C

CABLE RELEASE

A cable release is a device that allows the camera
shutter to be remotely activated. Seen in practical
terms, the device allows the photographer to be
‘‘hands-off,’’ because even the almost undetectable
movement caused by the body’s pulse can be
enough to blur the image in a shot with the camera.
In technical terms, a cable release is a plunger that
the photographer grasps, a cable, and a pin or
some device to trigger the camera shutter.
Yet the cable release can be useful in other appli-
cations in which the photographer wants to be
away from the camera while taking the picture.
The cable can be of various lengths, and is most
widely used in animal and nature photography
where the photographer may need to screen himself
or herself separately from view, apart from the cam-
era set-up; candid photography, where the photo-
grapher’s presence fixed to the camera may dampen
spontaneity; children’s photography, where the sub-
ject may need to be actively distracted by the photo-
grapher, and in instances when the photographer
wants to appear in the picture.
Professional studio photographers employ cable
releases routinely if engagement by the photogra-
pher carrying on a conversation with the subject
leads to better portraits, less squirming or move-
ment by the subject, and may permit the subject to

be more natural and relaxed. The use of large-for-

mat cameras, where the parameters of the scene are

set by ducking the head under a light-dampening

blanket, historically used in studio portraiture, cer-

tainly can be seen as inhibiting a natural response

in a subject. In nature photography, some means of

being away from the camera is often essential a

camera being much easier to hide than a person.

Cable releases attached to trip wires where the

photographer is nowhere in the area have also

been increasingly used in remote locations where

sitting for hours awaiting a shy or nocturnal animal

is simply not practical.

A variation on the conventional mechanical sys-

tem featured in most cable releases is the use of an

air bulb to trigger the device that then clicks the

shutter. Some feel this is more gentle, reliable and

dependable. The air bulb is attached by a tube to a

piston that is moved by the increase in air pressure

that occurs when the bulb is squeezed. This motion

in turn then triggers the cable release socket on the

camera to trip the camera shutter. Typically the

fixed mechanical cable release is short and places

the photographer near the camera. The tube on the

air or bulb release sort of system may be longer, at

times up to 20 feet, allowing the photographer to

be further away. It also can be released by foot