Blurry photos are a photographer’s nemesis. You nail the composition, the lighting is perfect, and then you download the images only to find they’re soft and fuzzy. There’s a handful of ways this happens. The good news? This is completely preventable with the right knowledge of settings and technique.

We’ll go through all the most common ways this can happen (and a few less common ones, too).

The Role of Shutter Speed

Shutter speed is your first line of defense against camera shake. The longer your shutter remains open, the more time movement has to blur your image. There’s an old rule of thumb called the reciprocal rule: use a shutter speed at least as fast as one divided by your focal length. Shooting with a 100mm lens? Aim for 1/100th of a second or faster. A 50mm lens calls for 1/50th of a second.

In the real world, what I’ve come to experience is that I set the shutter to 125 on an overcast or nearly dark day. I often shoot in aperture priority so the shutter might climb up higher than that, which is fine because a fast shutter means your image quality isn’t a risk of motion blur. In the DARK is where you have to pay attention. You might have to open the aperture a bit to get the shutter speed up high enough to be useful.

Aperture’s Hidden Impact

Aperture affects sharpness indirectly but importantly. A wider aperture (lower f-number like f/1.8) captures more light, allowing you to use faster shutter speeds even in dim conditions. This is why fast lenses are prized by photographers working in low light or trying to freeze action. Conversely, a narrower aperture (higher f-number like f/16) requires more light to reach the sensor, forcing you to either slow your shutter speed, raise your ISO, or add more light to the scene. In many situations, you’ll need to choose between shallow depth of field and camera shake prevention, so understanding your aperture settings is crucial.

One way a photo might not be sharp, though, is if you leave the aperture wide open but still hope to get the subject and the background in focus. To do that requires at least f4, f5.6, or ideally, f8. But if you tighten up the aperture, and you’re forcing your shutter to be 125 or higher, that means ISO will come into play.

Managing ISO Without Sacrificing Sharpness

Increasing your ISO allows the camera to gather more information from available light, letting you shoot with faster shutter speeds. Bump from ISO 100 to 1600, and you’ve gained several stops of light. This extra headroom can make the difference between a handheld shot at 1/30th of a second and one at 1/125th of a second, both producing sharp images.

The tradeoff? Higher ISO introduces noise, appearing as colored speckles that degrade image quality, especially in shadow areas. Many photographers accept this compromise since a slightly noisy but sharp photo is infinitely preferable to a blurry one. Modern image processing software can reduce noise effectively during post-processing, further minimizing this concern.

Modern mirrorless cameras (especially full frame) can reach incredible high levels of ISO (12800 or even more). Some cameras can’t quite reach those levels. And also, with AI denoising features in post editing software, you can sometimes clean it up. But do know that ISO noise will make a photo less sharp, too.

The Focusing Challenge

Getting sharp images means nothing if your camera focuses on the wrong point. Modern autofocus systems offer multiple modes to help you nail focus in different scenarios. If your exposure settings are all dialed in, then likely you’ve missed focus. Here are some things to know about the various focusing styles.

AF-S (Single-Area Autofocus) locks focus once when you half-press the shutter button. The focus point briefly flashes green to confirm lock. This mode is ideal for stationary subjects like landscapes, portraits, or still life. Once locked, you can recompose without the camera refocusing, though you must be careful not to change the distance between camera and subject.

AF-C (Continuous Autofocus) continuously adjusts focus as long as you hold down the shutter button or back-button focus. This is essential for moving subjects: running athletes, flying birds, children at play. The camera recalculates focus constantly, predicting where your subject will be when you release the shutter. The focus point stays illuminated, indicating that the system is actively tracking.

AF-A (Automatic Autofocus) lets the camera decide. If it detects a stationary subject, it uses AF-S. If it sees movement, it switches to AF-C. While convenient, many professionals prefer to choose deliberately rather than trust the camera’s assessment.

Beyond choosing a mode, you’ll select a focus area. Single-point focus lets you precisely target where you want sharpness, particularly useful when composing off-center. Dynamic area modes use surrounding focus points to track movement, helpful when your subject darts around unpredictably. Eye-tracking, available on many modern cameras, locks focus on a subject’s eyes, a game-changer for portraits and wildlife.

You should also know that with manual lenses and manual focusing, there are all kinds of other techniques to learn about. We won’t cover those in this post.

Put It All Together

To capture consistently sharp images, start by evaluating your lighting conditions. In bright daylight, you have flexibility with shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. In low light, you’ll need to compromise. Use a faster lens if available, open your aperture wider, raise your ISO, or stabilize the camera on a tripod or stable surface.

Select the right autofocus mode for your subject (people, animals, a zone, a single point), and get practicing a good handholding technique for shooting pictures: brace your elbows against your body, take a slow breath in, hold it, and press the shutter button gently. If you have it, enable image stabilization if available on your lens or camera body (though disable it if using a tripod, as the two systems can clash).

Sometimes when I shoot at night, or when conditions are such that I’m worried my finger mashing the button will wreck the shot, I add a 2 or 3 second delay to taking the pic (it’s in the settings as a shooting mode like a timer). That takes the “mashing the button” part of camera jiggle out of the mix.

Just remember that sharp images aren’t about luck. They’re a blend of understanding your camera’s capabilities, choosing the right settings, and practicing your shooting technique. Master these fundamentals, and you’ll see your “keeper” rate go up.

If you’ve chosen a good camera, then let’s get even better snaps out of it, shall we?