newbie my dslr is giving blurry pic

J

junkone

Suspended / Banned
Messages
4
Edit My Images
No
i have a new pentax kx. i was playing around with the iso settings. sometmes the pictures are blurry. it is set to autofocus and i genrally click on the af button before i take pictures.
will the iso create blurry pictures.
if i need to ask the question better, what info should i monitor before taking the pictures so i can learn better
 
You need to keep an eye on your shutter speed, hand held with no is/vr with a standard kit lens you shouldn't go below 1/100 sec until you are confident in you technique. Can you upload a picture with exif intact?
 
Generally blurt pictures are due to camera shake which is caused by a shutter speed that is to slow, general rule of thumb is to keep the shutter speed above the focal length of the lens that you are using, for example if you are shooting with a 50mm lens shoot with a shutter speed of 1/60th or faster, or if it is a 200mm lens a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second or faster is needed.
 
here is the image
imgp0052k.jpg

the exif info is here.

http://regex.info/exif.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fimg195.imageshack.us%2Fimg195%2F5129%2Fimgp0052k.jpg

i appreciate any help you can give

Slimbert said:
You need to post one of these blurry photos on here so we can see what you mean...:thumbs:
Click to expand...
 
Thats camera shake alright, half a second exposure, most people would struggle to hand hold at that speed. If the metering is shwoing anything under about 1/125, open apertures up where possible and up your iso settings otherwise to compensate for lack of light.
 
junkone said:
what is metering?
Click to expand...

It is short for Exposure Metering - the way the camera measures the brightness of the light and converts it into a combination of shutter speed, lens aperture and ISO so that the picture is not too light or too dark.

In low light such as your picture, the shutter speed is likely to be quite long in order to allow enough light on to the sensor. If it is too long to hand-hold the camera without blurring (known as camera-shake) then you either need to use flash or a tripod.

Also, cameras have more difficulty focusing in low light so this might also be a problem, but the most obvious thing wrong there is camera-shake.

Have a read of some of the stuff in the tutorial section, such as this which covers the basics for beginners http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=99841
 
As others have said, definitely camera-shake in this instance.

Just quickly, your ISO governs the sensitivity of your camera. Basically the higher the number the brighter the image will be. Beware though the higher the number the noisier (grainer) your picture will be.

You need to balance ISO, shutter speed and aperture to a) get a good exposure and b) get a nice sharp image. Generally I will not use a shutter speed slower than 1/50th sec, that's tripod time in my opinion.

Hope this helps.
 
I was just trying to think of an easy way to explain this - there are lots of analogies I've read about sponges collecting water and bees collecting pollen and frankly I can't remember any of them properly!

Anyway - my brain has just said to me - think about it like you would your own eye:

Your eyes don't like to stare directly at bright light for any length of time - a quick open and shut would do the job just fine. So the shutter (your eye) opens and closes very quickly but takes in everything in front of it.

If it is a bit gloomy though you might need to look at something for longer to make out exactly what it is. So the shutter (your eye) has to stay open for longer to take in all the detail. The longer you keep your eye open the more chance that your head will wobble around - camera shake :nono:

BUT - if you were to throw night vision goggles into the equation that would change things. Think of night vision goggles as the ISO - they improve your ability to use the light that is available. The better the goggles (higher ISO number) the quicker you will be able to open and close your eye but still take in the detail. The downside is the picture you get with the goggles on is grainy.

Doesn't cover aperture but I hope that helped for shutter speed and ISO...
 
Daysleeper40 said:
I was just trying to think of an easy way to explain this - there are lots of analogies I've read about sponges collecting water and bees collecting pollen and frankly I can't remember any of them properly!

Anyway - my brain has just said to me - think about it like you would your own eye:

Your eyes don't like to stare directly at bright light for any length of time - a quick open and shut would do the job just fine. So the shutter (your eye) opens and closes very quickly but takes in everything in front of it.

If it is a bit gloomy though you might need to look at something for longer to make out exactly what it is. So the shutter (your eye) has to stay open for longer to take in all the detail. The longer you keep your eye open the more chance that your head will wobble around - camera shake :nono:

BUT - if you were to throw night vision goggles into the equation that would change things. Think of night vision goggles as the ISO - they improve your ability to use the light that is available. The better the goggles (higher ISO number) the quicker you will be able to open and close your eye but still take in the detail. The downside is the picture you get with the goggles on is grainy.

Doesn't cover aperture but I hope that helped for shutter speed and ISO...
Click to expand...

nice analogy daysleeper!! i'm just racking my brains now for the aperture... :thinking: .... maybe putting your finger at arms length and then bringing it closer to your nose??? please... someone else take over
 
leftcurl said:
nice analogy daysleeper!! i'm just racking my brains now for the aperture... :thinking:
Click to expand...

