Blurry Long Exposure

[HeldInTheMoment]

Hello Again Everyone!

Well, from the title of this thread I am sure many of you are rolling your eyes thinking I got a crap tripod or tried to hand hold...give me a little credit? haha

So I got myself a Manfrotto BeFree Tripod for Hiking/Travel. I also got NiSi V5 Filter Holder with a 6-Stop ND and a 3-Stop GND. I was getting decent images with multiple exposures and HDR, but I want to increase my PHOTOGRAPHY skills, not my Digital Artist skills. I want to get it right in the camera.

I went our yesterday and tested the new filters, I've had the trip for some time already and very familiar with it. I noticed that any exposure over lets say 6-8 seconds was blurry and not sharp. I would shoot at f/8 or f/11 with ISO 100 or ISO 200 with my D7100 and Tamron 24-70mm lens.

I just don't understand why my photos would start to blur after a 6-8 second exposure, with NOTHING changing more than the shutter speeds.

Anyone have an idea to help me out?

Thanks,
-Jake

 

[petrochemist]

Could it be mirror slap?

 

[HeldInTheMoment]

Could it be mirror slap?

You know, I thought that too...haven't been able to get back out to test the theory. IF it is Mirror Slap, how do I fix that?

 

[Braineack]

VC on?

 

[HeldInTheMoment]

VC on?

Yes, VC is on

 

[Designer]

Turn VC off when your camera is mounted on a tripod.

 

[HeldInTheMoment]

Turn VC off when your camera is mounted on a tripod.

Oh? I suppose this makes sense. Could the VC compensation be adding blur?

 

[Designer]

Could the VC compensation be adding blur?

Ay-yuh!

 

[HeldInTheMoment]

I feel silly now...

 

[astroNikon]

VC /VR is normally recommended to be turned off when using on a tripod or shutter speeds above 1/500.

also keep in mind, if you are photographing plant life (trees, etc) that the wind, even lightly, will move them. Thus a long exposure will of course by blurry due to subject movement. The wind could also move your camera on the tripod depending upon how sturdy the tripod is.

 

[astroNikon]

I feel silly now...

It's all learning.
we've all been there before.

 

[HeldInTheMoment]

VC /VR is normally recommended to be turned off when using on a tripod or shutter speeds above 1/500.

also keep in mind, if you are photographing plant life (trees, etc) that the wind, even lightly, will move them. Thus a long exposure will of course by blurry due to subject movement. The wind could also move your camera on the tripod depending upon how sturdy the tripod is.

Thanks, I'll turn off VC and hope the problem resolves.

With regards to the wind and moving of my subject, I did take that into consideration and photographed nothing that would move. The Manfrotto BeFree is a solid travel tripod and it was set on a giant rock boulder, so I knew the blur had to be a camera/photographer problem.

 

[goooner]

Do you fire using a remote? Otherwise use the self time at 2 seconds.

 

[fmw]

Shooting in a wind can cause motion blur even with a tripod mounted camera. To resolve mirror slap use the self timer. If you are still getting motion blur then you don't have enough tripod for your application.

 

[480sparky]

....... To resolve mirror slap use the self timer. .........

Using Mirror Up would be much better. The mirror stays down until the self-timer actuates everything and the mirror moves up right before the shutter opens.