eliminate that.
Of course, there are places where you simply cannot bring or use a tripod. In these cases good alternatives are monopods (which have their own limitations) or bracing your camera against a solid surface like a wall, rail, table, or whatever happens to be available.
Now, one last thing to make you feel like you're back in the second grade: today's vocabulary word.
"Stabilization" or "support" are the broad terms for any device that steadies a camera. These include tripods, monopods, gorillapods (not a substitute for owning a good tripod), etc.
Let's take a quick look at what happens when you don't use a tripod.
This first photo is a bit of an easier example. Because the original is much smaller here than it is in real life, it's a bit tougher to see the motion blur but take a look at the 100% view below.
The edges are very soft from motion blur.
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| © Nic Neufeld/Photo Basics |
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| © Nic Neufeld/Photo Basics |
Here's a slightly less cut-and-dry example. It's a bit harder to say if it's a bad photo from looking at the whole image but again, when viewing at 100%, it's obvious that the edges are soft.
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| © Nic Neufeld/Photo Basics |
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| © Nic Neufeld/Photo Basics |
My point is, tripods are your friend.
At some point, I will post something going into depth about tripods themselves.
-Nic
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