Nothing is more annoying than getting home from an event and realizing that most of your photos have turned out blurry. There are 4 major causes of blurry photos in digital cameras and unless you know what to look for, it’s hard to tell what is causing the problem. Read on to learn each of these causes, and how to fix it.

The four main causes of blurry photos are:

1. Out Of Focus
2. The subject moves while the shutter is open
3. The camera moves while the shutter is open
4. Depth Of Field is too shallow

Let’s first look at how you can tell each of these apart. Then, once you know what causes each, I’ll show you how to fix them.

Out Of Focus

An image that is out of focus will appear blurry. These days with Auto Focus, it’s unlikely that the whole image will be out of focus. More often than not, you’ll see one part of the image crisp and clear, but others (including your subject) are out of focus.

In the example photo here, the top left part of the image is in focus, but our subject and the rest of the photo is blurry.

Now, look at the in-focus parts of the image. Check that they are further away from, or closer to, your blurry subject. This is the telltale sign of a focus problem. What has happened is the camera has set focus on the wrong object.

To fix focus problems, make sure your camera has your subject in it’s sights. (more details)

The subject moves while the shutter is open

When there is not much light around – for instance at night, or indoors – the camera compensates by opening the shutter for a longer period that normal. And while the shutter is open, your subject moves!

You can tell this cause by looking at your subject, If some parts of the subject are crisp while others are blurry then the subject has moved while the camera’s shutter was open.

Or alternatively, the subject was moving too fast and it is blurry while the area around it (that was not moving) is crisp. For example, a racecar on a racing track.

In this example image, the boy’s body is crisp as is the chair, but because he was moving his head and hands (clapping) while the photo was being taken, they are are blurry.

You can avoid blurry images caused by subject movement by changing your camera’s settings so the shutter is not open for as long (more details).

The camera moves while the shutter is open

This is another common problem and will cause the whole image to be blurry.

If your photo was taken at night, or indoors and the whole image is blurry, then the camera moved while the shutter was open.

Like the previous cause, the camera will leave the shutter open for longer when there is not much light around. When the shutter is open for longer, tiny movements of the camera can cause the whole photo to become blurry. Even small movements like releasing your finger from the shutter button, or your breathing can cause it.

For instance, in the example image here the boy is slightly blurry. Because the blur is uniform, it is the camera that moved while the shot was being taken, not the boy. It’s hard to see on the small main image, but if we zoom into the boy’s ear, you can see it is quite blurry and not crisp and clear.

There are two ways to solve the ‘camera moving’ problem. The first is to increase the shutter speed as explained above, The second is to hold your camera steady while you take the shot. (more details)

Depth Of Field Too Shallow

Depth Of Field is the name given to that great effect of cameras where your subject is in focus but the background is out of focus. It makes the subject stand out because that’s the only thing you can see clearly.

Using the preset scene modes of your camera (or the Aperture setting), you can change how much of the image is in focus, and how much is out of focus. For instance for landscape shots, you want the whole shot in focus.

If the Depth Of Field is too shallow, not all of your subjects will be in focus. For example, in the image above, one of the swing handles is in focus while the one just behind (and also the background) is out of focus.

This can be fixed by changing the Aperture setting on your camera. (more details)

As you can see, there are lots of causes of blurry images. The great news is that each cause is easily identified and has a solution.

Sometimes some of the subjects in your shots are in focus, but other subjects that are a little closer or further away are out of focus.

This is an unwanted side effect of having what’s called a ‘Shallow Depth Of Field’.

Portrait Scene Mode

When you set your camera to the Portrait Scene mode, it makes some adjustments to the settings to ensure your main subject is in focus, and anything behind the subject is out of focus. This is normally very pleasing because it emphasizes your subject in the photo.

The focus is on the cake in this photo.

However, when you have multiple subjects and they are all at different distances to the camera (like the cake, and the two boys in this photo), you won’t often get the effect you desire. Either (as in this shot) the cake is in focus and the boy in the white top is slightly out of focus, or the boy will be in sharp focus and the cake will be blurry.

Basically with Portrait Scene mode set, the camera will focus on one thing. Only those subjects that are exactly the same distance away as what the camera focused on will also be in focus. Anyone who is further away or closer to the camera will be slightly out of focus. The actual range of who is in focus depends on a number of things including how far away from the camera your subjects are, and your aperture setting.

