 Cathy M. Brown |
Blurred night pictures Hi everyone. I'm new to the group and I have a question about blurred night photos. I have a brand new Z612 Kodak, 6.1 mega pixels 12X's zoom. It was a luxury I really couldn't afford, but I was suppose to go to Australia in March but it fell through. So I decided to get serious about photography. Last night I wanted to take pictures of the pink, blue, and purple sky, so I put it on night portrait and took several pictures. My question is, most of them came out blurred and I don't know why. I don't know alot about taking photos in a serious matter, but can someone explain why they were blurred? Also there is a lot of terms that I have little or no knowledge of also, such as aperture priority, shutter priority, just to name two. I wish I could afford the course, but can't. Any and all tips would be appreciated very much. Once I learn how to take the pictures off my camera and transfer them into my Kodak easy share I'll be able to send pictures. Cathy
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Ariel Lepor |
I'll be glad to help. First off, use Picasa, not Kodak Easy Share. Picasa is much better, faster, and user friendly. At http://scrattyphotography.wordpress.com/camera-settings/ I wrote info about many camera settings. As the article states, aperture refers to lens opening size, and shutter refers to amount of time the shutter is open. Priority mode for either of these means that you say which setting you want for one of them, and the camera figures it out for the other settings. The shutter or aperture takes priority. Second of all, you need to use a tripod. I got a really good one for a low price from opteka. This keeps the camera steady. When holding the camera by hand, you will shake it. Zooming in means that the shake will be amplified, and slow shutters give more time to shake. In order to have a hand-held shot lacking blur, use less zoom and faster shutter. The shutter should be at least as fast as the lens size, meaning that if your zoom is at 10x, which is probably about 350mm in camera language, the shutter speed should be at least 1/350 second. Third, if you zoom in and there is not much light or sharp objects to work with, the camera will not be able to focus. Either use less zoom, or manually set the zoom to infinity. After you get all this down, you can work on composition.
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Ariel Lepor |
Here is something I posted in another forum about sunsets. http://forum.helicon.com.ua/viewtopic.php?t=712 (Helicon is a company which makes two photo programs I use, Helicon Focus for blending pictures with low depth of field, and Helicon Filter for editing pictures.) It would be best to read that article after you familiarize yourself with the stuff I talked about in my page about camera settings.
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Cathy M. Brown |
Thank you Ariel. I didn't realize camera shakes. I don't get them during the day though. Do you know why? Also I guess I'll look into a tripod for night shots. When I get a hance I'll read your articles. Cathy
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Ariel Lepor |
You get them during the night and not the day because during the day, there is more light for the camera to work with, so it can get a faster shutter. During the night, it needs more light, so it leaves the shutter open longer. This gives you time to shake the camera.
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Alan N. Marcus |
Hi Cathy, Sorry you are having difficulties with your new camera. Likely you will become quite an accomplished photographer, with practice. First the blurred twilight pictures: The camera can function in a fully automatic mode. Using chip logic it can do a decent job. In this mode the camera uses it two main devices to achieve correct exposure. These are changes in shutter speed and changes in aperture. In auto mode both are adjusted in consort to achieve correct exposure. Your camera augments automatic mode with many special occasion modes, as you have discovered. You have chosen the nigh portrait mode. In this mode the camera self-sets in a way that enhances picture quality of a person positioned somewhat close to the camera. Normally for a portrait, we want the eyes in sharp focus and the background, which is a distraction, out of focus. That’s exactly what your camera attempted to do. So unless I miss my guess, you used night portrait mode to take a landscape. If I am wrong, correct me. Now a simple camera like the “Brownie” has no adjustments. That means that that the camera is limited to narrow conditions like between 10 AM and 4 PM on fair days. We put adjustments on cameras to extend the picture taking opportunity. First we give the camera the ability to self adjust lens diameter. This allows more or less light to contribute to exposure as conditions necessitate. If you could see the lens work, you would see the hole or aperture of the lens open up or close down just as our eyes do when we move from bright to dim conditions. When the lens is wide open, more light enters but focus becomes more critical. Also, in dim light the shutter lingers allowing extended time for light to play on the picture taking chip. Now these two factors of aperture and shutter speed cooperate in consort, in auto mode. Both are adjusted as needed for correct exposure. At night, shutter speed will be slow to allow more time for light to play on the chip. The lens will be wide to allow more light to enter. A leisurely shutter means we must take care when we press the go button otherwise camera wiggle will make blurry pictures. A wide lens means dept-of-field is shallow so focus becomes critical. Sometimes we need a fast shutter speed to arrest motion such as at a sporting event etc. This calls for shutter priority mode. This allows you to pre-set a high (actually any) shutter speed. In this mode the camera is not allowed to overrule your shutter speed selection. In this mode the camera must solely use aperture when making adjustments for correct exposure Sometimes we need a specific aperture size. Large aperture work best in low light but reduce the zone of good focus we call depth-of-field, to a narrow span. Sometimes we want a tiny aperture to expand the depth-of-field span so foreground and background remain in acceptable focus. Thus we set the camera on aperture priority; this locks the aperture at a size pre-determined by you. Now the camera is denied the ability to adjust aperture. Under this mode, the camera must use the shutter speed adjustments alone to achieve correct exposure. Luck to you and do read the manual
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Ariel Lepor |
Good point. You don't want to do portrait settings or settings which cause flash. Best to become used to manual settings.
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Christopher A. Vedros |
Cathy, Alan, as always, is a vast wealth of knowledge. Don't overlook his most important piece of advice, right at the end - READ THE MANUAL. General photography knowledge is very useful, and when you come across terms that you don't understand, we're more than happy to help. But there is a lot that you can learn right in your camera's manual. The best way to do it is to read a section at a time, with your camera handy so you can try out each setting that it explains. When you go out to take pictures, use the automatic modes for now, but read the manual first so you know what the camera will do in each of the modes. For example, the Night Portrait mode is one of the most mis-undertood modes on automatic cameras. It is not meant for night time snapshots or pictures of the night sky or sunsets. It is intended for when you want to take a picture of a person in front of a dark scene, and you want the person and the background both exposed. If you use the regular Auto mode, the camera will fire the flash to expose the person, and you will get a sharp picture of the person, but the background will be black. The Night Portrait mode must be used with a tripod, because the camera will use a long exposure so that the background will show up in the picture, then it will fire the flash to expose the person. Good luck (and read the manual) Chris A. Vedros
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