Getting sharp images: every photo technique you need to know starting out

jmeyer | Photography Tips | 15/01/2013 11:30am

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Best Ways To Get Sharp Images: Mirror lock-up

When you press the shutter release down fully on a DSLR, the mirror that allows you to see the scene in the viewfinder lifts just before the shutter opens.

It’s the mirror flipping up and hitting it’s stop and then flapping down after the exposure that makes up most of the noise that you hear when you take an image, shutters usually move quite quietly.

This mirror movement can create significant blur-inducing vibration of the camera, so for the ultimate in camera steadiness use your camera’s mirror-lock-up facility.

This lifts the mirror with the first press of the (remote) shutter release, while a second press made after any vibrations have died down fires the shutter.

This is becoming increasingly important for getting the absolute best from high-pixel count cameras like the Nikon D800.

Once the mirror has been locked, up the viewfinder of your DSLR will be black, so you need to compose the image and focus on the subject before you press the shutter release for the first time.

Because they don’t have a mirror, compact system cameras don’t suffer from mirror-slap and naturally they have no mirror lock-up mode.

PAGE 1: Best ways to get sharp images – Focus
PAGE 2: Best ways to get sharp images – Freeze the subject
PAGE 3: Best ways to get sharp images – Keep the camera still
PAGE 4: Best ways to get sharp images – steady the tripod
PAGE 5: Best ways to get sharp images – get a remote release
PAGE 6: Best ways to get sharp images – mirror lock-up
PAGE 7: Best ways to get sharp images – diffraction