As you can see in this photo, the middle of the cake is in sharp focus, but the tee-shirt of the boy behind is out of focus, as is the front oart of the cake.

To spot this, zoom in on your LCD screen after you take the shot. You see some parts of your image blurry that you want to be sharp.

Having Your Cake…

The easiest way to make all your subjects sharp is to move further away from them. This will increase the range of depths that are in focus. Don’t zoom in however, as this will negate the benefits of physically moving further away.

Another option is to change the Aperture setting on your camera. Here’s what I do:

1. Set your camera to Portrait Scene mode and take the shot.
2. Find out the Aperture your camera used to take the first shot. It will be a small number like F5.6.
3. Change the camera to “Aperture Priority Mode” rather than Portrait Mode. Usually marked as “AV”, this is a more advanced mode of your camera that gives you finer control
4. Set the aperture two settings higher (called one ’stop’ higher). If it was F5.6, set it to F7.1.
5. Take the shot again.
6. Look at the LCD screen of the shot. You should see more of your subjects in focus. If not all subjects are in clear focus, increase the aperture setting one more and try again.

I should warn you that changing the aperture like this also decreases the shutter speed (as less less light will be getting into the camera, so it compensates). If you are also in a low light environment you should take some steps to steady your camera as well.

If you’re interested in finding out more on Depth of Field, I recommend my “Depth of Field Secrets” course. I take you step-by-step through how to use your camera’s Depth of Field function to take stunning images!

You can read about other causes of blurry photos, and how to fix them on my blog.

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I have some rather active nephews and when I try to take a snap of them indoors I usually end up with some blurry body parts in my photos. But why does this happen and how can it be fixed?

Anytime you take a photo in low light (like indoors or at night), your camera adjusts for the darker conditions by opening it’s shutter for longer. This lets more light into the camera so the image is correctly exposed (bright enough) but also increases the chance of your subject moving while the shutter is open.

You can see the result of this clearly in this image. The child was wildly clapping when the photo was taken resulting in a blurry and distorted face and hands while the shirt on his body and the chair (which were still) are crisp and clear.

One way to avoid this is to ask the child to sit still while you take the photo. This usually works with adults, but if your subjects are anything like my nephews, they won’t be able to sit still for long. The other disadvantage of this method is you will no longer catch them in a spontaneous moment and they may become self conscious of the camera.

So the simplest solution is to tell your camera to increase the shutter speed.

There are two ways to do this.

Turn on the flash

You can turn on your camera’s flash. This will throw more light on the subject for the split second that the shutter is open so the camera won’t need to leave it open for as long.

Using the flash does have some disadvantages. First, if your subject is close to a wall (like my nephew here) you’ll see a distinct and sometimes unsightly shadow. A flash also tends to wash out the warm look of natural lighting. Compare the colors in these two images. I like the warmer colors of the first image.

Oh when you turn on the flash, you also open up the risk of creating Red Eye like in this photo.

Increase the ISO

The other way to increase the camera’s shutter speed is to increase the ISO setting. The ISO tells the camera how sensitive the image sensor is to light. A higher ISO setting means the sensor is more sensitive and so less light is needed to take the image.

ISO values range from 50 to 3200 although most cameras don’t allow you to set the ISO to those extremes. Most cameras have settings from 100 to 800.

When you increase the ISO, your camera will know the sensor needs less light so will automatically increase the shutter speed. Because the shutter speed is faster, there is less chance that the shutter will be open while your young subject is wildly moving about!

However you don’t want to increase the ISO too far. As the ISO gets higher, the camera’s sensor also becomes more sensitive to noise. I recommend you set the ISO value to the second highest setting allowed by your camera. This will help to increase the shutter speed, but at the same time will make sure that not too much image noise gets into your photo.

And make sure you check the photo after you have taken it by looking at the LCD and zooming in on the image. Sometimes you might think you have a sharp image, but there may still be some blurry bits.

Another cause of blurry images is when your camera moves (rather than your subject) while the shutter is open. There are ways to hold your camera steady, and ways to cut down on blur. There are two other causes of blurry images that are explained in my Top 4 Causes of Blurry Photos, And How To Fix Them.

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Sometimes, when our photos turn out blurry, it’s because of a focus problem. Your camera has set the focus point on the wrong part of the image. An example is in the image on the right. The camera’s focus point is outside leaving our subject (the boy) blurry and out of focus.

