Thursday, April 23, 2009

Rapid Fire Sharpness Trick

A lot of today's cameras have a continuous shooting mode where you can hold the shutter button down and the camera will keep taking pictures until you release it. The obvious way to use this feature is to catch a series of action shots but I use it often for a different reason. I use it to get a much sharper image.

When you press the shutter button, no matter how good you are, you will move the camera ever so slightly. If you have a camera with image stabilization it will correct for the movements but the technology isn't perfect. I'm convinced that the I.S. on my camera actually introduces motion sometimes, which is why they tell you to turn it off when you mount the camera on a tripod.

When I take a three shot burst, most of the time the second image will be sharper than the first or third image. The reason is probably the fact that I'm not pressing or releasing the shutter button, and the I.S. technology is caught up on that one shot, so the camera sensor is at its stillest moment on the second image. For whatever reason, it just works.

If you have a continuous shooting mode on your camera take a series of non-stop shots and see for yourself. Put them on the computer, zoom in to 100% and take a really close look at all of them. The results may just surprise you.

1 comment:

  1. I thoroughly agree. I love being able to shoot continuously--and the second shot in a series is almost always the best. There have been rare occasions when all three have worked, giving a story instead of a picture, but those occasions have been rare indeed.
    And another wonderful thing about continuous mode is that many point and shoots have it as well! =D

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