The Low Light Photography Field Guide

Tracking for Sharpness

As anyone who has had the experience of aiming at a target knows, whether with a rifle or in archery, holding steady on a fixed target is by no means easy, both mechanically and psychologically.

Indeed, the longer you try and hold, the more likely involuntary movements are (discussed on pages 68–69). Introduce movement, however, and things become more fluid and steady, due to inertia. The same applies to handheld photography and the time-honored technique of panning: swinging the camera from one side to another to follow a moving subject can produce surprisingly sharp results at slow shutter speeds. The principle is that you make use of inertia (mass × velocity) to overwhelm smaller jiggles. When combined with vibration-reduction ...