How does this happen? Your camera isn’t smart enough to pick out what you want to be in focus, so it takes a best guess. When you take a photo, your camera selects areas near the middle of the image and ensures those are in focus.

Unfortunately if you want a more pleasing shot, you will rarely have your subject in the center of your photo. Using the ‘Rule of Thirds‘ your subject should be on the left or right side of the photo, not the middle.

One technique to use is called a “Focus then Recompose”. This is where you take these steps before you take the shot:

1. First point your camera towards your subject
2. Depress the shutter button half way down to force the camera to lock focus on your subject
3. Now move the camera so your subject is on the left or right of the photo
4. Fully press the shutter button to take the photo.

I used this method in the image to the right. Focus is on the boy even though he’s not in the center of the photo.

If you have an SLR camera, you can see where your camera’s focus will be by looking through the viewfinder. You can usually see what parts of the photo are in focus, but if you are not sure most cameras display an indication superimposed on the image (like a red box) where the focus has been set.

If you have a Point and Shoot camera, these sometimes show you on the LCD screen where the focus is. But if you’re not sure, take the photo and then use the LCD to zoom into the image. It’s much better to check that your photo has the correct focus immediately so you can take another shot if needed than to wait until you get home and discover your error!

There are more causes for blurry photos than your subject being out of focus. Check them out with my Top 4 Causes of Blurry Photos, And How To Fix Them.

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You are probably familiar with ISO on film used in a film camera. It’s the ’speed’ of the film – higher ISO values mean you can take photos in lower light.

But what about in the digital world?

Surprisingly, there is an ISO setting on your Digital camera. And although there is no longer any film, the ISO setting still plays a vital role.

ISO indicates your digital camera’s sensitivity to light. The higher the number, the less light is needed to take a photo that is correctly exposed (not too dark or too light).

In bright light (like the middle of a sunny day), you’ll normally use ISO 50 or ISO 100. These lowest settings can be used because there is lots of light around.

However, in lower light, your camera needs some help. There are two ways of doing this:

Decrease Shutter Speed

With a slower shutter speed, the camera has more time to ‘take in’ the amount of light it needs. Unfortunately though, the slower the shutter speed, the more chance that your images will turn out blurry.

Increase ISO

Rather than decrease the shutter speed, you can increase the ISO. As I said above, this will increase the sensitivity of the camera which means you can get the same shot with less light entering the camera. Thus the shutter speed can be kept low enough to avoid blurry images.

As increasing the ISO will increase the shutter speed, a high ISO will also help when taking fast moving sports shots. You’ll get clear, crisp shots with no blur.

However, I still recommend you use the lowest ISO possible. Why?

Problems of using a high ISO

Using a higher ISO means the camera has less light to work with. Unfortunately this also means that ‘noise’ is introduced into your camera. If you’d like to find out exactly what noise is and how to eliminate it, check out the free bonus on noise that comes with my Digital Photo Secrets book.

Your camera’s highest ISO value will produce a lot of noise in your image, so I suggest avoiding them unless the light is so low that you have no other choice. Instead choose the second highest value (second largest number).

Auto ISO

Fortunately most of the time you don’t need to worry about selecting the correct ISO. Most cameras have an “Auto ISO” setting. With Auto ISO, the camera will look at the amount of light in the scene and change the ISO appropriately so that the shutter speed doesn’t get too slow.
ISO Values

If you choose to use a manual ISO, what values should you use?

ISO 50-100. Suitable for bright light (like outdoors on a sunny day).

ISO 200. Great for overcast or cloudy days.

ISO 400 and 800. Use these values when the light is getting dim but it is not yet night.

ISO 1600 and above. Use for indoor or night shots. Also useful to freeze the action in sports shots. These values will produce the most noise.

Lighting can make a serious difference to your photos.

The most recent example is this photo from subscriber Kilian Hofmann. Kilian entered a Curves competition with the following image:

Now this image is outstanding in a number of ways. Kilian took the extra time needed to wait for just the right lighting and mood to take the shot. And the process of doing that, he turned what was a rather ordinary photo into a masterpiece that won the competition (Congratulations Kilian!)

How did he do this?

Kilian was kind enough to send me the other photos he took that day.

Although these are good images, none look as good as the winner.

I asked Kilian how he took the image. He said “This picture has been taken with my Nikon D50, without tripod, at the end of the day (17.45 local time). There was a magnificient sunset, and the sunbeams and the light reflecting in this rather impressive metallic structure catched my eye.”

