Blurred photography is sometimes a nice artistic effect. If planned, a blurred image can delight a photographer. If unplanned, it can ruin a photographer’s day. Here are some tips to help you avoid blurred photography:

1.       Be sure you have enough light for the picture you are taking. If light is low, the shutter speed will need to be slow as well in order to let enough light into your camera to take the picture. One of the requirements of taking a picture that is not blurred is to hold the camera still during the exposure. The slower the shutter speed, the longer you have to hold the camera perfectly still. Therefore, if you take pictures in enough light to use a fast shutter speed, you will have a better chance of taking clear, sharp pictures with no blur.

2.       Use a tripod to reduce blurring. By mounting your camera on a tripod, you will reduce the amount of movement when you take a picture. When buying a tripod, be sure to purchase a good one. Cheap tripods will cause some blur also from camera shake as you take the picture.

3.       Another way to stabilize your camera is to lean against a wall as you take a picture. This is better than standing freely and will reduce the amount of movement of the camera while you take the picture.

4.       Hold your camera with your right hand on the grip of the camera and the lens in the palm of your left hand. Make sure you don’t get any fingers in front of the lens. A thumb in the picture will probably be worse than any amount of blur.

5.       Hang the strap of your purse or the strap of a small backpack over the lens of your camera or place a small sock full of beans or rice over the top of the lens of your camera. These will also provide some weight to the lens and will make it easier to hold it still.

6.       Lean against a tree or car to stabilize yourself. The best position is to make a human tripod by leaning on your elbows on the top of a car. This will usually give you good stabilization.

7.       Many of the newer cameras have a feature called “image stabilization.” This reduces the amount of blur in a picture because the image stabilization mechanism in the camera automatically stabilizes the image as it is recorded. 

    If none of these techniques work to take the blur out of your pictures, you might want to look at the amount of coffee you are drinking per day. Some photographers just naturally have difficulty with blur photographs because they have a slight shake in their hands due to caffeine.