Getting Rid of blur

[Overread]

Yep it can be a tricky road to follow - just take it one step at a time a your pace and be glad that the digital camera costs you nothing to take photos with (whilst film cameras would cost you for every roll of film).
I'd also say try to shoot less at night indoors and a little more in daytime. Good light really makes a massive difference to photography whilst woking with poorer light things get a little more tricky and often one has to make sacrifices to get the image (eg higher ISOs)

 

[5ubz3r0]

Noted!

So in summary!-

Poor lighting = more ISO to brighten up the picture as the sensor will be more sensitive to light, but the higer the ISO, the more noise I will get in my shot.

Make sure when not using a tripod and shooting a moving object, use a much higher shutter speed.

And most of all - learn and understand about proper exposure!

 

[Overread]

And don't forget as well as raising the ISO you also have the aperture to use as well - the smaller the number the bigger the aperture which means more light getting into the lens - which means faster shutter speeds.

And the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson which should help a lot with these things

 

[5ubz3r0]

I will deffinatly be looking into the book. Will probably buy it on Monday. Doesn't aperture relate to Depth of Feel? or Field?

 

[Overread]

Yes - the wider the aperture the smaller the depth of field. That is one reason why even if you have lens with a very wide aperture (like a 50mm f1.4) although you can open it up all the way to f1.4 to get more light in (And thus need less ISO and also lessen the need for flash) you then have to balance that against your focusing and depth of field and make sure you get it right. Often you see comments from new users of such wide aperture lenses wondering why they can't get both eyes in focus and if there is a fault with the lens.

But add to that another dimension - depth of field is also relaited to the focal length of the lens as well as the distance between the lens and the point of focus (subject). If you take a shot of a person at 1/2 a foot away from the lens at (say) f 2.8 you will have a very small depth of field, nose and eye might not all be in focus at the same time - but take the shot from several meters away and suddenly you can more easily fit nose and eyes together in the same f2.8 aperture which was failing before.
Focal length also has an effect, but I am unsure as to how big an effect it has when compared to the distance aspects.

 

[5ubz3r0]

See what I mean - I understood...now I'm back to square one! lol Understanding Exsposure...here I come! haha!

 

[5ubz3r0]

Wait I think I get it....So the closer you are to your subject - you could use lower f#?

 

[Overread]

The closer you are to the subject the smaller the depth of field will be for a given aperture. Take a cat as an example. Close up to the cats face at f4 you might only get the eyes and the surrounding fur in focus - the tip of the nose and the ears would be out of focus. Now stand back from the cat a good distance and that same aperture will get you more of the nose and head in focus. This means if you want more depth at a closer distance you need a smaller aperture (bigger f number).

and I just remembered that there is this - a depth of field calculator which might explain things better and in more depth:
Online Depth of Field Calculator
have a play with the settings and see how they affect the depth of field in the shots. Also don't overly worry yourself with remembering the hard numbers - a lot of the time lighting will limit what you have as options for an exposure and further more I find it to be something easier picked up through experience and practice rather than trying to calculate the correct numbers (because chaces are the subject/shot is long gone by the time the numbers are all figured out.

 

[5ubz3r0]

Thank you for the link! I will definitely take this all into account.

I'm planning to stay at home tonight with my camera and study it! I'm going to a wedding on Saturday and thinking about taking the camera to test. Stay tuned for more pics!!!

Thanks again for all your help overread!

 

[c&k]

Thanks Overread BigMike and Derrel. I found this thread while searching for some info/comments on the D5000 modes.

I just got mine in two days ago and am a tad overwhelmed. This info was great and appreciated.