With the introduction of lenses like the Tamron 150-600mm f/5-6.3 VC, more people than ever before are using long telephoto zoom lenses. Sometimes they are disappointed with their initial results when using these lenses hand-held, especially at slower shutter speeds. This short article provides some tips that can help improve hand-holding technique.
Table of Contents
1) Angle the Left Side of Your Body Towards Your Subject
If you stand in a position facing your subject and ‘squared off’ to it, you’ll likely find it is much harder to hold your lens steady. Take a half-step towards your subject with your left foot and angle the right side of your body away from the subject. The actual angle that is best for you will be an individual decision so try different angles while doing some test shots to learn which is most comfortable and produces the best quality images.
2) Form a Solid Support Triangle
Think of your elbows and eye brow as points of a triangle. To create a solid support for your lens bring your elbows in tight to your rib cage and press the viewfinder of your camera firmly up against your eye brow.
3) Adjust the Angle of Your Arm Extension
The angle of your support arm is like a shelf bracket. Depending on the weight of your lens you’ll need to adjust how far away from your body you hold your telephoto lens and where you position your elbow against your rib cage. The image above shows a ‘standard’ elbow position.
With heavier lenses you may need to bring your left elbow further to the right on your rib cage and change your wrist angle to provide additional support as seen in the image above.
4) Control your Breathing
Take short, shallow breaths as you are framing and focusing on your subject, and pressing the shutter. Taking deep breaths can cause your chest to heave and create lens movement. Holding your breath while shooting can create some quivering and lens shake which can be accelerated the longer you hold your breath, so this needs to be avoided. Many folks may not even be aware that they are holding their breath prior to depressing the shutter on their camera.
5) Shutter Finger Movement
Use a slow, deliberate movement when pressing the shutter of your camera and avoid a fast, jabbing finger motion as this can put downward pressure on your camera body and create lens movement at a critical point during your image capture.
6) Wait for Image Stabilization to Settle
Half-depress your shutter gently and allow the image stabilization of your lens or camera body to settle before taking your image. If you rush your shot, you run the risk of your image being blurred, or not being framed exactly as you want if the VC/VR hasn’t settled down. Image stabilization on lenses like the Tamron 150-600mm VC settles in quickly, so waiting for a split second should not cause you to miss any shots.
7) Angle Your Tripod Collar
By changing the angle of your tripod collar up 90-degrees to the right, you’ll find you can hook one or two fingers of your shutter hand on the tightening knob of the collar. This will help you brace the lens against the lens mount in the camera body and allow you to hold the lens hood of your lens and use it like a bellows, making it faster to change focal lengths with your zoom.
8) Brace Your Body
When shooting at slower shutter speeds brace your body by leaning up against trees, large rocks, walls or other types of structures if possible. This will create additional stability for your shots.
9) Cushion Your Lens
You can also add some stability by using the fleshy portion of the heel of your hand to cushion your lens.
10) Practice Finding Subjects Quickly in Your Viewfinder
Take the time to practice bringing your camera up to your eye quickly and finding your image subject in your viewfinder. This creates some ‘muscle memory’ and can help you capture a lot more usable images. It also helps to practice your panning technique.
Article and images Copyright Thomas Stirr. All rights reserved. No use, duplication or adaptation is allowed without written permission.
Just reading this wonderful article now since I just purchased a nice Sigma 150-600 Zoom.
All the pointers are excellent. I just have to question the very slow shutter speeds on the snake and following bird photos which were 1/115 and 1/80 sec respectively. Seems too slow for the full Zoom. Doesn’t rule of thumb of using the inverse zoom (1/600) come into play? It just seems those two photos would show some camera movement.
Hi Phil,
Thanks for your comment… I’m glad you enjoyed the article!
Being able to use slow shutter speeds with longer telephoto lenses is certainly possible as the images in the article demonstrate. The shutter speed is dependent on three factors: 1) effectiveness of the vibration reduction/image stabilization of the camera gear used, 2) amount of subject movement, and 3) hand-holding technique and the skill of the photographer.
Being able to shoot long telephoto lenses at slow shutter speeds takes a lot of practice and good technique.
Just in case you are wondering… Nasim uses a plug-in on Photography Life that automatically puts in the EXIF data.
Tom
Thanks Thomas for the great article. I am an amateur bird photographer and struggle with taking handheld sharp shots of birds. As a point of reference, Tamron 150-600 weighs 4.3lb, while my Nikon 200-400 f/4 weighs in at 7.4 lb. I agree with Monte that shutter speed becomes a critical aspect and forces me to shoot in manual mode for BIF.
I’d love to see some additional tips for keeping heavier lenses steady (in addition to targeted muscle development :-)).
– Prabal.
