Getting sharper results
Keep an eye on shutter speed for night shots
STAYING ON top of shutter speed is key to getting sharp shots, and that’s especially true than when you’re shooting in fading light. Exposures can quickly drop from hundredths of a second to tenths of a second and slower, which can make it hard to get sharp handheld shots. An EOS R Series camera with a built-in Image Stabilizer can give you the edge, particularly when it’s paired with a stabilised RF lens. For example, the EOS R5 and EOS R6 can deliver up to 8 stops of shake reduction with some RF lenses. In theory, that gives you the same ‘handholdability’ at 1 second as you’d get at 1/250 sec normally.
You can, of course, use a tripod to steady your camera, but it may be impractical to set one up in many situations. Increasing the ISO will give you access to faster shutter speeds, although avoid the ‘expanded’ settings where possible, as noise is excessive (see the next page).
If you normally shoot in Aperture Priority mode then you’ll rely on your camera to set an appropriate shutter speed to expose the image correctly, and it can be easy to miss when it’s becoming too slow. One option is to set the ISO to Auto, so the camera will automatically increase the ISO to give you a shutter speed that should be fast enough for handheld photography. You can set the maximum ISO available to the camera, enabling you to avoid the very noisiest settings if you wish.
A burst of flash can be used to add light and sharpness. Combine it with a slower exposure or higher ISO so that you record some of the ambient light in the background as well as the flash-lit subject.