There are two things that set the winning image apart from a ‘normal’ image like the others he took.

No Distractions

Kilian has cleverly cropped the image to a square format. Removing the excess sky that appears in his other landscape shot helps focus our eye on the sculpture. Also, there are no other distractions like posts or people as in the other images. “The angle I choose was the best one concerning the background (no disturbing elements at all) and the sunset behind, showing the entire sculpture”

Lighting

This I think is the most important. While the other portrait images he took show some good light and shadow, it’s the setting sun that creates the wonderful orange, yellow and blue backdrop that allows the sculpture to stand out.

So how do you find great lighting like this? Look around! Also, it pays to have your camera close with you all the time. As Kilian explains: “I most often have my camera with me when going out for a walk. The ‘come back another time’ is too hazardous, since the weather conditions and the light are never the same here, and missed opportunities mostly remain missed ones.”

Things don’t always go to plan

“Here an example: Near to my home is a crossroad. For months now I try to take a picture including the 3 elementary colours yellow (the pedestrian crossing), red (the stop light) and blue (blue spots incorporated in the asphalt) by rainy weather (for the gleam). I succeeded one evening, but due to a bad manipulation of my camera, the pictures unfortunately were useless. Rain is not missing here, but of course, the 3 following days we didn’t have any rain. Unfortunately the blue spots can’t be seen anymore!!! Due to the vibrations of the thousands of cars passing by, they have fallen off and wait repair!”

Kilian is not a pro either… “I still consider myself an amateur. I’m retired since september 2005, and when I left, my firm offered me a voucher, allowing me to buy a camera and a PC with Photoshop. Since, photography became my new hobby, and I spend now hours and hours by learning as much as I can, and this also with the help of your free tutorials.”

So don’t be afraid to keep looking for different ways to take your photographs. Make them more interesting by using angles, light and Depth of Field. And don’t be afraid to enter competitions either – you never know what you might win!

P.S. This was Kilian’s first ever competition! “I never before entered a competition, the April competition is the really first one and I’m especially proud being the winner of it. This gift certificate will allow me to buy the Nikon Zoom-Nikor 55-200 mm lens. It’s up to me now to take all the birds (among other animals) I never could take at distance before.” Well Done Kilian and make sure you show us some of the images you take with your new lens!

Professional reviews of photos are one of the best ways to improve your photographic skills. By studing what works and doesn’t work, you learn to shoot more ‘winners’ yourself.

Curtis Routh has kindly agreed to review the following photos for me. Curtis runs a photography business called LeaveTheCamera.com and his insights are very valued. Click on the photos to comment on the image, or rate it yourself.

Tired of Waiting by tsiklots

Overall: This is a very intriguing photograph. I have looked at it…gone away…came back and looked some more. This is the type photo that a great photographer is happy to get and should be in a “How to” B & W manual.

Summary: I cannot find a thing wrong with this photo. From trying to see what is outside, to the loosely hung curtains, to the pajamas he is wearing…to the half loose blinds….to the leather sofa. It’s all there! The lighting is very good. There is major light coming in from the front and minor light highlighting his back and the scar on his arm. His little ear barely comes through and looks as if, even though he is sleeping, he could be listening. The black & white medium sets it off even more. This could be early morning or late afternoon. Either works well. I would love to see the original in color.

I give this picture a 9.9. A little more light might have brought out a few more of his features. Very wonderful shot. I like it very much. Congratulations on a great picture!

Up For Air by MikeK

Summary: I love nature shots. Especially in the raw and up close. The colors are very vivid and the detail is a testament to the glass and camera you are using. The depth of field is very good. I really like the scum bubbles in the water (lends to the fact of where they actually live). His eyes are very clear. You can see he is checking you out as much as you are him. Good exposure, great detail, and the colors are really outstanding. The AWB worked well in this shot. The focal point is his eyes. I like it. I like the title, too. Very accurate portrayal of the meaning of the shot. Overall, this is one of the best nature pictures I have seen on the site.

Improvements; The tight crop is great for detail, but it is almost disappointing not to see the rest of his reflection in the water. A little looser shot might have added a complete head reflection in the water. The shiny spot on his nose draws my eyes. I would like to see this shot after softening the bright spot in P.S. or another editing program. One step up in color saturation (P.S. or custom parameter) would have made the green jump off the page. I feel the colors, although very accurate, are a little flat. Contrast is good. Mood is good.

