Whats wrong with this picture

Mattk

Mattk

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Name
Matt
Edit My Images
Yes
Nikon D40 Sigma 70 - 300 HSM lens, tripod used

It just seems really low quality for some reason, it was exposed correctly on the bracketing bar, it doesnt look that sharp and the clouds look horrid

Not giving me confidence at all, Ive not had a good shot for a week now :(

my_tree2small.jpg
 
could you give the exif as someone might see a problem with a setting :shrug:

md:thumbs:
 
was it handheld and if so what was the shutter speed you were using?

I think the exif data would be helpful
 
Mattk said:
I dont think it was camera shake, it was on a tripod, its a beefey one at that too :D
Click to expand...

did you use a remote release or cable release?
And was it windy??

I think I would have upped the shutter speed a little and ISO to see if that gave me something crisper
 
I used the wrong lens really, I only had the 70 - 300 in the car,

Il go back tomorrow if we get a nice sky with my 50mm

I need:

Low ISO
Small Apature
and a vary of different shutter speeds till I get it right?
 
I agree - it does look like camera shake. You say you used a timer - but were you hanging onto the tripod while you waited for it to fire?
 
Mattk said:
I used the 10 sec timer, was a tiny breeze, I was in a big open feild

what ISO should I be looking at? I always thought the lower the better, the D40 only goes to 200
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The lower the ISO the better the quality, as in reduced noise....however there will be times when the higher ISO is needed for low light.

As mentioned earlier, if you are not seeing a difference with F4 and F22 then something aint quite right???
Did you auto focus or manual? and what were you metering, the sky or the tree out of curiousity?
 
Yeah i agree the camera hasnt focused properly.

I'd also configure mirror lock up and use f8
 
Mattk said:
I used the wrong lens really, I only had the 70 - 300 in the car,

Il go back tomorrow if we get a nice sky with my 50mm

I need:

Low ISO
Small Apature
and a vary of different shutter speeds till I get it right?
Click to expand...

Large/Wide aperture if you are wanting a shallow DOF. so if you want all of the frame in focus you need a narrow/small wide F Stop and your lens wide open.
 
for a start, that lens will always be soft at f4, it really doesn't become sharp until f8 - i know, I used one for long enough. Also, in your first shot, I would definately say there is camera movement, possible even on a tripod, especially if its just not quite stable, or even just a little jarring from the mirror movement. Second shot looks much sharper :thumbs:
 
Mattk said:
Whats mirror lock?
Click to expand...

Something that you don't have :lol:

It's a feature that allows you to lock the mirror in the up position to prevent mirror slap - vibration caused when the mirror returns to the closed position after a shot.
 
Mattk said:
yeah im liking the sharpness of the tree in the 2nd

its just the clouds, they look to grainy and just horrible

unless its my rubish monitor ( probably my rubbish togging :lol: )
Click to expand...

A bit hard to tell here with small images. However, remember a couple of things in these shots - 1, especially in the second, there will be evidence of cloud movement on longer exposures, which will create som blurrin anyway, 2 - longer exposures do often have more inherent colour noise than shorter ones. FWIW, at that small size, the second one looks fine, nice and sharp right across the range and not noisy. Also, with that particular lens, I would suggest limiting your apertures to between f7 and f14-ish, either side and you do suffer some image quality issues in my experience. I also had the nikon equivalent lens for a little while and that was the same, so its not just a sigms thing.
 
The tree is sharp, the clouds are not.

It's quite simple really. The clouds are moving! An exposure of 8 sec is enough to show that movement as blurring. The cloud that is higher in the sky is the giveaway.

That was f18, try getting a bit more light in there and up the ISO a bit if you need to but make that your second choice. Go for a bigger aperture first.

Keep at it, it's not a huge mistake or anything, just needs a little tweak :)
 
Go for it :)

It often takes me several visits to nail the shot I can see in my head. Light changes so much, but then that is half the challenge :)
 
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