Focus

Probably 99.8% of my pictures were taken with the auto-focus function, i.e. I let the lens do its focusing until I hear the little "beep-beep" and I see the focusing red dots, I click. Even though I thought that means the picture is focused, the result shown on my computer screen is another story. This is especially true for me under low light conditions. I would take lots of pictures in my kitchen and the pictures almost always come out blurry. Until I learned this rule of thumb from Miz Booshay:

Rule: The shutter speed should not be lower than the number on the lens.

For example, this picture was taken at shutter speed of 1/15s and lens 20mm. The shutter speed 1/15 is less than the lens number 20mm =  blurry!

f/5.6, 1/15, ISO 3200

Here are more examples of what happens when I didn't follow the rule:


Lens at 40mm, shutter speed 1/6s...what was I thinking?

f/5.3, 1/6, ISO 1600

Delicious blurry cornmeal pancake

Lens 26mm and shutter speed 1/13s

f/6.3, 1/13, ISO 1600

This would have been a good strawberry shortcake...except at 42mm lens and 1/30s shutter speed.

f/5.3, 1/30s, ISO 1600

In Miz Booshay's post on focus, she mentioned 9 other tips on achieving sharpness and I thought this rule was the easiest to keep in mind (and steady hand) without messing with a tripod or trying to understand how lens work. Anyways, hopefully I will be able to remember checking my shutter speed before snapping or else I will be posting more blurry pictures.

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