Overall I rate this picture at a 9.8 Great job. I know these critters don’t sit still very long. I give a 10 for catching the shot!

Daisy Kaimai by maryann

The setting for this photo is a stark contrast between light and dark. The flower is very prominent in the picture and the blurred, dark background gives a sense of foreboding drama. Kind of like good verses evil. It looks as if a flash were used to highlight the flower. This provides a definite contrast between light and dark as the flash falls off.

Improvements: I think the picture would be more interesting if the background were in focus ( a least a little). It would certainly make it easier to see where this was taken. Looks like it was taken near a pond or lake. Don’t discount detail in the background. It is a little out of focus and I feel the flower would have been better served if it were more centered. I love the different light and dark colors. The blue in the center would have made the flower jump off the page. This would have made a happier picture if the white was more predominant than the dark. A little closer zoom would have brought out more detail in the flower. A tripod, if not used, would have worked well in this light.

Overall: I think this a great shot. The flower shines like a brand new dime in a bucket of old pennies. It says there is light, even in the darkness. I like the deep blue color in the center. It adds yet another perception of depth. I feel the overall rating of 8 is right on. Good picture!

Bobo by girdnerg

Summary: Very nice photograph. I like the tight crop and the big brown eyes. The little shiner tells of recent boo boo. Nice touch. The lighting is good. Good skin color (a little pink). Flash worked well.

Improvements: I can’t tell if that is an arm or leg in the photo. I think just her face would have worked better. Nice contrast between the foreground and background. Digital re-touch to remove the little blemishes off her forehead and nose, along with only her face, would have brought my full attention to the black eye(s). Overall a very nice shot. I give it an 8.5. Beautiful girl. Hope the eye gets well soon. Makes me want to say “ahhh”.

Me & Grandpa by girdnerg

Summary: Nice photo. Good light and good contrast between the green water and blue inner tube. I like the rugged forest in the background. Good reflection in the water down low. water gives a sense of motion.

Improvements: I would like to have seen the subjects a little closer to the trees in the back. There is too much to look at between the subjects and the background. The bright sunlight gave way to great color and detail, but it also caused both subjects to squint. Looking away from the light source for a few seconds and then looking back into the frame would have made for more natural facial expressions. I would recommend a half step down on the exposure to prevent the washout on the subjects and water. A polarized filter would have deepened the water and added color overall. I would have recommended a 5.6 aperture setting to darken this shot down a little. Overall I think it is a very good effort in very bright sunlight. I like the picture. Looks like fun. I give this shot a 7 overall.

I know all of this is a lot to think about when capturing the moment, but that can be fixed by taking several shots with varying aperture settings. Click, click, click. Pick the best.

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In my very first tip, I recommend moving closer to your subject. Almost any shot will look better if you take two or three steps closer.

It works especially well on faces because when you fill the frame with your subject’s face, there is less clutter to draw the viewer’s eye away from the pleasing face.

Cropping does almost the same thing. It allows you to improve your photos by eliminating the distractions or clutter.

Eliminate Clutter and Emphasize Subjects

Sometimes your photos have extra elements that don’t add much to the photo and can distract from your main subject. Cropping is a fantastic way to eliminate these extras.

As an example, the foreground bushes in the windmill photo distract your eye from the main subject and remove some of the impact from the image. By cropping the photo to just the windmill, there is less clutter in the image and my intended subject (the windmill) stands out more.

Crop To Improve Composition

Notice I cropped the windmill image with the Rule of Thirds in mind.

I have spoken about the Rule of Thirds previously. Try to crop an image so that the main subject (our windmill) sites on a third line. This technique can also liven a dull photo by moving a subject that may be in the middle of the frame to be slightly out of frame; or onto one of the rule of third lines.

Changing the composition has other benefits. If you zoom in on certain parts of an image, you also change the emphasis on the photo. In the below crop, I have changed the emphasis of the image completely by cropping the mother and concentrating on the child.

Cropping Wide or High

Don’t get stuck with the standard dimensions of a ‘normal’ photo when cropping. Feel free to construct an image that looks more panoramic than the original by making the image a lot wider than it is high. Or choose a crop that is a lot higher than it is wide. You can even make a vertical image from a horizontal image.

This technique works very well when you have a lot of sky or water in your image. Crop the sky out leaving just the interesting parts.

