Night photography....what am I doing wrong

FranDaMan · Jan 5, 2011

Went outside tonight and took some shots of one of out churches lit up.
Camera on a tripod, long exposure of 3.2 seconds. ISO 400/ F8......and it's just not sharp. It's even slightly blurry.

Lens used is the 17-85 IS from Canon.

What is going wrong here ?

Big Mike · Jan 5, 2011

Did you turn your IS off?

You shouldn't use IS when on a tripod, as it can create it's own blur.

willis_927 · Jan 5, 2011

Did u press the shutter? Or use a shutter release? You may have shook the camera a bit pressing the shutter..

FranDaMan · Jan 5, 2011

Thats why it says nOOb on the side :lmao:

Indeed, didn't turn off the IS.
Also, next time I try, I should use the 2sec shutter delay time.
Pressing the release button gives a little movement too ofcourse

FranDaMan · Jan 5, 2011

Might run out later and give it another shot.
I just want a decent night shot for once :grumpy:

mjhoward · Jan 5, 2011

FranDaMan said:
Thats why it says nOOb on the side :lmao:

Indeed, didn't turn off the IS.
Also, next time I try, I should use the 2sec shutter delay time.
Pressing the release button gives a little movement too ofcourse

Try the mirror lock up. After you focus, press the shutter to raise the mirror... Then, press the shutter again to take the pic and lower the mirror again. The purpose is to eliminate vibration from the mirror movement. Also all the stuff everyone above me said

FranDaMan · Jan 5, 2011

I think that would still give some movement, since you manually need to press the button. If I use the selftimer, that would at least remove the movement from pressing the button.

bigtwinky · Jan 5, 2011

Drop your ISO back down to 100. You don't need ISO 400 when on a tripod. This won't impact your blur issue, but will help in getting a cleaner image.

- IS off
- Use low ISO
- Turn on the long exposure noise reduction in camera
- Make sure tripod is secure. Note that if you have a cheap tripod, it can still shake somewhat with wind.
- Use 2 second timer to trip the shutter

FranDaMan · Jan 5, 2011

Thanks everyone......I can't wait to try this out and see what happens.

Bram · Jan 5, 2011

Get a tripod, get a remote.

FranDaMan · Jan 5, 2011

In the OP it says I used a tripod

FranDaMan · Jan 5, 2011

Thank you everyone for the great advice.

Just went back, set it up on the tripod.
2sec selftimer release.
Noise reduction on
IS off

ISO 100/8sec/F8.0