One of the reasons why you may not be getting sharp images may be due to your shutter speed. In this video, I want to introduce a simple rule that will mitigate camera shake and help you produce higher quality images.

Shutter Speed And The Reciprocal Rule | Photography 101

The Reciprocal Rule

Movement by your hands can be one of the reasons why your images may not be coming out sharp. This is called camera shake. One of the ways that we can mitigate and lessen camera shake is through the reciprocal rule.

The Reciprocal Rule essentially states that the shutter speed needs to be at least the inverse of your focal length. Although it sounds a lot more complicated, it’s actually really simple.

For example, if you’re shooting with a 50mm lens, then your shutter speed should be at 1/50. If you’re shooting with a 100mm lens, then your shutter speed should be at least 1/100.

The reason being, the longer your lens, the more exaggerated your movement becomes. Therefore, you need to shoot at faster shutter speeds in order to minimize movement so that the image doesn’t have any camera shake.