It’s not as easy as you might think…!

The first photograph was taken in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce using a shutter speed of eight hours! He had to keep the camera still for so long that he needed a tripod. However, modern cameras and smartphones have brought shutter speeds down so far that most people just shoot handheld. So what’s the best way to do it?

Do you Really Need to?

The first question to ask is ‘Do you really need to?’ That might sound a bit daft in an article about shooting handheld, but tripods are an excellent way to stabilise your camera and are essential for shutter speeds longer than a second or so. They also make it easier to shoot for extended periods as you don’t need to hold your camera the whole time. The same goes for monopods.

The point is that there are pros and cons to using tripods and monopods. It isn’t generally a black-and-white decision—even if you’re in a safari truck on a game drive. I went to the Serengeti a few months ago to photograph the Mara river crossing, and I could use my tripod because we were parked on the riverbank. In fact, it came in very handy when I was trying to take slow pans of the wildebeest galloping past!

I also often use my monopod on safari. It’s especially useful for photographing distant subjects and/or when using a long lens. It’s also handy as you always have a source of support. Not all jeeps have convenient hard surfaces on all sides, so a monopod helps you react quickly and take stabilised shots every time.

Finding Support

Even if you can’t use a tripod or monopod, there are other ways of finding support. If you’re in a vehicle, you can rest your camera on the back of a seat, the dashboard (with the windscreen folded down), the roof, the windowsill, or the window itself (which you can even roll up and down!).

The same goes for trains, aeroplanes, helicopters and even ships. I took the handheld shot of the Antarctic petrel at the top of this article on the deck of a ship during a Force 9 gale—but at least I had a cabin wall to lean against!

A beanbag also comes in useful. Some safari companies provide them, but others don’t, so you might have to bring your own and fill it with beans or rice.

Even if there isn’t a convenient part of the vehicle to hand, you can always slouch down in your seat and rest your camera on your knees. I’ve done that hundreds of times, and a few of the other guests have even taken a few pictures to prove it.

(I think they did it out of the kindness of their hearts, but it might just have been to embarrass me…!)

If you’re on foot, it might seem like you have fewer options, but there are almost always natural or man-made objects you can use at a pinch, including termite mounds, banks, trees, bushes and walls. Another possibility is a nearby vehicle—although resting your camera on the bonnet isn’t a great idea as the warmth from the engine might cause heat haze!

Stance

If you really can’t find any support or you want the freedom and convenience of being able to grab a shot from any angle at short notice, you can take up different stances:

standing
kneeling (or sitting)
lying down.

I used to do a bit of .22 rifle shooting as a naval cadet at school, and I had the same choice. Standing was okay, but holding a rifle steady enough to hit the bull’s-eye at 15 was tricky! Kneeling was easier, but there was still no external support. Lying down was by far the easiest because I could rest the barrel of my rifle on a sandbag and the stock on the floor of the range. (That was the only way for me to get my marksman badge…!)

It’s the same for photography. The more stable your ‘shooting’ position, the easier it is to hit the target—and keeping low is usually a good idea anyway! Camera shake is obviously not much of a problem if you’re photographing birds at 1/3200 of a second, but every little helps…

When standing, you should keep your feet around shoulder-width apart with your left foot slightly further forward. The precise details aren’t that important; you just need to make sure you’re comfortable.

One of the shots that demands especially good camera technique is the slow pan. You can read all about it here, but if you’re in a standing position, the main point is to twist from the hips rather than the neck. That way, your big muscles are doing all the work, which leads to a smoother pan.

Some people find it hard kneeling down (and even harder getting up again!), but I can’t help you there, I’m afraid! On the other hand, you can at least buy knee pads to make it more comfortable. If you keep one knee raised, you can even rest your elbow on your knee. That way, you only need one pad—for either your left or right knee, depending on which side you prefer.

Lying down gives you the optimum support and stability for your camera, especially if you can find something to rest it on, such as a patch of moss or a slight mound. It might also be your only option in windy conditions.

I recently spent a week photographing pumas in Patagonia, and the wind was so strong one day that it was almost impossible to hold your camera steady enough to take pictures. I even had to let the tour leader brace his lens against my leg to keep it still!

Camera Technique

How you hold the camera is important when trying to eliminate camera shake. Rightly or wrongly, cameras are designed for right-handed people to take landscape images. That means your ‘default’ grip should be to hold the body with your right hand with your forefinger on the shutter release and (if you’re using back button focus) with your thumb on the AF-ON button on the back.

If you want to take portrait images, you should turn the camera anticlockwise so that your right hand is on top. Doing it the other way round provides less support and is more awkward—you look like you might break your wrist!

