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Category: Traditional Film Photography

Photography Question 

Amy L. Evans 		 

Why are my pictures so blurry


 
 
I have been testing out new films that I would like to use when I shoot my aunts wedding. Last week I tooks some shots of the monarchs in Pismo, Yesterday I went to Nojoquoi Falls and took some shots. Well all the shots turned out blurry. When I was taking the shot I focused it and it looked fine in the frame. I honestly don't remember the settings. I used a tripod and since I don't have a shutter release yet so I used the auto timer. I seemed that whenever I used the auto settings my pics turned out perfect. But when I try changing the settings they turn out this way. this is the second roll of film that has turned out this way. What am I doing wrong?


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February 16, 2006

 

Justin G. 		  what films, what lenses, what tripod, etc are you using. do you have any idea what your settings could be, at least a rough guess? all this would help a million. my only two guesses right now is that you might have a weak tripod, or have a mirror slap problem (but that's probably only valid if you're at around 200mm or more). please reply with the info.


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February 16, 2006

 

Amy L. Evans 		  Justin,
In the photo with the butterflies I was using a 75-300mm lens. I have a circular polarizer and a uv filter. The tripod is nothing special just one I got free from Circut City when I bought my video camera. The film I was using was Kodak Portra 160VC. With the water fall I wasn't using a tripod and the lens was a 35-80mm with a circular polarizer. Same film. I can't remember any of my settings.


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February 16, 2006

 

Justin G. 		  well with the 160 film (good film btw) it's pretty slow so it can be hard to get the speeds you want to handhold. like the waterfall, you had a polarizor on there...that uses like 2 stops or somethign like that so my guess is that the shutter speed was too slow to handhold. the next one might be a combination of your long lens and the tripod. for the longest time I always wondered why my photos weren't the sharpest and it ended up partly being my tripod, a walmart one. if you can invest in a stronger tripod to help with the long and heavy lenses. i'm really not sure what could haven't cuased the butterfly one with your tipod, unless they were moving and maybe there was wind blowing things around (including your lens/camera). these are my only guess for the problems. hopefully someone else can chip in too for some added information. sorry and good luck. p.s. when handholding make sure you have a ton of light (especially with your c.p.) or you could switch to the 400vc.


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February 16, 2006

 
- Gregory LaGrange

BetterPhoto Member
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Gregory LaGrange's Gallery 		  Simple case too slow a shutter speed to hand hold and the wind blowing.


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February 16, 2006

 
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