I'd like some advice please - my work takes me aboard ships, sometimes in port, other times at sea. Due to the vibrations mainly from the engines but also things like generators and pumps, not to mention the motion of the sea, the deck of a ship is rarely still enough to get a steady photo. So what can I do to combat the constant vibrations and ensure sharpness and clarity in my shots, I know about shutter speeds and increasing ISO but for things like sunrise/sunset and shots of the moon (which often looks particularly stunning in the middle of the ocean) or generally low lighting I'm still struggling and would be very grateful for any suggestions. Thanks.
I know what you mean and other than making sure you are holding the camera properly (elbows tucked close to the body or braced on the meaty part of your leg, etc), the only other thing I can suggest would be a tripod or monopod to help. Shooting on a ship can definitely be tricky!
Yep - making sure your shutter speed is fast enough to freeze the motion. I don't think a tripod on the ship is going to help since it will be rocking the tripod as well.
I have a silly idea, but ... well, it might be worth the try:
This is panning:
Here the camera moves at the speed off the object in order for the object to appear still. As you can see the back ground is blurred. So imagine if you were the moving object trying to focus on "me" the camera to get a still shot as you were moving. You would either need to set very fast shutters or move opposite the direction you are moving and at the same speed.
That's my suggestion for something to try. Move the camera opposite the direction the motion of the ship is going and at the same approx speed. If the ship is rising, you would be moving the lens down etc.
I'm not sure how practical this is, but in the sense of pure physics, this is a possible answer.
As for the vibration movement, that is being transmitted through your feet up. So try standing on something thick and padded. It might absorb the vibrations enough to let you stand steady.
@autumnseden@jenp@swguevin Thank you all for your advice. I'm sure if I put it all together things will certainly improve. I had thought to try to emphasise the blur in order to make it "arty" in some way which I guess is what panning is. (Love the photo Shiela) So I'll give it all a go and see what happens when I go back again - I'll let you know.
You might also try setting your camera to burst mode. That may increase your chances of getting one crisp shot. Just delete the other slightly blurry ones.
Opposite of @cromwell you might also try to minimize shake by using Mirror lockup if your camera supports it, self timer or cable release to minimize finger shake, and sometimes bean bags can reduce some of the finer vibrations coming through the surface.
@bluefirebucket as others have said, maximise your shutterspeed. There is some discussion of using beanbags or padding under a monopod here http://photo.net/nature-photography-forum/00OS9R. If your lens has image stabilisation, make sure you turn that on. The ultimate solution would be to fork out $2000+++ for a gyro stabiliser
@cromwell@emsabh@brumbe@dieter@autumnseden@jenp@swguevin@lorraineb Thank you all for taking the time to offer advice and help, I already have both a monopod and beanbag, just never thought to use them together before so that's my next step I think - along with the fast shutter speed, mirror locked up, elbows tucked in, IS switched on and burst mode enabled whilst I'm panning :-) thanks again I really appreciate it.
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This is panning:
Here the camera moves at the speed off the object in order for the object to appear still. As you can see the back ground is blurred. So imagine if you were the moving object trying to focus on "me" the camera to get a still shot as you were moving. You would either need to set very fast shutters or move opposite the direction you are moving and at the same speed.
That's my suggestion for something to try. Move the camera opposite the direction the motion of the ship is going and at the same approx speed. If the ship is rising, you would be moving the lens down etc.
I'm not sure how practical this is, but in the sense of pure physics, this is a possible answer.
: ))