What would you say is your slowest hand held shutter speed?

[Andrew Boyd]

I have a piece on my blog about how to hand hold at slower shutter speeds over at The Discerning Photographer. With practice, you can dramatically improve your results.

Andrew
The Discerning Photographer

 

[TheDirtStreet]

I've been working on my night photography and I found this to be really helpful. Although I've found that I get inconsistent results hand held under 1/40. I've had some pretty good ones at much lower but nothing much more consistent.

 

[craig]

I hit 1/15th on more then one occasion. Mostly because I got creative and rested my arms on a wall or whatever. I think 1/30th is possible by all photographers. Also keep in mind that sharp focus is overrated.

Love & Bass

 

[kkamin]

I hit 1/15th on more then one occasion. Mostly because I got creative and rested my arms on a wall or whatever. I think 1/30th is possible by all photographers. Also keep in mind that sharp focus is overrated.

Love & Bass

Like others have mentioned, your lens' focal length determines the degree of steadiness. Most people could hand hold a 15mm lens at 1/15th of a second; it's not a big deal. But hand holding a 400mm at 1/15th of a second will give you a different result. Imagine holding a pair of high powered binoculars and how the tiniest movement by the holder created dramatic movement through the lens.

I don't think sharp focus is overrated imo. Unless you are going for a blurred result, I think most people prefer to start with as "clean" image as possible and apply softening effects in PS or the darkroom. I've had many images ruined because of unwanted softness. You can only sharpen images so much in PS before the edge contrast and haloing makes the image unnatural. Just my opinion.

 

[astrostu]

With a wide-angle lens, somewhere around 35 mm, I've gotten down to 1/15-sec with acceptable results. Nothing slower.