Thanks for the positive comment Prabal… much appreciated! In terms of muscle development it really just comes down to continual practice. The more you shoot, the stronger the appropriate muscles will get. I’ve haven’t shot with full frame DSLR gear about 3.5 years so there’s not much I can add to this article in terms of technique using larger, heavy lenses. I will be launching a bird photography eBook early in 2019… it could be something you may wish to investigate. You can view my photography blog for details.
Tom
Dear Mr. Stirr,
It is a wonderful contribution with lots of the hidden points (such as breathing and coordinating with the body/subject movements) that often are missing from other such materials.
I wish I had stumbled upon your contribution here 4 years ago, when I started.
-I do have one thing to contribute: I habitually use the back menu “stick” to focus, while leaving the shooting button for this purpose only (It gives me the ability to re-focus easily without “risking” extra unnecessary shots, when the subject is “on the move’).
-I also have a question about stabilization, since I have IBIS and not VC/VR, and maybe not this sensitive to when my stabilization “settles” – so any tips on what to look for will be greatly appreciated.
Cheers,
Noam
Hi Noam,
Thanks for adding to the discussion – it is always a bonus when readers share some of their personal experiences! I’ve never shot with a camera or lens with IS so I don’t have any first hand experience to share using that stabilization system. It has been 3 years since I’ve had a Nikon DSLR in my hands so my memory is foggy to say the least with how that gear reacts with VR.
With my Nikon 1 gear when I shoot with single point AF when using VR at slow shutter speeds, the AF box will go green and my camera will beep when it has acquired good focus, I watch the AF box to make sure it looks ‘dead still’ in the frame before I press the shutter.
Tom
This is a good article, I have just purchased the Sigma version of this lens and have been thinking of a way to support it. When I had a film camera I fabricated a rifle mount arrangement with a pistop grip trigger release. I was very handy as it supported both the camera and lens and I was able to brong the camera up to take a shot quickly bracing the ‘rifle mount against my shoulder gave me stability and alowed me t focus quickly. I am supprised that there is nothing like this on the market for the modern DSLR cameras, guess I will have to go back to the drawing board and spend some time in the workshop.
I found using the ‘rifle mount for the camera and lens reduces my poor images and greatly increased the quality of my pictures and made my hobby more enjoyable.
If any one knows of a set of plans that I can look at I would be grateful!
This is a good article, I have just purchased the Sigma version of this lens and have been thinking of a way to support it. When I had a film camera I fabricated a rifle mount arrangement with a pistop grip trigger release. I was very handy as it supported both the camera and lens and I was able to brong the camera up to take a shot quickly bracing the ‘rifle mount against my shoulder gave me stability and alowed me t focus quickly. I am supprised that there is nothing like this on the market for the modern DSLR cameras, guess I will have to go back to the drawing board and spend some time in the workshop.
I found using the ‘rifle mount for the camera and lens refuces my poor immages and greatly increased the quality of my pictures and made my hobby more enjoyable.
If any one knows of a set of plans that I can look at I would be greatful!
Thanks for adding to the discussion Phillip…I’m glad you enjoyed the article. I’ve never used this type of product, but SteadiStock makes a couple of models.
I can’t comment on the quality or functionality of this particular product as I have never used it.
Tom
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for this very insightful article.
Most of the articles in photography nowadays concentrates on the lenses & cameras, and less on the more important shooting techniques.
I have a Sigma 150-600 C and to some extent, there’s always camera shake involved whenever I am using the 150-600. (I’m just a 5’3″ 140 lbs guy)
So much so that i had to resort in using the panning method even when I’m shooting at stationary birds / birds on perch.
I would really love to test the techniques that you had illustrated here, especially the positioning of the tripod collar.
Hi Francis,
I’m glad you found the article useful! I appreciate the positive feedback!
Tom
I am a 72 year old female and have a D7100 and an 18 -400 lens. I love shooting birds. I use this combination hand held but having lost strength in my arms and hands lately I need some support for muscle relief BETWEEN shot sequences. I am not happy with just releasing the camera and allowing the lense to dangle. Do you have any suggestions.
Hi Denise,
If your camera bag is a shoulder-style one I’d recommend shortening the strap a bit so you can rest your camera and lens on top of the bag between shot sequences. If you go to my review of the Tamron 150-600 you’ll see an image of this approach on the third page of the review…second image from the bottom. photographylife.com/revie…0mm-f5-6-3
Tom
works also: grab your right shoulder with your left hand and lift your elbow to build a triangular rest for your lens.
Thanks for sharing the tip Roger!
Tom
Hi Steve,
Thanks for sharing the image! Glad you’re enjoying the articles.
Tom
Excellent article, thanks for sharing this.
I’m amazed at image quality ur getting with this lens especially at few shots taken at 600mm n with 1/80 n lower shutter speed :)
Practice practice practice :)
Thanks Babar! I’m glad you liked the images and the article.
Tom