Don’t get the shakes

he shutter speed used to take a photo plays a crucial role in how sharp it is. At slower speeds there’s a greater risk of camera shake, the effects of which range from a softening of details to a totally blurred mess. Longer lenses are more susceptible to shake, as their size and weight makes them harder to hold steady, and their extreme magnification means even small vibrations can register in the image. The rule of thumb for sharp handheld photos is to make sure the shutter speed is no slower than the lens’s focal length (see table, right), however a Vibration Reduction (VR) lens can help you get sharper results at slower speeds.