Are your handheld landscape photography photos never quite sharp? Do you struggle with what camera settings to use once you start trying to handhold the camera for your photos? I have five tips to help maximize your success with handheld landscape photography.
I typically practice the majority of my landscape photography from a tripod. I like knowing I have a stable base to work from, especially for my waterfall images or low-light scenes. I also appreciate that it makes me more deliberate with my approach to a scene, as long as I don’t set up the tripod immediately upon reaching a scene to photograph.
With that said, I also think being familiar with good handholding technique is valuable for the landscape photographer, even if 75% plus of your work is from a tripod. I often carry a second camera body into the field as a backup, but I also use it while my main camera is on the tripod, waiting for the light to unfold. While I wait, I can handhold the second camera, look for smaller scenes where the light is playing, and often walk away with some great photos.
It is also a handy skill for those times I want to travel light or maybe on a family trip where I would like to have a camera with me but don’t want all the extra baggage of a tripod. It is even handy to go without a tripod when I am doing longer, more strenuous, or challenging hikes where I want to keep the weight down during the hike.
I have five tips for handheld landscape photography. These tips will help you become more confident in your photography without a tripod and come home with sharper photos and images to add to your portfolio.
Shutter Speed
One key camera setting to be aware of when moving from a tripod to handheld is the shutter speed. When we photograph from a tripod, we have a stable base, and we can let our shutter speeds get very slow, as the tripod gives the camera a stable base.
As soon as we take the camera off the tripod, the camera is subject to our own movements. People tend to sway or have a very hard time keeping their body and hands still for any length of time; there are subtle movements, even taking a breath can cause instability that will affect your image.
Due to this, you need to keep your shutter speed high enough to negate the effects of these subtle camera movements. A faster shutter speed more readily freezes motion and allows you to not have blurry images from handholding.
There are guidelines on how fast your shutter speed should be to minimize camera shake issues. As with any guidelines, these are simply suggested places to start. Some people will be steadier, or you will have people like me who drink too much coffee and know I need to compensate for that.
The general guideline is to shoot a shutter speed 1x to 2x your focal length. For example, if you are photographing at a focal length of 30mm, then your shutter speed should be between 1/30th and 1/60th of a second. If your focal length was 200mm, then your shutter speed should be between 1/200th and 1/400th of a second. Often, a safe place to start is around 1.5x your focal length and then adjust faster or slower from there.
Typically, wider focal lengths are a little more forgiving of a slower shutter speed than more telephoto focal lengths. Because of this, I highly recommend grabbing a couple of lenses and practicing in your backyard to see where you fall within the guidelines. If you are photographing wider scenes, the 1x guideline might work fine, but as you approach 150mm+ focal lengths, you need to gravitate towards the 2x guideline. Practicing and learning that at home will help give you confidence when out in the field that you are selecting the correct shutter speed.
ISO
If we increase our shutter speed to avoid the negative effects of camera shake, we know from the exposure triangle that we need to compensate by changing either the aperture to let more light in or increasing the ISO. As landscape photographers, we typically care about depth of field, so lowering our aperture isn’t ideal. That leaves us with adjusting our ISO.
Increasing our ISO will help counter the faster shutter speed we are using. The increased ISO will amplify the light hitting the sensor to help maintain a proper exposure. Many photographers are hesitant to raise their ISO as it has been ingrained in us to always photograph at ISO 100 for the cleanest images. But clean, blurry photos aren’t going to get it done either.
Raising the ISO is not a significant issue with today's modern camera sensors. I often default to ISO 400 if I know I will be handholding. Coupled with post-processing software advances in denoise capability, a higher ISO is not something to be afraid of, especially if it allows you to capture sharp images. Don’t be afraid to raise the ISO to facilitate your shutter speed.
Image Stabilization
Image stabilization, or vibration reduction in the Nikon world, will help you cheat the first tip regarding shutter speed. Image stabilization can come in the lens or the camera body and help stabilize the image through small micro-adjustments in the lens elements or camera sensor to counter camera shake. If you have the option to turn on image stabilization on your camera or lens and are handholding, be sure to enable it - the difference is often significant.
