Long Exposure Foreground

[noahx1]

Hi all, I had a quick question about long exposures. I love long exposures, but for some reason, my foreground always seems to be pretty blurry, even if it is a non-moving object (houses, buildings, etc.). Is there a trick to getting a really high quality long exposure, especially the foreground? I use a tripod of course, and do a 2 second delay on the timer, but still have had no luck. Thanks!

 

[DScience]

Hyperfocal focusing.

 

[Designer]

I'm guessing that the foreground is outside the DOF. Increase your DOF.

 

[dennybeall]

Including a photo and the details about camera and settings will help to provide answers to your question. If you take the same photo with a short exposure time do you get the same problem? Perhaps lower the shutter speed and crank up the ISO to take a second shot.

 

[KmH]

Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

 

[noahx1]

Thank you all for the responses! I have been looking into hyperfocal focusing, and am a little confused, I must admit. I downloaded a DOF calculator and am not completely sure how to use it - is it supposed to help me find out what distance I should turn my focus to? Also, I was going to upload a photo, but it seems that my raw files don't have their properties available. Is there a way to find the aperture, shutter speed, etc on raw files that I am missing? Thanks for all of the help!