Handheld shots
As I may have mentioned in other posts, I’m a little lazy. So when it comes to a shot where a tripod should be used I tend to wrinkle up my face and think of ways around it. A handy wall, books, I’ve even propped up my lens with my phone before….they all work as nice work-arounds for lugging around the tripod.
Well I say work-arounds. Truth be told you really can’t beat a tripod. They are exceedingly useful things to take with you on a shot, especially if you are going to shoot a HDR. Despite this knowledge I still rebel and take the majority of my HDR shots handheld.
Let the camera help
Many digital cameras have a feature called “exposure bracketing”, go have a look in your manual to see if yours does. If you switch this on then the camera will expect you to take three shots of the same thing. Depending on your camera setting it will order the three shots in a particular way, but the outcome will be one shot that is overexposed, one that is underexposed and one that is “normal”.
Given you have to take three shots and that you are wanting them to be of the same subject with minimal handshake, you will also want to ensure that you have set your camera to shoot at a high burst of shots (i.e. press down the trigger and take as many shots as the camera can whilst it’s depressed). Again depending on the make and model of your camera it will vary how you turn this on, check the manual. In the Canon range it is depicted by a number of overlapping rectangle boxes with a little H next to it.
Wobbley hand syndrome
I have a natural shake in my hands, though not as much as some of my caffeine loving friends! With this in mind I have found a way of minimising the shake to an acceptable level.
1. Make sure your feet are on stable ground and that you are balanced well.
2. Took your elbows into your body
3. If you have an SLR you probably have focal points in your view finder. Pick one and try to line it up with something in your shot. Concentrate on this point for the entire shot(s)
4. Take a breath and hold it
5. Providing there isn’t too strong a wind, press the trigger and hold for the three shots.
6. Breathe again 
To be on the safe side I will usually take a couple of shots like this – a luxury of the digital age. One other tip is to find something that you can lean yourself/your camera into/on. Another is to use a lens with image stabilisation wherever possible!
I will talk through my photomatix workflow in a forth coming post, to explain how software can help to align handheld shots. But for now I hope this helps.
Great tips and they all work and especially the ones under Wobbley hand syndrome can increase picture quality with a bit of practice.
One other trick I’d like to add is to find out he max ISO you can us on your camera to get acceptable results. With today’s cameras this could really help out in some cases.
great post Mike. I agree about the ISO too… I used to get hung up about keeping the ISO on 100, but recently I’ve found it really liberating to get away from the tripod… great post!
I love this post!
“Take a breath and hold it”
“Breathe again”
Fantastic! Not too technical, and you don’t need any special equipment, just a pair of lungs. The rest of the post is good as well, but that part made me smile – thanks
Ahhh – very useful. I would add that I used to hold my breath and then press the button – but I read sumplace that it’s best to do it at the bottom of your beathing cycle – in other words – after you breath out. Your body is more relaxed then. Worth a try.
Thanks for all these great technical tips, guys.
Take a breath and hold it….
erm…. nope
do the exact opposite
exhale slowly – and in that moment before you inhale – click away
this way your body doesn’t feel like it’s about to explode under pressure
much more relaxing too