Getting Hand-holding Right

Photo courtesy of John Luther Garcia

Our hands are the most accessible appendage that we have to steady our cameras while we shoot. Hmm…pretty dumb statement as we can’t use our feet. Anyways, we can’t bring tripods most of the times on shoot as there would be instances that we’d just be shooting casually. Since most of us shoot casually, it would be good if we can get hand-holding technique right.

First off, lemme just apologize for quality of the photos below. I took it inside my hotel room with the company P&S and edited with whatever software that’s installed inside this computer I’m using. Just what is hand-holding, you newbies might ask? Well, hand-holding is keeping your camera steady using your hands and body. As I had talked about in a previous article, we have to learn the techniques to keep our camera steady without a tripod support. While hand-holding techniques won’t substitute for a tripod or monopod, we can (with a little practice) handhold our cameras steadily limiting hand tremor.

From experience, breathing has an impact on picture quality. Don’t laugh, it does.For example, you’ve just rushed up to a spot after a short but frantic run and get ready for a shot. You’ll notice that if you lift your camera to shoot, the body movements induced by your heavy breathing and pounding heart would have an effect on how steady you can hold the camera. Go ahead, try this once and you’ll see what I mean. In this type of situations, you’d need a tripod as no amount of deep breathing exercise will relax your pulse to its restful state. Either you use a tripod or relax a few seconds to slow your pulse.

Under normal circumstances however, it would be best if you trip your shutter as you exhale. While others advise to hold your breath then shoot, I don’t agree with this as trapping air in your lungs is not how our body normally works. Hold your breath too long, you’ll induce tremors on your hand. Do what riflemen do: pull the trigger as you exhale. I used to hunt and I applied that breathing technique to photography. Works like a charm for me.

Prone position.

When hand-holding, the most stable position is the prone position. In this position, you need to lie belly down on the ground. Lie flat on your belly and use your forearm and elbow as a bi-pod. Your left hand should support the lens while the right grips the body. Spread your feet straight (shoulder wide) with your toes pointing outward. If you can dig in your toes to the ground, dig ‘em in.  Relax your body, do the breathing thing then shoot. The prone position is a stance used by military snipers. By the way, always  lay on even ground and watch where you’re lying prone. We don’t want a tarantula crawling up your chin now would we?

Lotus or cross-legged

Next the prone position, we have the cross legged pose or more popularly known as the lotus position. Like the prone position, a lot of rifle hunters use this stance as it’s more stable to the standing position. All that is involved is for you to sit cross legged on the ground, brace your arms on your knees. If you don’t feel comfortable resting on arms on your knees, brace your arm on your chest. Relax, do the breathing thing and shoot. Make sure you watch where you’re sitting as you might end up with animal dung on your behind.

The kneeling position is next. While this position won’t give you the stability if you go prone or cross-leg, this stance is more stable compared to the next stance as your center of gravity is much lower. When in this stance, learn to balance your weight between both legs. If you balance only on one leg, it will affect your shot as your base would not be stable. If course, it won’t help much if you got a bad knee. You need to rest your left arm on your left knee. If you somehow can’t, rest your arms against your body. Again, remember to relax, exhale then shoot.

Kneeling position

When standing, you either can go with the “normal” way i.e. left hand supporting the lens or do an armbar. What’s an armbar? It’s your left arm crossed across your body where your lens rests on top of your forearm. Of course, this technique would only be useful if you’re utilizing a long lens. Good upper body conditioning and control is required for this technique. The downside of it is that most of the time you’d be relying on AF as your hand won’t be controlling the lens barrel.

One way to effectively lesson hand tremors when hand-holding is to use what your environment gives you. If you’re shooting outdoors and there’s a low branch lying around, use it for support by placing your camera on top of the branch while your hands are holding the barrel and the body. If there’s no low-lying branch but the tree trunk is thick enough, brace your body against the tree. If the tree is thin enough, wrap your left arm around the trunk, hold the barrel then lean on the thee trunk.

Armbar

If you have a thick jacket with you, utilize it to stabilize your long lens. Look for an even top to work on, fold your jacket until it’s height is equal to that of your camera body’s height then place your lens on top of the folded jacket. This won’t work if you’re using a short lens. If you have a bean bag lying at home somewhere, bring it with you. It provides a more stable support compared to a tripod. Again, this is taken from the military where snipers use beanbags to stabilize their rifles before taking a shot.

Mastering hand-holding is easy, really. You just need to know the different techniques and make it work for you. Just remember that your comfort comes first and if you won’t be comfortable utilizing any of these techniques, then you’d be better of using a tripod. However, you won’t know know until you try.

Happy shooting.