Jock Elliott
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Troy, NY
One of the things that I do to put bread on the table is to test airguns for Airguns of Arizona and write a weekly blog about them. (If you are wildly curious, the blog can be found here: Airguns of Arizona Blog ) I have also competed in some airgun competitions and occasionally won. I am not an astonishingly great shot, but I do okay.
It wasn’t until yesterday, when Chris Yeats said, “You must have great technique,” that I realized that some of the things I have learned while trying to become a better shot with an airgun can also be applied to photography. So I thought I might put together a few thoughts and pass them along in case they might benefit someone here on www.seriouscompacts.com
So let’s start with the basics. There are three things you have to know.
Thing one: people wobble. When a person is “standing still,” they are actually oscillating, ever so gently, over their center of gravity. If you have a Wii in the household and have ever measured your weight using the Wii fit platform, you know that while it is weighing you, it is also measuring your wobble over your center of gravity, and it always, always, always, shows movement. Olympic 10-meter air rifle competitors try to reduce the wobble by wearing special clothes that essentially “strap them up” to reduce the movement. The special clothing helps a lot but does not eliminate the wobble.
Thing two: the greater the telephoto (apparent focal length) of your lens, the worse the apparent wobble appears. Hence the rule of thumb that your shutter speed ought to be one over the equivalent focal length of your lens. So, if you are shooting at 500mm equivalent, your shutter speed ought to be at least 1/500 second to try to reduce blur in the photograph. If you’re shooting a 1000mm lens, your shutter speed ought to be 1/1000 second, and so on.
Thing three: more points of contact with your equipment are better. No one has ever shot a perfect score in Olympic air pistol. Why? Because (in part) competitors are shooting with one hand holding the pistol, and it is waving all over the place. By contrast, perfect scores have been shot in Olympic air rifle. In air rifle, two hands hold the rifle, and it is also pressed into the shoulder of the shooter. More contact means more steady.
So how can we apply what we have learned?
Reduce wobble. Tripods are the ultimate anti-wobble tool. They steady the camera admirably and take wobbly old you out of the equation. But I don’t carry a tripod. Ever. So press your back against a tree or brace the barrel of the lens against a tree or the side of a building. If possible, sit down. Put your butt and your feet on something solid (the ground?). If you can sit on the ground and brace your back against a tree, even better. Put your elbows on your knees, creating a solid connection from your hands to the ground.
If possible, follow the rule about focal length and shutter speed.
Take advantage of more points of contact. Grab the camera with both hands, use the optical viewfinder or electronic viewfinder, and press the camera against your face, creating another point of contact. (For this reason, folks who only have rear view screens on their cameras for composition are at a disadvantage for telephoto shots.) If you are forced to stand, press your elbows against your rib cage.
Now we get to something I didn’t mention before: your breathing causes movement. So, as you prepared to take the shot, take in a breath, exhale half of it, and hold your breath as you press the shutter. Maintain laser-like focus as you slowly and steadily press the shutter. Don’t jerk it. Follow through – don’t move anything until you hear the final click of the shutter.
Give these techniques a try and let me know if they work for you.
Cheers, Jock
It wasn’t until yesterday, when Chris Yeats said, “You must have great technique,” that I realized that some of the things I have learned while trying to become a better shot with an airgun can also be applied to photography. So I thought I might put together a few thoughts and pass them along in case they might benefit someone here on www.seriouscompacts.com
So let’s start with the basics. There are three things you have to know.
Thing one: people wobble. When a person is “standing still,” they are actually oscillating, ever so gently, over their center of gravity. If you have a Wii in the household and have ever measured your weight using the Wii fit platform, you know that while it is weighing you, it is also measuring your wobble over your center of gravity, and it always, always, always, shows movement. Olympic 10-meter air rifle competitors try to reduce the wobble by wearing special clothes that essentially “strap them up” to reduce the movement. The special clothing helps a lot but does not eliminate the wobble.
Thing two: the greater the telephoto (apparent focal length) of your lens, the worse the apparent wobble appears. Hence the rule of thumb that your shutter speed ought to be one over the equivalent focal length of your lens. So, if you are shooting at 500mm equivalent, your shutter speed ought to be at least 1/500 second to try to reduce blur in the photograph. If you’re shooting a 1000mm lens, your shutter speed ought to be 1/1000 second, and so on.
Thing three: more points of contact with your equipment are better. No one has ever shot a perfect score in Olympic air pistol. Why? Because (in part) competitors are shooting with one hand holding the pistol, and it is waving all over the place. By contrast, perfect scores have been shot in Olympic air rifle. In air rifle, two hands hold the rifle, and it is also pressed into the shoulder of the shooter. More contact means more steady.
So how can we apply what we have learned?
Reduce wobble. Tripods are the ultimate anti-wobble tool. They steady the camera admirably and take wobbly old you out of the equation. But I don’t carry a tripod. Ever. So press your back against a tree or brace the barrel of the lens against a tree or the side of a building. If possible, sit down. Put your butt and your feet on something solid (the ground?). If you can sit on the ground and brace your back against a tree, even better. Put your elbows on your knees, creating a solid connection from your hands to the ground.
If possible, follow the rule about focal length and shutter speed.
Take advantage of more points of contact. Grab the camera with both hands, use the optical viewfinder or electronic viewfinder, and press the camera against your face, creating another point of contact. (For this reason, folks who only have rear view screens on their cameras for composition are at a disadvantage for telephoto shots.) If you are forced to stand, press your elbows against your rib cage.
Now we get to something I didn’t mention before: your breathing causes movement. So, as you prepared to take the shot, take in a breath, exhale half of it, and hold your breath as you press the shutter. Maintain laser-like focus as you slowly and steadily press the shutter. Don’t jerk it. Follow through – don’t move anything until you hear the final click of the shutter.
Give these techniques a try and let me know if they work for you.
Cheers, Jock