Like many photographers, I use a remote release when shooting landscape photography. Why? So that I don’t jiggle the camera when I push the shutter button. (The camera is on a sturdy tripod of course.) However, I found a better way to keep the camera steady.
Many digital SLRs give you the option of locking the mirror in the up position before releasing the shutter. However, this is not the most convenient thing to do. You first have to turn on the mirror lockup function burried somewhere in the camera’s menu. Then to take an image you need to press the shutter once to lock the mirror in the upright position and press the shutter again to snap the image. OK, so you still need a remote release so you aren’t touching the camera when you press the shutter.
But there’s an even easier way to do this. You can use the shutter timer feature. Here’s how it works.
- Turn on the mirror lockup feature, again buried in your camera’s menu
- Turn on the self timer feature, usually available as a ‘drive’ control button on your camera. The timer will run for 2 or 10 seconds depending on the options in your camera.
- You’re ready to go.
So when the camera is set up in this way when you press the shutter the mirror flips up right away, the timer counts down the prescribed number of seconds and then the shutter trips – automatically. There you have it - you don’t need to use a remote release.
If you’re bracketing for HDR or whatever, it gets even better. Let’s say you’re bracketing 3 shots. So, with the camera configured in this way you press the shutter, the camera counts down the seconds and then fires off the three shots. Cool!
What’s the advantage of this method? Well, when the mirror flips up it causes a small vibration to travel through your camera and lens. That’s why discerning photogrphers prefer to look the mirror in the up position before releasing the shutter. With this technique it becomes very easy. When the shutter is pressed the mirror flips up sending faint but potentially noticeable vibrations through the camera. But the timer lets the camera settle back down for anywhere from 2 to 10 seconds. Finally the shutter is released – once if you’re taking a single exposure or multiple times if you’re bracketing. The result is even sharper images.
So why not give it a try. I’ll bet you will really like it.
November 24th, 2008 at 9:05 AM
Good tip, especially when you forget your cable release or it quits working, like mine did recently when i didn’t notice the pool of water below me and it ended up getting waterlogged.
One this that happens on my Canon 5D is that the timer time when mirror lockup is enabled is much shorter than when it is when mirror lockup is not engaged. I’d guess, as you suggested, 2 seconds with mirror lockup on and 10 seconds with it off.
Roger
November 30th, 2008 at 8:01 AM
[...] Recently I’ve started shooting 5 HDR shots, varying the exposure by 1 1/3 stops. Yes, I know that PhotoMatix Pro, the utility I use exclusively to process HDR, recommends 2 stops. But I have it on good authority that something less than 2 stops is more optimum. So I vary the exposure by 1 1/3 stops and adjust the base exposure compensation so that the left end of the most overexposed image histogram falls at least 20% above the minimum. The same goes for the most under exposed image. The right end falls at least 20% below the maximum. In a recent post I explained how I configure the camera shutter and drive to take advantage of mirror lockup. You can read about it in New Shooting Technique. [...]