:plusone: That is a nice analogy Fi.
One of the easiest to understand that I've read.

:thinking: And for aperture . . . how about being how wide you open your eyes????
So in your bright, sunny scenario you might want to keep your lids lowered slightly and squint a bit (high F number) - but in the gloom you'd want to open your eyes up as wide as possible (low F number)
 
Just had another thought on this too.

If we chuck sunglasses into the mix, you can increase the length of time that you keep your eyes open or decrease the amount that you need to squint . . . you can even see the world with a different coloured tint . . . these are your filters.
 
SarahLee said:
Just had another thought on this too.

If we chuck sunglasses into the mix, you can increase the length of time that you keep your eyes open or decrease the amount that you need to squint . . . you can even see the world with a different coloured tint . . . these are your filters.
Click to expand...

ooooh I like your thinking :thumbs:
 
Not sure this analogy works :thinking:

Your eye controls what you are able to see by having a much greater dynamic range, a variable aperture (the iris) and also has wide variable ISO range - takes a second or two if you move from dark to bright light and vice versa. It doesn't really have much by way of a shutter speed - roughly fixed around 1/20sec.

It's also a continuous scanning device, building up image after image after image of different parts of the scene, like a rapidly panning video camera. Not really like a still camera at all.
 
HoppyUK said:
Not sure this analogy works :thinking:

Your eye controls what you are able to see by having a much greater dynamic range, a variable aperture (the iris) and also has wide variable ISO range - takes a second or two if you move from dark to bright light and vice versa. It doesn't really have much by way of a shutter speed - roughly fixed around 1/20sec.

It's also a continuous scanning device, building up image after image after image of different parts of the scene, like a rapidly panning video camera. Not really like a still camera at all.
Click to expand...

I think your over-thinking it tbh - just trying to give a basic example that will help the OP understand the principle behind all of this before getting too technical. When you first pick up a DSLR you're unlikely to know what dynamic range, variable aperture or ISO are...

As I said the analogies I was taught involved bee's with buckets collecting pollen - which aren't all that much like a camera either :shrug:
 
Sorry Richard, but I'm with Fi on this.
We all know that technically an eye doesn't operate in exactly the same way as a camera - but bees can't carry buckets and running taps aren't cameras either.

I think the point was to draw an analogy in simple terms that people can relate to. I personally found this one one of the easiest to relate to in every day terms - I guess other people might find some of the other common analogies easier :shrug:

I don't think it really matters as long as the concept gets across.
 
SarahLee said:
Sorry Richard, but I'm with Fi on this.
We all know that technically an eye doesn't operate in exactly the same way as a camera - but bees can't carry buckets and running taps aren't cameras either.

I think the point was to draw an analogy in simple terms that people can relate to. I personally found this one one of the easiest to relate to in every day terms - I guess other people might find some of the other common analogies easier :shrug:

I don't think it really matters as long as the concept gets across.
Click to expand...

Okay, I like simple, but not if it's wrong. Eyes don't work like that and the analogy implies that blinking is somehow related to shutter speed, which it isn't.

Here's something I posted last year, post #20. It's a bit longer but I think still quite a simple concept, complete, and accurate - filling a glass with water http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=102764
 
OP now totally confused and takes up new hobby.................lol
 
To the op, just take on board what Richard (hoppyUK) says in this post

It is short for Exposure Metering - the way the camera measures the brightness of the light and converts it into a combination of shutter speed, lens aperture and ISO so that the picture is not too light or too dark.

In low light such as your picture, the shutter speed is likely to be quite long in order to allow enough light on to the sensor. If it is too long to hand-hold the camera without blurring (known as camera-shake) then you either need to use flash or a tripod.

Also, cameras have more difficulty focusing in low light so this might also be a problem, but the most obvious thing wrong there is camera-shake.
Click to expand...

As you didn't ask what the aperture and shutter speed were I presume you already know. Its enough to understand the basics of exposure.
 
I don't know how accurate that exif data is but it says your shot was taken in landscape mode, this would try and set a small aperture to give large depth of field.

Try shooting in aperture priority with a low number such as f3.5 assuming kit lens. Also you might have to up the iso as your picture was taken at 200iso which is more suited to outdoor rather than indoor especially with no flash involved.
 
Use a tripod for half second exposures.

Shake reduction works from about 1/15+. Exposures longer than that and you might get 1 or two good ones out of 10.
 
Don't really need an analogy for aperture!

When you squint in bright light you are reducing the aperture of your eye to let less light in, *exactly* the same as a camera lens :)

Go look in a mirror and shine a torch at your eye and watch your iris contract. Again, that''s your eye's aperture getting narrower to let less light in....it's just a bit more elegant than scrunching your face up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top