Why my night shots are not sharp?

[o hey tyler]

Those pics are pretty good but I agree with rest you should never shoot at f/22 If you get a nifty fifty lense and keep your ISO at 400 your pictures will come out even more awesome

Why iso400? Changing your ISO is dependent on the shooting conditions.

 

[fjrabon]

Those pics are pretty good but I agree with rest you should never shoot at f/22 If you get a nifty fifty lense and keep your ISO at 400 your pictures will come out even more awesome

Why iso400? Changing your ISO is dependent on the shooting conditions.

yeah, and 400 just seems like a random choice. It's not good general advice (because there is no good single ISO to use) and it's not really particularly good advice specific to this situation either, with static subjects and a tripod you probably want to use base ISO even for night photos.

I think the problem OP found here, even beyond shooting at f/22 and a high ISO, is that night photography that involves city lights, you run into a tough trade off. The small points of light, if you expose for them, leaves everything else under exposed, and if you try to bring that up in post, you end up with a lot of noise. However, if you let the city lights completely blow out, they tend to bleed into adjacent parts of the photo, which causes things to not look sharp. Sometimes I will blend two exposures in a situation like that. One for the general city scene, and one for all the lights that is exposed down down by a couple of stops to reduce some of the light bleed and give a sharper look. Then blend the lights in with your base scene exposure in PP to taste and merge.

 

[AaronLLockhart]

Wow, how have I missed all of this fun reading?

O Hey Tyler, even though you hate correcting solarflare, I enjoy reading your corrections because I learn a lot.

In fact, I learn a lot through most of yours and Keith's posts. So, thanks!

 

[o hey tyler]

Wow, how have I missed all of this fun reading?

O Hey Tyler, even though you hate correcting solarflare, I enjoy reading your corrections because I learn a lot.

In fact, I learn a lot through most of yours and Keith's posts. So, thanks!

I do what I can, buddy! ;-)

 

[KmH]

Perhaps a deeper understanding of what 'sharpness' is would help - Tutorials – Sharpness

 

[Solarflare]

I have nothing to add *shrug* I linked the test in question and I said I cant see it on my own pictures, I see no difference in sharpness between f/2.8 and f/11 at all, even on a 200% crop on a computer monitor.

If something of that is "false information" then nobody pointed out why it would be.

 

[Eddieenn]

Very rich hub with nice illustrations,thanks

 

[Terenas1986]

Focus to infinity with f/2.8 and you'll get infinite DOF (from 25meters)... that way you can use ISO100 and shutter speeds you can't even imagine with f/8+ which others suggested. DOF calculation is basic with photography when you come to low-light.

 

[o hey tyler]

Stop spamming

 

[Phototripper]

If you can shoot with the mirror locked up or shutter delay, that may help a little

 

[JTB]

OK for my 2 cents worth, I would not shoot at night with long exposure anywhere near F22, I would use F5.6 or F8. Having seen this shot in both the daylight and at night in person I do say that it is very sharp. I would suggest to give it a try again using a different F stop. Were you on the dock there or the street?

James

 

[aussiearef]

I was besides a street. So for the next time (which will be when the weather is warmer. It's winter in Australia now!) I will be going to do these:

1- Use F5.6, F8 and F11
2- Remove the UV filter!
3- Use lens hood
4- Use shutter release

What else?

 

[Solarflare]

Dont forget to also prerelease the mirror so you dont get vibrations from it.

You can use self-timer 2s or a remote control instead of a shutter release as well.

 

[Theninjaseal]

heheh my EVIL doen't have a mirror

In response to the OP, make sure your tripod is nice and tight as well ;

 

[Pav]

Hi all. New here and working through the beginner forum. Great source of info so far. Just this thread teaches a bunch.

Gotta ask. While checking the photos in questions from the OP, I went back one on flicker. What are those blobby looking things directly left of the bridge (against the night sky). That's not lens flare right?

IMG_0002 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

thanks