Steady As She Goes!

There's just no way to fix a picture that was blurred from
camera shake!  It's maddening to know you went to the
trouble of taking the shot, but to no avail.  If the
subject is accidently blurred, you have wasted your
efforts.

So what can be done about it?

I'm glad you asked.  First lets look at the camera itself:

Don't shake it.  (Ok, that was a joke... you won't always
be able to help it, even when you gain more experience.)

Seriously, here's a rule of thumb that will guard against
blurring from camera shake... When shooting hand-held, set
your minimum shutter speed fraction using the focal length
as your guide.  (Example: When shooting at a 200mm focal
length, set your minimum shutter speed to 1/200th of a
second.)

This is also a good rule of thumb when deciding whether
you need a tripod/monopod.  If you're hand-holding your
camera don't let the shutter speed get any slower than the
focal length.  This way you'll assure sharp images.

But to simplify your
choices, just ask yourself "what is the focal length I'm
shooting at?  28mm, 50mm, 110mm?  Then my shutter speed
should go no lower than 1/28, 1/50, 1/110sec. respectively,
or I'll need a tripod!"

I've shot plenty of images where I've broken this rule,
and sometimes you can get away with it, but if you zoom in
on the images, you'll always see some slight blurring due
to camera shake.

Here's another thing you should know:  IF you can't get
the right exposure without leaving your shutter too slow
to meet this rule, you have two choices.

You can make the shutter faster by changing your ISO to a
higher number (making it more sensitive).

Or you can make your aperture larger to let in more light.
The easy way to deal with this using a modern camera is to
simply set your camera to "shutter priority."  This means
that you tell the camera what shutter speed to shoot at,
and it adjusts all the other settings to properly expose
your photograph.