Blurry photos are a common problem for point and shoot cameras. There are several reasons why so many photos come out blurry, and this month's tip addresses the most common... slow shutter speed.
Photographs are made up of light entering your camera and recording an image onto the digital sensor (and I’m told that photographs used to record onto some kind of film, but I can’t confirm or deny such rumors). The amount of light recorded on your sensor is controlled by the camera’s shutter, which opens to let the light in and then closes. Simple enough. That opening and closing has two variables to control HOW MUCH light gets in. One is the “aperture”, which describes how wide the shutter opens. The wider the shutter opens, the more light gets in. The second is “shutter speed”, which describes how long the shutter stays open. The longer it’s open, the more light gets in.
Most people put their camera on AUTO and let the camera decide how to set the aperture and shutter speed. Most of the time it does a fantastic job. Problems can arise, though, when there isn’t enough light and all of you know the result… blurry photographs. When the shutter is opened as wide as it can go, the only other way to let in more light is to leave the shutter open longer. This wouldn’t be a problem except for one thing… people move! Your subject moves and you move, too, and they are both a problem.
We could go into all kinds of technical stuff here, but the point is you either need more light or you need both you and your subject to hold still longer. When photographing indoors, move towards the window, or better yet, right next to it; it's a lot brighter there. Brace your camera on something solid like the back of a chair; that can help a lot. Many professionals use a tripod, but for everyday stuff, a chair works great. Having your subject sit still will help with blurriness, of course, but you'll obviously loose any spontaneity you many have had. Beyond that, you might just have to accept that your point and shoot camera wasn't made to shoot indoors very well with out deploying that unflattering flash. The final option is to buy a higher end camera which will give you more ways of dealing with low light. Their main drawback is that they don't fit in your pocket.
