by John & Barbara Gerlach

The act of pressing the shutter button to take a picture is more important to achieving quality images than most people realize. Developing effective strategies to fire the camera is crucial to obtaining sharp images. Initially, this topic seems so straightforward that it could be covered in a single paragraph, but here’s an entire column on the simple act of tripping the camera.

When I began my nature photography career in the early seventies, I had the enormous advantage of learning from Larry West, a master closeup nature photographer who dominated the closeup field in that era. Larry stressed using a tripod whenever possible, along with a cable release that is a mechanical device that separates your quivering body from the camera. Using a cable release minimizes the chance of vibration from your body being transferred to the camera, producing unsharp images. A cable release may also be called a remote release. However, some remote releases are not directly connected to the camera. Instead, these remote releases use a radio signal or infrared beam to fire the camera. Both systems work quite well.

Using a remote release to trip the camera is an effective technique for producing sharper images that all nature photographers need to use much of the time. It works especially well for all subjects that aren’t moving. Landscapes, wildflowers, mushrooms, and motionless animals can all be photographed effectively with a remote release.

Using remote releases can lead to problems though. As with any mechanical device, they can malfunction at the most critical time so it is always wise to obtain a second release in case the first one fails. They are also easy to lose, especially in the field so it is helpful to attach a bright "hunter orange" ribbon or sticker to the release so you can see it lying in the brush or weeds.

For many years I used a remote release to trip the camera nearly all of the time. The remote release does work well, but you do need to attach the release to the camera if it is of the cable variety each time you want to use it and then remove it when you are done. People who tend to walk around with their cable release attached to the camera frequently have the release get snagged causing damage to the release, camera, or both. When moving the camera with a cable release attached to the camera, always be extremely careful or remove it from the camera.

For more than two decades, I used the cable release to trip the camera in most situations. But, in the past few years, I have found that using the remote release isn’t necessary most of the time. For subjects that don’t blow in the wind such as waterfalls, mountains, lichens, river scenes, and mushrooms, using the cameras self timer is a more efficient way to operate. Let’s take a waterfalls for example. Rather than spending the time to attach the cable release, it is easier to set the camera on self timer. Hopefully your camera offers a two-second self timer delay, but you can live with the more normal ten second delay that all cameras seem to have. Once you have metered and composed the waterfalls, gently push the shutter and remove your finger. Don’t touch the camera or the tripod and wait for the self timer to down and fire the camera. This works enormously well and eliminates fooling around with the cable release. I just spent six full days photographing the landscapes in Yellowstone for a DVD project and used the self timer to fire the camera for every single landscape shot.

While I seldom use the cable release anymore which is a huge change for me, there are times when the cable release is better though. Anytime you need to fire the camera at a specific moment in time, the cable release works much better because it is easier to catch the peak of action or stillness with the cable release rather than waiting for two or more seconds to tick off. With a cable release, it is far easier to obtain a sharp image of a wildflower that is gently swaying in a slight breeze if you watch the flower carefully and fire the camera when it finally holds perfectly still. With the self timer, you have no way of knowing if the flower will be holding perfectly still when the timer winds down and trips the camera. The opposite situation happens when you are trying to catch the peak of the action. Perhaps waves are crashing on a gorgeous rock. You want to catch the wave as it explodes on the face of the rock. A remote release that fires the camera immediately is easily the best way to handle these situations.

I have taught how to photograph hummingbirds in British Columbia for the past three years. Since the workshop participants are using flash with very short flash durations in the 1/10000 second range, it is perfectly fine to trip the shutter with your finger. Since all of the illumination is from the flash, there is no loss of sharpness. I never use a cable release to trigger the camera, preferring to use my finger. However, some of my workshop participants like to use a long cable release so the triggering end can rest in their lap. When the hummingbird comes in to the flower setup which is a very precise spot so prefocusing works, they use the cable release to trip the camera without having to raise their hands to the camera. This works quite well for those who wish to work this well. I still use my finger to trip the camera though.

There are times when using a remote release or self timer isn’t the best way to go. Especially when photographing wildlife with telephoto lenses, it is often better to use your finger to trip the shutter. Since photographing wildlife often means action photography, the self timer method is obviously out since who knows what your animal will be doing two or more seconds later. The cable release normally isn’t viable either since it is a bit cumbersome to use with action photography. Even if the subject is a prairie dog that is standing upright and perfectly still, a cable release often doesn’t deliver the best sharpness due to wind. Telephoto lenses magnify any camera vibration by the magnification factor. For example, a 500mm lens on a digital camera body that has a full frame sensor has a magnification factor of 500/50 = 10x. Even a slight breeze will cause a big lens to move a tiny bit which is magnified by the mag factor causing a loss of sharpness. Try this sometime. Set up a 300mm or longer lens on a tripod in a 10 mph crosswind. Focus on the target and don’t touch the camera or tripod with your body. Now peer through the viewfinder and you will certainly see the image shaking back and forth. If you grab the camera body with your right hand and press down on the lens with your left hand, a great deal of the shake that is caused by the wind is eliminated.

Over three decades, I have shot well over a million wildlife photos with 500mm lenses. Here is the method I use to get sharp images most of the time. Let’s say you are photographing a robin. First, focus on the eye of the robin. Too many people sort of focus someplace on the bird. If your camera happens to focus on the shoulder of the robin, the eye might be unacceptably out of focus due to limited depth of field. Use a sturdy tripod and hang on to your camera and lens to reduce camera movement caused by wind or flowing water if you are set up in a stream. Adding the mass of your body to the camera will greatly minimize, but not totally eliminate camera movement. Since the camera is moving slightly, to get real sharp images, you must use high shutter speeds. With my 500mm lens, I try to stay at 1/125 second or higher whenever possible. If I have enough light, I prefer using ½50 second. By gently squeezing the shutter with my finger, I am able to get sharp images with long lenses most of the time.

I want to emphasize that using a remote release with a tripod mounted telephoto lens usually doesn’t produce the sharpest images. It is a very common mistake. If wind is present, you are much better off to use your hands on the camera while favoring faster shutter speeds. Fortunately, digital photography makes it easier to use higher shutter speeds because ISO 400 on many high end digital cameras produces much sharper images than ISO 400 film. The grain problem with ISO 400 film is much more serious than the noise problem with a digital camera set at ISO 400. For years the fastest film I ever used on wildlife was ISO 100. Now I commonly use ISO 400 on my digital camera. The difference between ISO 100 and ISO 400 is two stops. If correct exposure at ISO 100 is 1/60 second at f/5.6, correct exposure at ISO 400 is ½50 second at f/5.6. While is difficult to get a sharp image with a 500mm lens at 1/60 second, it is quite easy at ½50 second.

I hope you will rethink your strategies for how you fire the camera as I have. There are times and situations where remote releases, self timers, and using your fingers are the best methods. By using the most successful methods in the appropriate situations, sharper images will be your reward!