	Crop the image two different ways. Taller or Wider.

Beware of cropping too much

Be careful how much you crop. Whenever you remove parts of an image, you are eliminating pixels resulting in less pixels than the original. If you chop too much off, and then try to print the smaller photo back at the original size, you can notice some degradation of quality or lack of crispness. It does depend on the number of mega pixels in your original photo and how large you wish to print the cropped photo so if unsure, test it first.

Finally, make a copy of your image before cropping it. You always want to keep a copy of the original just in case you need it again… or you aren’t happy with your crop!

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What is Opportunity Photography? It’s when you take images of a subject you didn’t expect to take images of when you picked up your camera.

One of my subscribers, Jeffrey Balliett, sent me some wonderful images of a fox that he saw in his back yard. Jeff was taking his camera to photograph a nesting hummingbird, but saw the fox first.

Jeff snapped a number of images through his closed glass sliding door with his Panasonic FZ15. He’s kindly agreed to allow his images to be used as a tip.

Here’s one of his first images.

This is a pretty good shot. He’s zoomed in nice and close, and has the fox in the center of the image with a good pose. Unfortunately the background is very over exposed, and tends to draw the eye away from the main subject of the photo (the fox).

Why is the top over exposed? A camera’s sensor can’t handle in the range of brightness that we can with our eyes. Any time you have very bright and darker areas of a photo, you will see the same problem. For instance shooting a person standing in front of a window.

There is no easy way around this exposure problem. You can tell the camera to expose the sunlit area properly, but then the fox will be too dark. It is possible to use a graduating filter (to filter out some of the bright light at the top of the image), but these kinds of filters take a while to setup and are thus not suited to opportunity photography. By the time you’ve setup your filter, the fox has moved away.

So what I would do is either move the camera further to the right, or further up. If you move further to the right, then hopefully you’ll get into frame the object that’s causing the shadow, which means there won’t be any bright sunlight in the shot. Moving further up will mean you’ll be able to frame out the bright sunlight.

I also notice that the fox’s tail has been a little chopped off. I would make sure the full tail is in shot. Also, allow some space for the fox to ‘look into’. In this case, zoom out a little and place the fox in the upper right area of the image. Although that’s not crucial as the fox is in quite a pleasing place in this image.

Jeff fortunately took a number of other images of the fox. And that’s another tip… take more shots. That way you can find the best photo to use for your album. When taking more shots make sure you don’t take more just because you can. Frame each shot differently, and change things like angle, lighting, your camera’s aperture and other things between each shot.

In this next shot, the fox has moved into Jeff’s bird bath.

Here I would zoom in further and make sure you just see the fox in the shot. The other reason I’d like to see a close up is the water pipe on the left of the bird bath. It doesn’t fit with the concrete bath designs and seems very out of place.

Fortunately, Jeff did zoom in. Did he hear me in his head?!?

This is nice and close. And you don’t see the pipe anymore! Unfortunately the fox’s eyes are closed so it looks a little like a dead fox. Not a great look for an image! Fortunately Jeff kept shooting.

This shot is a better composition. The fox’s eyes are open, and you can see most of the body in the shot. You can also see that he’s in a bird bath, but the surroundings don’t distract your eye. The main problem is that the image is too dark. The camera is probably trying to compensate for the bright background. Either Jeff has Matrix Metering enabled, or he had the camera pointing towards a sunny area when he half pressed the shutter.

While I’m talking about exposure… it plays a very important part in photography. When you depress the shutter half way, your camera takes a reading of the overall light in the image and adjusts it’s settings accordingly. If you’re pointing at an overly bright or dark area, your image won’t turn out the way you planned. This is another reason to check your LCD screen after you’ve taken the shot to make sure it’s not too light or too dark.

This final shot I think is the best. It is almost correctly exposed, and the background is out of focus enough that it’s not a distraction (although I would still like to see less bright sunlight). The fox’s eyes are open and looking almost directly at the camera.

Congratulations Jeff – they’re really good shots. I think you had a hard subject (it’s impossible to tell a wild fox to pose for the camera), and a hard place to shoot from. I gather if you opened the door, the fox would have run away.

If you’d like to see all of Jeff’s images, you can see them in his Photos page.

Take Away : Look for Opportunity Shots. These are photos that you don’t expect to take when you first pick up your camera. Keep your eyes open, like Jeff did, for different things to photograph and don’t be afraid to experiment!