Image stabilization is typically measured in stops. For example, suppose you have determined you need a shutter speed of 1/500th to avoid camera shake, and your camera or lens has 5 stops of image stabilization. In that case, you can potentially photograph this shot at a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second and not experience the negative effect of camera shake.
Image stabilization is a great camera or lens feature to familiarize yourself with if you are handholding your landscape photos. Practice in your backyard to see how far you can push it and still get sharp images.
Handholding Technique
How you stand and hold the camera also plays an essential factor in how steady you are. Without the tripod, we are the stable base for the camera. There are various ways we can change how we stand or hold the camera to help provide a more stable base for our camera while we handhold our photographs.
When composing a photograph handheld, be sure to stand and hold the camera in the most stable fashion possible. When standing, take a stance that gives you some stability. I like to tell people to stand so that if someone were to bump into them, they wouldn’t fall over.
Keep your arms tucked back and close to your side, not extended. When possible, I recommend using the viewfinder instead of the back of the camera. This helps you keep those arms tucked closer to your body and gives you another point of contact against your forehead or eye, which adds an element of stabilization.
If available, leaning against a tree can help reduce your sway while standing or kneeling, and you can use a rock or log to brace the camera further. Maybe it isn’t putting the camera on a log but bracing your elbows on a log to get the composition you want. Each of these helps contribute to you providing a stable base for the camera.
Burst Mode
The final tip is to use burst mode while you are handholding. Burst mode takes multiple photos with one press of the shutter button. Sometimes, when handholding, that initial press of the shutter causes a little camera shake, but with burst mode, you get multiple photos with one press. The first one might be a touch blurry, but the next photo or two likely have a higher chance of being sharp and in focus.
Go Practice
Practicing these techniques in the backyard or at your local metro park will help you be more confident with your handheld landscape photography. While I have no intention of only photographing handheld, having the skills and practicing those skills will help you still capture great images when you decide to go tripod-less!
What about you? What tips do you have for handheld landscape photography? Let me know in the comments below!
Using the view finder to help stabilize your image when shooting handheld is such an overlooked technique. I remember watching Joe McNally demonstrate that crazy arm wrap technique he does back in the day, but the big take away is the more surface area you can brace with, the better.
It is funny how small things can add up to make a big difference in stability!
My father taught me a few things about marksmanship that I think can translate well to hand-held shooting:
Fight gravity as little as possible. If your muscles are working to hold up your arms and the camera, they're under stress and will eventually become unstable. Try to picture the parts of your body "resting on" themselves -- vertical forearms putting their weight straight down onto your rib cage, etc. When you see olympic shooters appear to contort themselves into odd poses, this is often the reason.
Breath control. One advantage of landscape photography is that it seldom relies on Cartier-Bresson precision in the "moment" -- you aren't trying to freeze a runner in mid-leap. Use this time to breathe normally and fully. Squeeze the shutter (cousin to the trigger) gradually instead of in a jerk... and try to release the shutter mid-exhale.
That's a great way of looking at it! Fight gravity as little as possible! Great tips!
When I went to Antarctica, I had to do everything handheld including shooting from a Zodiak boat. Because I had practiced ahead of time, I was able to have a great shooting experience. The high shutter speed technique is critical. Also, on shore, I kneeled quite a bit to get photos of penguins. That helps you to maintain balance. Plus, it makes you look smaller, and penguins walked right up to me.
Oh! That Antarctica trip sounds amazing! Shooting from a boat definitely sounds like a great scenario for really focusing on keeping that shutter speed higher for sharp photos.
Kneeling is a good tip as well, gives a nice solid platform for handholding. I really should probably kneel more often when working handheld, one of those things that I sort of know, but often forget to do!
Great tips - when using view finder one should remember to turn off the touch pad.
Thanks! Yeah - always annoying to have things shifting, getting tapped, etc when they shouldn't! Thanks for the tip!