If you have a built-in vertical grip with duplicate controls, you can obviously use the same technique for both kinds of images. This is a good reason to buy that kind of camera, but it does come at the cost of extra weight and lack of flexibility—you can’t take the battery grip off if you don’t want or need it!

Whether you’re shooting in portrait or landscape format, you should hold the lens in the palm of your left hand with your thumb on top. This helps you bear the weight of the lens while still letting you turn the focus or aperture ring with your fingers and thumb.

(Every now and then, I watch an embarrassingly bad Hallmark film about a photographer falling in love, and he or she always makes the same mistake of holding the lens with his or her thumb underneath!)

When focusing and especially when taking pictures, you should press the camera against your forehead and hold your elbows firmly against your sides (unless you’re lying down).

Personally, I use my right eye to look through the viewfinder, but I know other photographers who use their left. Either way, it’s a good idea to try and keep your other eye open. It takes practice at first, but it prevents eye strain and lets you monitor what’s happening outside the viewfinder.

How you breathe doesn’t really make a difference except on those rare occasions when you’re using a very slow shutter speed or trying to shoot a very distant or tricky subject. Again, it’s a bit like using a rifle. If you’re a sniper, you’re supposed to breathe in and out several times and press the trigger after exhaling fully (during the natural ‘respiratory pause’). You can try it out as a photographer, too.

Using a Shorter Lens

One of the main causes of camera shake is using a long lens. It’s normally much heavier than a wide-angle, and every slight tremor is magnified—causing motion blur.

There’s an old rule-of-thumb that suggests you should never use a shutter speed slower than the inverse (or reciprocal) of your focal length. In other words, never shoot at less than 1/400 of a second with a 400mm lens.

However, this is rather outdated as most decent lenses have vibration reduction (Nikon) or image stabilisation systems, and modern mirrorless cameras even have In-Body Image Stabilisation (or IBIS). The net result is up to eight stops of compensation, which means you can get away with a much slower shutter speed—although it obviously doesn’t keep your shots sharp if it’s the subject that’s moving!

Having said all that, it’s still easier to take a sharp shot with a shorter focal length, so leaving your longest lens behind is always an option. You just have to ask yourself what kind of pictures you want to take and how close you can (or want to!) get to the wildlife!

If you’re forced to use a slow shutter speed, one approach to minimise your ISO is to follow the so-called ‘Rule of Doubles’. I mention it in my article on Extreme Photography, but the basic idea is that you start with the shutter speed that’s the inverse of your focal length (eg 1/400th at 400mm). Once you’ve taken a ‘safety shot’, so to speak, you halve your shutter speed but double the number of frames you take. That means taking roughly two shots at 1/200th, four at 1/100th, eight at 1/50th and so on.

The exact numbers don’t really matter, but the basic idea is that your hit rate is roughly proportional to your shutter speed, so you need to take more shots to be guaranteed a sharp one. When you review them later, you can sort them by reverse capture time and just pick the first sharp image you see. That one will automatically have the lowest ISO.

Saving Weight

The other common cause of camera shake is the weight of your camera and lens. Mirrorless and APS-C cameras tend to be lighter than full-frame DSLRs, and the same goes for their lenses. (You could also opt for a compact camera or just use your smartphone, but that might not be the best option for a wildlife photographer!)

I used to have a Nikon D850 with an 800mm lens, and it was simply impossible to shoot handheld for more than a few seconds. I now have a Sony ⍺1 with a 600mm lens, and I can pick it up with my little finger!

In general, there are a few things you can do to reduce weight:

Buy a lighter camera—preferably one with IBIS but without a built-in battery grip!
Buy lighter lenses—preferably with Vibration Reduction or Image Stabilisation.
Customise your existing kit by removing the lens hood, the waterproof cover, one of the batteries, the whole battery grip, the lens foot (or using a smaller one) and even the strap and ring attachments.

The more weight you can lose, the longer you can keep shooting handheld. And that has to be a good thing.

Verdict

Most people shoot handheld most of the time, but it’s not always necessary. Tripods and monopods still come in handy even in the most unusual of circumstances, and even if you can’t use them, there are often natural features you can use to support yourself and/or your camera.

If you don’t have any support, you can reduce camera shake by kneeling rather than standing or lying down rather than kneeling.

Finally, your choice of camera system will go a long way to deciding how long and how well you can shoot handheld. Mirrorless and APS-C cameras are smaller and lighter, and that might just make the difference if you’re trying to capture a tricky shot like a slow pan.

If you’d like to order a framed print of one of my wildlife photographs, please visit the Prints page.

If you’d like to book a lesson or order an online photography course, please visit my Lessons and Courses pages.

Capture the Moment!

How to Shoot Handheld