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A lot of cameras come with an Anti-Blur mode. This is marketed to reduce blur in your photos; particularly when indoors or at twilight. But does it work, and how can it help with your photography?

Does Anti Blur Mode work? Yes it does. It can stop (or limit) blurry photos caused by low light.

Should I purchase a camera with Anti Blur? No. Don’t purchase a camera just because it has an Anti Blur Mode. As I explain below, Anti Blur is actually just a marketing name for a feature that almost all cameras have already!

What causes a Blurry Image?

Blurry Images are one of the biggest problems that can occur with digital cameras. It happens when the camera or the subject moves while the shutter is open.

Normally, your camera’s shutter operates quite fast (less than 1/100 second). That is fast enough to create a sharp image (unless the subject is moving very fast like a race car).

When there isn’t much light around (indoors and twilight are two excellent examples) the shutter needs to stay open for longer so enough light can get into the camera. Depending on the brightness of the light and other factors, the shutter speed can be anywhere from 1/30th of a second to 2 seconds or even longer.

The longer the shutter is open, the more chance your subject will move (causing a blurry subject, like the first image to the right) or the camera will move in your hands (causing the whole image to be blurry, like the second image).

What Is Anti-Blur Mode?

When you enable Anti-Blur mode, your camera makes sure the shutter speed is always fast – above 1/100 second. With this fast shutter speed, blurry photos are much less likely to occur.

But with low light photography, the shutter speed needs to stay open for longer to get enough light into the camera. Without enough light your photo will appear dark, or under exposed. How can the camera ensure enough light gets in while keeping a fast shutter speed?

The ingenious answer lies in what is called the “Holy Trinity” of exposure – Shutter Speed, ISO Value and Aperture. The correct settings combination of these three leads to a correctly exposed image (one that’s not too dark or too light). If you change one value (like decreasing the shutter speed), you need to compensate by changing a second of the three settings otherwise your image will no longer be correctly exposed.

Since the days of film cameras, your camera has worked out the correct settings for you. It has taken your set ISO (usually set with the type of film placed in the camera) and changed the Aperture or Shutter Speed to ensure a great photo. Digital cameras have done the same thing even though these days you can change the ISO with the flick of a switch.

Anti-Blur mode switches this around. When your camera notices it needs to keep the shutter speed high, it also increases the ISO. A higher ISO means less light is needed to correctly expose the shot; so the shutter doesn’t need to be open for as long.

So Anti-blur is just a marketing name for the camera modifying the ISO setting to keep the shutter time short. It’s that simple.

But it raises the question… If it was that simple, why haven’t camera manufacturers added this feature before?

Trouble in Paradise

The problem comes when you look at your photos. The higher the ISO value, the more ‘digital noise’ appears in the image (for a full explanation of noise and how to reduce of eliminate it, check out the noise bonus book that comes free with my Digital Photo Secrets book).

So your image may be blurry-free, but it’s still not a fantastic image because of all the noise.

Fortunately, noise is not as much of a problem as it used to be. Camera technology has improved in recent years and (depending on your camera) ISO speeds as high as 1600 can now take excellent photos. This has allowed the camera makers to add the Anti-Blur feature.

Another way to counter noise is to take photos with a lower resolution (4 megapixels rather than 8 megapixels). So you might find that when you enable the Anti-Blur mode, your photos won’t be as large.

Home Anti-Blur Solutions

What if you have a camera without an Anti-Blur feature?

Fortunately if your camera doesn’t have an Anti-Blur feature, you can still reduce or eliminate blurry photos by making the ISO adjustment yourself.

Just before your take a shot, check the shutter speed your camera is going to use. If it is slower than 1/50 second, increase the ISO value one value (like from 100 to 200, or from 200 to 400) and check the shutter speed again. Keep increasing the ISO until the shutter speed is around 1/100 second.

I recommend you don’t use your camera’s highest ISO setting (usually 1600 or 3200) as this will create too much noise. Instead increase to the second highest setting only.

It also helps to hold your camera steady while taking the photo.

What is Anti-Shake? Is that the same?

No. Anti-Shake technology uses gyroscopes and moving parts to move the camera’s lens as a ‘reaction’ to you slightly moving the camera while holding it. It is useful in helping to reduce blurry photos caused by this method. I recommend using both technologies – Anti-Shake and Anti-Blur.