Is this just camera shake?

noneforit

noneforit

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Hello

My company paid for me to go on a 2 day course in London so I took the opportunity to do a bit of night photography.

I took about 50 images total of the Houses of Parliment, Buckingham Palace and the London Eye.

I have edited them slightly but they still look out of focus at 100% crop.

I used a Sony A450 + Tamron 17-50mm Lens, mounted on a tripod without a shutter release cable.

The images are below:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55790995@N06/

I tried changing the WB, shutter speed, aperture and a host of other settings but they still dont look as good as I expected.

There was a slight wind and im wondering if it is just camera shake?

Cheers
 
Did you switch off IS? Also did you set the timer so it took the picture 2 seconds after you pressed the shutter, or did it immediately take the picture as soon has you hit the shutter?
 
They don't look too bad to me but it's hard to say anything without knowing the settings you used. They could be slightly out of focus, so what aperture were you using, shutter speed, ISO etc?

Also, what are 100% crops from that lens like in daylight? Could it be that it's just not tack sharp? A bit of sharpening in photoshop might make the world of difference.
 
Willo said:
Did you switch off IS? Also did you set the timer so it took the picture 2 seconds after you pressed the shutter, or did it immediately take the picture as soon has you hit the shutter?
Click to expand...

Hi

I didnt switch off IS, its build into the body on Sony so assumed I didnt need too :S

Also, I didnt do the 2 second delay before the shutter fired, i just did it as normal.

You may have hit the nails on the head so to speed as I didnt do either of those things, I guess I would have to try with and without both next time I go to London
 
Rutherfordium said:
They don't look too bad to me but it's hard to say anything without knowing the settings you used. They could be slightly out of focus, so what aperture were you using, shutter speed, ISO etc?

Also, what are 100% crops from that lens like in daylight? Could it be that it's just not tack sharp? A bit of sharpening in photoshop might make the world of difference.
Click to expand...

ISO was 200 on all of them
Aperture was between F9 and F13
Shutter speed were different but the main two (houses of P and BP) were 3.2s and 6 seconds

Cheers
 
noneforit said:
Hi

I didnt switch off IS, its build into the body on Sony so assumed I didnt need too :S

Also, I didnt do the 2 second delay before the shutter fired, i just did it as normal.

You may have hit the nails on the head so to speed as I didnt do either of those things, I guess I would have to try with and without both next time I go to London
Click to expand...

Easy mistake to make. If you use a tripod you should switch off IS as the IS will try too compensate for any shake.

If you find yourself using a tripod alot then its worth investing in a remote, can be brought pretty cheap of ebay.
 
noneforit said:
Hi

I didnt switch off IS, its build into the body on Sony so assumed I didnt need too :S

Also, I didnt do the 2 second delay before the shutter fired, i just did it as normal.

You may have hit the nails on the head so to speed as I didnt do either of those things, I guess I would have to try with and without both next time I go to London
Click to expand...


Looks like mystery solved :thumbs:
 
They don't look too bad to me. I'm not sure how the Sony IS system works on a tripod, though it won't have helped. Things like using the timer and mirror lock-up etc don't make much difference with shutter speeds like that as the camera has plenty of time to settle for the majority of the exposure. They're not out of focus.

Maybe what you are seeing is the apparent blurring around the bright lights, which is inevitable because they are so over exposed relative to the rest of the scene. The other thing is tripod vibration. It's actually quite hard to get an absolutely sharp image when wind and imperceptible vibration from the ground (especially in the city) just nibbles away at sharpness.

A sharpness tweak in post processing might help.
 
Can you post a crop from one? (And no I don't mean a link to flickr)
IS off, 2 sec delay, heavier/weighed-down tripod, sharper lens. Just thinking.
 
You may also consider locking the mirror up if its an option on the camera, you avoid any internal shake.
 
Some of these were quite long exposures, the eye was 8 seconds, even the slightest movement or vibration will start to creep in at that time, a breeze on the tripod, it doesn't take much to just take the edge off, add the IS trying to compensate and theres your answer. To be fair they are not too bad really.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone

I think I will try and reduce the shutter speed next time, up the iso slightly to compensate and turn off IS :)
 
Also check if your tripod is actually sturdy, some all the way up can be a bit iffy, try putting it up and gently tapping the top, if it shakes or wobbles lower it untill it gets better.

One trick with light tripods is to hang a bag from the centre with something in it to add a little weigth (don't go mad obviously) but a couple of pounds can add a fair bit of stability to a flimsy tripod.
 
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