Using a telephoto lens opens up a world of possibilities for capturing stunning, close-up shots from a distance. Whether you're filming wildlife in its natural habitat, looking to see what's on top of a tall communications tower, or getting a tight shot of performers in a large outdoor venue, telephoto lenses allow you to capture pictures and videos that you simply could not get with a regular camera lens.

Wide angle vs. ultra-telephoto focal length comparison.

But if you have some experience with a super zoom camera or a camera with a telephoto lens, then you probably know that it can be incredibly challenging at times to prevent the camera from shaking when taking pictures or recording video. Even the slightest vibrations - including when you place your finger on the shutter button - can ruin your shot.

When the camera is shaking, the scene that you're trying to capture will look like it's shaking in the camera's viewfinder. And that can result in a blurry image or a video that looks like it was recorded during an earthquake.

A blurry image from camera shake.

Telephoto lenses are inherently more sensitive to movement because they magnify both the subject and any movement of the camera. And the longer the lens, the shakier the image will look in the camera's view finder. Vibrations that are barely noticeable at wide angle or midrange focal lengths can make it extremely difficult or downright impossible to capture a great picture or record a video clip at telephoto or super telephoto focal lengths.

During the eight years that I've been shooting at high focal lengths, I have had to deal with a lot of camera shake. There has been some cursing. There may been some temper tantrums. I have tried to telepathically stop the camera from shaking. And I've even tried a ceremonial wind dance. Surprisingly, none of that has had any effect on how much the camera shakes.

This is me trying to take a picture in the wind!

But over the years, I have learned about things can reduce or even stop the camera from shaking. And when it's not possible to stop the camera from shaking, I have found other things that can reduce or eliminate the effects of a shaking camera on your pictures and video clips. Some combination of these things should help you get the shot you want in almost any situation.

If you try one of my camera shake reduction ideas, I recommend that you try it out and get comfortable with it BEFORE an important photo shoot! Don't start an important photo shoot with new gear or doing something a new way! I learned that lesson the hard way :(

As I started to write this article about camera shake, I realized that there is quite a bit to cover. So, I'm going to break it up into a series of articles. This article is part 1 of the series, where I'll talk about what causes camera shake and what type of photography and gear are more susceptible to camera shake. Understanding camera shake can help you formulate a shake reduction strategy that's right for your situation.

Future articles in the series will cover what to look for in a tripod and other camera accessories to reduce camera shake. I'll also talk about technology that you can use to reduce the impact of camera shake on your photographs and video clips when you cannot prevent the camera from shaking.

Future topics in the camera shake reduction series

People often ask me what gear I use to mitigate shaky video footage, so in the last article of the series I'll share the details of the gear that I use on my photo shoots.

WHAT CAUSES CAMERA SHAKE?

Camera shake is a result of the transmission of motion. Something other than your camera is moving and that motion is transferred to the camera. Part of managing camera shake is recognizing the situations when external motions can affect your camera. Here are the main things in my experience that can cause camera shake.

Oh, the wind. How I hate the wind on a photo shoot!  In my experience, wind is by far the biggest camera shake problem, even when my camera is mounted on a tripod. I spend a lot of time shooting at long telephoto focal lengths, so wind can often make it a real challenge for me to get usable photographs and video clips on my outdoor photo shoots. It can be especially challenging when I'm trying to record video.

At long focal lengths, my camera is a camera, but it's also a wind meter. If I want to know how windy it is, I just look through the view finder to see how shaky it looks :)   There have been times when I wasn't aware that there was any wind at all until I looked through the camera's view finder to see the scene shaking!  It is surprising how much the slightest amount of wind can shake the camera.

Many of the camera shake reduction ideas that I've discovered over the years are a result of my toxic relationship with the wind. I hope that these camera shake ideas help when you battle the evil force that we call the wind. By the way, did I mention that I hate wind?

Most people tend to hold the camera in their hands when they take a picture or record video. You might think that you're holding the camera still, but you are actually moving - at least a little. And that motion can shake the camera. It might not be a problem at shorter focal lengths, but at higher focal lengths, that shaking can be noticeable in your photographs and video clips. It turns out that humans are not very good tripods!

I'll touch on some things that you can do to reduce camera shake while hand holding your camera, but the best thing that you can do is to mount the camera on a tripod or an alternative support structure.

When discussing camera shake, it's helpful to distinguish between physical touch and hand holding the camera. That's because merely touching the camera, even while it's on a tripod (or an alternate support structure), can cause camera shake. The problem is that human hands are shaky. You might think that your hands aren't shaking, but they likely are - at least a little. And when you're touching the camera, your hand transmits that shaking to the camera.

In fact, at higher telephoto focal lengths, one finger touching the shutter button or the zoom control on the camera can make the camera shake. Well, at least that's my experience, but my hands might be shakier than average.

Actually, shaking or other motion from anywhere in your body can travel down your arm, across your hand, through your finger, and into the camera. Here's an example: have you ever tried to take pictures or record video on a really cold day when you are shivering? One time, I was recording video at sunset at a high elevation in the desert. It was late spring, so the temperature quickly plummeted when the sun went down. I had left my jacket back at the hotel so it was really cold! Once I started to shiver, it was pretty darn hard to get any good video clips!

