Video Photo Tip ~ Sharp Shooting Part 2 of 5
Welcome to the second installment of making your images consistently sharper. OK, the tripod seems obvious. What to do if you don’t have a tripod or a place to brace your camera? Simple – turn your body into a tripod. Think about what a tripod is doing. It’s holding the camera over a centrally balanced grounded point. Well we can do this with our body by spreading our legs a bit, standing straight, and cradling the camera lens with our left hand while holding the shutter release side of the camera with our right hand. Furthermore, firmly resting the viewfinder against our eyebrow anchors the camera to our now tripod-like body further reducing vibration.
The opposite of this of course is holding the camera out in front of you and leaning forward towards your subject. Why not just move forward and take a moment to get steady? A pet peeve of mine is watching someone shoot a one handed, extended arm photo. I think this is a natural extension of the cell phone camera. But guess what you can still take the time (and both your hands) to steady up a cell phone camera the same way.
This technique works the same way if you need to get low on your knees. Simple make your self straight, find your center of balance, and steady up. Need to get even lower, use your elbows, arms, and face as a sudo-tripod.
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by Kent Weakley
Completely agree with using the viewfinder instead of the display screen in back. Have you seen the “human tripod” pose where the camera rests on the left arm and the left arm is linked up to the right arm? My wife uses that one quite a bit.
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Some people even use to hold their breath while focusing or just for a couple of seconds before they push the shutter button for making steady picture. And as elbows are close to body you begin to feel your heart beating with your whole body as it sometimes is really strong
So as a result camera’s got even more shaking. For me it’s useful to hold the camera as you’ve said and take picture while making an exhale. Well, at least the camera moves in only one direction 
)
Anyway thank you very much for the lessons. All of them are very interesting.
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Now this tip I do specially at the beach!
Thanks for putting it out there!
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[...] of your images. Especially in lower light situations, it’s critical that you take time to brace yourself, use two hands (and arms), squeeze (don’t press), and practice breathing, in order to make [...]
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