5/17/2023 0 Comments Camera lens blurWith moving people or animals, the extremities (hands, feet, tail, wingtips) will usually be more blurred than the body. Also, notice the ghosting (double-image) in the upper-left. This is typical with wind-blown vegetation. Notice how some of the leaves and thicker branches seem almost sharp, while other branches, leaves, and flowers look quite fuzzy. With wind-created subject movement, some objects will be sharper than others – even though they might be in close proximity – and you’ll often see some ghosting (a double image). If flowers were blown by the wind, for example, then some flowers will be sharper than others, and objects not affected by the wind, like rocks, will be sharp. With subject movement you’ll typically see the same kind of ghosting, or double image, as you see with camera movement, except that you’ll usually only see it in specific parts of the image. With Sony A-series cameras, try turning on e-Front Curtain Shutter or even Silent Shooting to eliminate shutter vibrations. If it’s windy, lower the tripod, weigh it down, wait for a lull, or use a faster shutter speed. Then if a photo isn’t sharp you can experiment to find the cause. It can be hard to pinpoint the precise cause of tripod vibrations after the fact, so it’s important to magnify your images on the back of the camera to check sharpness in the field. If you were using a tripod there could be many causes: a flimsy tripod not using a cable release, remote, or self timer bumping the tripod forgetting to turn off image stabilization mirror slap shutter vibration wind shaking the tripod – and probably some other things I can’t think of right now. Next time hold the camera steadier, use image stabilization, set a faster shutter speed, or use a tripod. If you see something like this and you were handholding at a slow shutter speed, then, well, there you go. In this case, since the whole photo looks this way, it’s not wind-created subject movement, as the wind would move the leaves and smaller branches more than the trunks. (Often the ghosting is more subtle, so you have to look hard for it.) (Click on the image to view at 100%).ĭo you see how the smaller branches here are ghosted, or doubled? That only happens with camera movement or subject movement. This view shows the ghosting (double image) characteristic of images blurred by camera movement. Here’s what that looks like (click on the image to view at 100%): This is especially true of tripod-mounted images, where the blurring is caused by vibrations rather than continuous movement. If the blurring was caused by camera movement you’ll often see a slight ghosting or double-image when you look at the image at 100%. Let’s look at each of these causes, with clues to help you determine which one was responsible for the blurry photograph. But it could also be a major focusing error or lens softness. If nothing is sharp, then camera movement could be the culprit. And you didn’t entirely miss the focus (though maybe you didn’t get the most important parts of the image in focus). If something is sharp, then you can rule out camera shake. (You should do this routinely for all your photos anyway to look for problems and learn how to judge sharpness.) See if any part of the photo is sharp. Start by looking at your photo at 100% (or 1:1). Next, take a closer look at the evidence. Was the wind blowing? Then maybe the wind moved leaves or flowers, or caused the tripod to vibrate. Did you stop down to f/22? Then lens diffraction might be the culprit. Were you using a cheap kit lens? Then perhaps the lens is the problem. Were you using a wide aperture, like f/2.8 or f/4? Then maybe you missed the focus, or needed to use a smaller aperture to get more depth of field. Were you using a tripod, but with a long telephoto lens? Again, camera movement could be the cause, as long lenses magnify even slight vibrations. Were you handholding at a slow shutter speed? Then camera movement is a likely culprit. First try to remember what you did when taking the photo. To find the source of the blurriness, you’ll have to channel your inner Sherlock Holmes and do a little detective work. There are basically five causes of blurry photos: camera movement, subject movement, missed focus, insufficient depth of field, and lens softness. But after you’ve swallowed your disappointment, it’s important to figure out why the image is soft so that you don’t make the same mistake again. Even professionals like me sometimes take unintentionally blurry photos (as you’ll see below!). It’s always disappointing to find out that one of your photos isn’t sharp – especially if it’s an image you like (and you weren’t trying to deliberately blur the image). I used a slow shutter speed (1/2 second) to deliberately blur the motion of these dogwood blossoms, but usually I’m trying to make my photos as sharp as possible.
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