Chapter 5: Camera Shake
Camera shake is the number one culprit in ruined images. Even more so in macro photography!
What they mean by “camera shake” is that – at the time of exposure – your camera moved. Not
an earth shaking concept.
In normal shooting, we can often hand hold the camera and avoid camera shake with a solid
shooting stance... but, macro/close-up shooting is an altogether different animal!
Why?
Well, in normal shooting our subjects are so big and far enough away that often a tiny bit of
camera movement won’t be noticed. This is NOT the case in macro work. Any movement is
enough to destroy the image.
I’ve briefly touched on the problem of camera shake in previous sections... I’ve said that using a
faster shutter speed can help freeze the motion (that’s why you may want to increase the ISO)
and I’ve mentioned that the whole point to using a tripod is to avoid camera movement.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to rehash those factors. I’ve pretty much covered everything you
need to know about the various kinds of and using a tripod. Same thing with ISO.
Now, let’s assume you ARE using a higher ISO speed AND a tripod you are all set right?
Nope.
Camera shake can still work its way into the mix. The big problem is your miniscule depth of
field. When your entire plane of focus is about the width of a hair, you need to use everything
you can.