A quick way to reduce blur in your photographs

 Erin Carney- Dardano
i have a nikon d90 and sometimes my photos seem blurry. how can i get all faces to look in focus? also how do you get a picture of say a kid in a swing? they always turn out blurry? thanks

Hi Erin,
well, there's a long answer to this and also a short one. The long answer requires an understanding of the mechanics of cameras, and shooting in manual mode. The short answer will tell you how to set your camera and should help you get sharper pictures in the mean time. We'll stick to the short answer for now.


Blur is often caused by motion, either the camera shakes when the photo is taken, or the subject your photographing is moving. Your camera has a setting called shutter priority. When set to shutter priority, you set the shutter speed and the camera automatically sets the aperture. It is the S setting on the dial on the top left of the camera. When the camera is in shutter priority, control the shutter speed by spinning the wheel on the back right of the camera. The number will display on the top of the camera, as well as when looking through the lens. 
The larger the number, the faster the picture is taken. the faster the picture is taken, the less motion blur. As a rule of thumb to avoid camera shake, make sure that the shutter speed is at least 1.5 times the focal length of the lens. If you have a zoom lens, the focal length is the number that indicates the amount of zoom.
Lets say your lens is a 28 - 200. if you're shooting wide angle at 28, you should set your shutter speed to at least 1/40 of a sec. (you may not be able to set the shutter to exactly 1.5x the focal length, as the shutter speed changes in increments, err on the larger(faster) number) On your camera display, it will just say 40. If you're zoomed in to 200, you should set your shutter speed to 1/320 (display will say 320).
If your shooting someone moving, such as child in a swing, set the shutter speed to at least 500.


Try this and let me know how it works for you!


Cheers,


Jim