Photographs not Crisp. (especially night shots)

[petruccelli]

Hey all,

So I have been taking night shots for quite some time now. They are turning out relatively well however I have yet to get any super CRISP shots. They look excellent on a screen but as soon as you zoom in one stationary things like trees, stumps, rocks, etc, they are blurry. Nothing is crisp. All photos seem to be a touch soft however it is more noticeable on night shots. I use a tripod about 80% of the time. 100% of the time on night shots. I rarely ever use autofocus but the same issue exists with autofocus. What am i doing wrong?

I'm wondering if it the lense? The result seem to be the same, not crisp, regardless of ISO, aperture, or shutter speed.

I'm using a T2i with a 15mm-85mm or 11-15mm canon lens. Shot on manual focus to infinity. Is there some trick I'm missing. Is there a way in post to clean it up if it's an ISO issue. This particular picture was shot at 3200 which is substantially higher then I normally shoot.

Anyone have any advice? I just can't seem to get the pictures crisp. I attached some examples to look at.

Thanks in advance.

Megan

 

[gsgary]

ISO3200 is your problem, use a lower iso and longer exposure

 

[petruccelli]

Normally I use a MUCH lower ISO but I still get the same problem. I don't want trails and the aperture is wide open so on this one I did crank up the ISO. Here is another example with a much lower ISO.

 

[MTVision]

Normally I use a MUCH lower ISO but I still get the same problem. I don't want trails and the aperture is wide open so on this one I did crank up the ISO. Here is another example with a much lower ISO.

Wide open aperture may be a little bit of the cause. Lenses usually don't perform their best wide open. They are usually better/sharper stopped down a little

 

[MLeeK]

The first one has motion blur in it. You will also need to process and remove noise. It was a 30 sec exposure. I assume you probably pushed the shutter button by hand and not a remote. That will cause your blur. Get a remote and your blur problem will be fixed.
The second one there is motion in the trees which I suspect is from the wind. The stars themselves are good as I would expect on a tripod. It needs some noise removal done.

 

[petruccelli]

Thank you! That helps a lot. I actually do have an intervelometer that i always use. So maybe that first batch was just a hair out of focus or something.

Any recommendations on processing and noise reduction bc I have never done that to any of my photos. Or articles to read.

 

[KmH]

Image sharpening and noise reduction are closely related.
Tutorials – Sharpness
Digital Camera Image Noise: Concept and Types

 

[nbasara]

light room 4 has great noise reduction give that a go

 

[RacePhoto]

ISO3200 is your problem, use a lower iso and longer exposure

That and the photo was shot at ISO 6400 not 3200?

You can get from 8 to 10 seconds without star streaks starting to appear. That's one limit, but stars aren't the issue.

Yes on the manual focus, even with a tripod, it's easy to use a timer (that built in one does ten seconds) push the button and "step away from the camera" Even if it doesn't seem to matter, unless you are on the firm Earth ground, buildings move. Since it looks like out camping (and beautiful!) A weight on the tripod, such as something hanging on the cross support, will stabilize it even more, even a slight breeze can move things.

Yes to the Not Wide Open advise. Manual focus, not Infinity focus. You need to do that yourself because lenses over focus past infinity to compensate for heat expansion. On a very hot day it wouldn't ever reach infinity.

What you have here is a conundrum. How to get enough light in a short period of time, without going high on ISO and causing spots and grain. It's pretty much, impossible with that T2i and I have one for video. Nice camera, nice sensor. But there are the limits of physics involved.

My answer would be, abandon sharp stars, use a lower ISO, try to get everything else perfect, sharp and clear. OR

If you want to get a little more work intensive, then take one of the stars and create a layer, put the star sky into the image, over the star trails. In other words... two photos is probably the answer since you are trying to take two different exposures, stars are bright and moving, everything else is dim and stationary.

Hope that helps?