Vibrations from the floor or the ground can be transmitted up through the tripod to the camera. For example, people walking on a wooden viewing platform can vibrate the platform. A big truck driving on the road or construction near your photo shoot location can vibrate the road. Even something as small as a gas generator placed on the ground near your tripod can cause camera shake.

It's also important to ensure that the tripod feet have a solid connection to the ground. If they do not, then the legs can shift along the ground. Vibrations from that shifting motion will move up the tripod legs and shake the camera. I'll share my thoughts on how to deal with this problem in my articles on reducing camera shake.

CAMERA SHAKE & FOCAL LENGTH

The impact of camera shake on your photography or videography tends to be more noticeable as the focal length of your lens increases. That's because telephoto lenses not only magnify the scene, but they also magnify the movement of the camera.

There's no universally accepted standard for dividing focal lengths into categories, so I'll use my own thoughts in this section.

I rarely have an issue with camera shake affecting my photographs or video clips when I'm shooting at wide angle focal lengths (up to 35mm) or standard focal lengths (36mm - 80mm). As long as the subject is moderately far away like a street scene or a landscape, everything looks so small in the frame that a little bit of camera shake isn't noticeable.

The only time that I might encounter problems with camera shake at these focal lengths is when I'm shooting something that's really close to the camera relative to the focal length, such as macro photography at a wide angle focal length or a close-up portrait at a standard focal length. And even then, there must be something shaking the camera a fair amount like on a windy day.

Modern-day cameras allow us to eliminate a lot of camera shake at shorter focal lengths by adjusting the camera's settings. Image stabilization is pretty darn good these days for photographs and video. And the ISO range on today's sensors can let you significantly increase the shutter speed when taking a photograph to freeze the shake but still let in enough light.

A lot of photography or videography at these focal lengths is done hand held, which is inherently less stable than a camera on a tripod. So if the photo shoot conditions allow it, I can switch from hand held to a tripod which will often eliminate the camera shake.

Telephoto focal lengths (81mm - 300mm) and super telephoto focal lengths (301mm - 800mm) are where camera shake can start to become a problem, even in normal photo shoot conditions. The magnification that a telephoto lens provides is also magnifying any camera shake, so adjusting the camera settings might not resolve the shake problem. You'll likely need to find a way to brace yourself when hand holding the camera or mount the camera on a sturdy tripod (or tripod alternative).

The ideas that I share in my series of articles on reducing camera shake can be helpful for people shooting at any focal length, but they can be especially helpful to people taking pictures and recording video using a camera with a lens that's in the longer focal length range (81mm - 800mm) or the ultra focal length range (over 800m). The "longer focal length" range is the intersection of popular lenses and the focal lengths that experience camera shake.

Ultra long focal lengths are over 800mm. It is my experience that at these focal lengths, even micro-vibrations reaching the camera can make it impossible to get a good shot. This is especially true when you are trying to record video. At ultra telephoto focal lengths, a camera shaking with an amplitude of a fraction of a millimeter can be a problem. Lightly touching the camera's shutter button, the lens focus ring or the zoom control on the camera can make the scene in your camera's view finder look like it's experiencing an earthquake!

If you've spent any amount of time shooting in the ultra telephoto focal length range, then you probably know how frustrating it can be when you are shooting in windy conditions or in other situations where there is camera shake. I've been there and done that, so I'll pass along what I've learned over the years to hopefully reduce the frustration :)

MY CAMERA SHAKE EXPERIENCE

I have been shooting with Nikon super zoom cameras since 2017 so I have gained a lot of experience with camera shake at all of the focal lengths that I talked about in the previous section. I started with the Nikon COOLPIX P900 which has an optical focal length range from 24mm to 2,000mm. Then I switched to the Nikon COOLPIX P1000 which has an optical focal length range from 24mm to 3,000mm. And now I am shooting with the Nikon COOLPIX P1100 which has the same focal length range of the P1000.

The Nikon COOLPIX P1100 super zoom camera.

Before the Nikon super zoom camera, I shot with super zoom cameras from Fujifilm and Olympus (now OM Systems). I've always appreciated the huge focal length range that super zoom cameras provide which allows me to frame just about anything from almost any distance. And within that wide range, I am particularly fond of the upper telephoto range, which means lots of camera shake.

Me with my Nikon P1100 on a mountain top.

In case you're wondering, shooting at a focal length of 3,000mm on a windy day can indeed be extremely challenging. There are times when my professional quality image stabilization software (Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro) cannot convert shaky footage into usable video. Play the sad trombone sound here!

COMING UP NEXT...

The tripod is your best weapon to combat camera shake at any focal length. But not all tripods are sturdy enough to deal with camera shake. In the next article of my camera shake reduction series, I'll talk about what makes a tripod head, tripod legs, and tripod feet sturdy enough to reduce or eliminate camera shake.

The next article in the camera shake series.