what am i doing wrong

[txdukklr]

I'm gonna post up some pics, I'm trying to figure out the application for certain features. Problem is that i'm switching back and forth and not sure which is which. Here are two pics taken I believe the blury one is actually in a feature that is a person with a star . . . . I thouhght that meant night portrait and the other in plain portrait.

[txdukklr]

this picture I took of my son, its not only blurry but the light from the window wasn't nearly that bright.

[txdukklr]

another two exact same pic

[OPC Patrick]

I don't see the technical info, but the nights shots require the shutter to stay open longer allowing the movement of the camera to blur the picture. So in the last two... the top looks to have used the light from a guard light and held the shutter long enough to blur it, on the bottom it looks as if the flash fired giving it a fast shutter and no blur. A good tripod should resolve this.

[blacksunshine]

the star and your description and the pics and blurry mean that is a low light setting, probably not best to use it without a stable platform to rest the camera on or a tripod and or without a remote.

The shutter of the camera will stay open longer on these settings to let in more light. When the shutter stays open longer, any and all movement of the camera and or the subject will be seen in the produced picture.

Remember how your eyes saw it, that is how the camera would see it, however, for the camera, if you leave the shutter open longer, it 'gathers more light' on everything and will make night look like day.

Get yourself a tripod and try it, probably take out most of the blurry...then only movement would be from you pressing the shutter release...which is where a good remote comes into play...

then start playing with the bulb setting if your camera can do that...you can make some nifty pics with bulb.....

[OPC Patrick]

fogot to mention that with the shutter open longer not only the movement of the camera but also your subject will cause blur.

[Big-Buck]

What camera are you shooting with? I'm sure that someone on here is shooting with it as well and will be able to help you alot.

[Hillary]

the star and your description and the pics and blurry mean that is a low light setting, probably not best to use it without a stable platform to rest the camera on or a tripod and or without a remote.

The shutter of the camera will stay open longer on these settings to let in more light. When the shutter stays open longer, any and all movement of the camera and or the subject will be seen in the produced picture.

Remember how your eyes saw it, that is how the camera would see it, however, for the camera, if you leave the shutter open longer, it 'gathers more light' on everything and will make night look like day.

Get yourself a tripod and try it, probably take out most of the blurry...then only movement would be from you pressing the shutter release...which is where a good remote comes into play...

then start playing with the bulb setting if your camera can do that...you can make some nifty pics with bulb.....

Well said.
The night time setting almost always needs to me used when you camera is on a tripod.
The other shots show you using a flash, which will speed up your shutter, causing a clearer picture.

What camera are you using??

[txdukklr]

d5000

[Hillary]

d5000

If you shoot with those preset modes on a dslr you might as well have bought a point and shoot.

Take some time and learn about exposure, on the internet or by a book. It will really help you master that camera. AND read and re read you Camera manual.

Get this book, I can't say how much it has helped me

[Shane]

If you shoot with those preset modes on a dslr you might as well have bought a point and shoot.

Take some time and learn about exposure, on the internet or by a book. It will really help you master that camera. AND read and re read you Camera manual.

Get this book, I can't say how much it has helped me

Bingo.

If you have blurry pics, it means your shutter speed was too slow for a handheld capture. Get a tripod for those situations. Also, learn how to use the camera's exposure settings to get a good exposure with a faster shutter speed. Sometimes you don't have enough light to get a fast shutter speed no matter what you do (without a flash), so that is a time you need a tripod. If your subject isn't moving, you can get a sharp pic using a tripod. If the subject moves, then you're just screwed. Get a good external flash to help fix a lot of those situations. They are way better than the camera's built-in flash.

The main three settings that affect exposure are 1) shutter speed; 2) aperture or f/stop; and 3) ISO. Get a good book, like Hillary recommended, and it'll all make sense.

[txdukklr]

I've read the manuel twice i'm completely confused with shutter speed and aperture. Most of my bluriness came from lighting, I've tinkered taking the same picture a variety of ways in the day with some decent results.

[blacksunshine]

tinker around with a subject that will not get irritated at you like a flower or something, change this, take a pic, look at the product, change that, take a pic, look at the product. This might be a better way for you to get a grasp on what some of the settings do.

do a search for f-stop tutorials

http://drawnfreak.deviantart.com/art/F-Stop-Tutorial-4-Beginners-27843447

if you are like me, it makes more sense sometimes to figure out by doing than to understand the lingo.

[dhillis]

shutter speed is the amount of time that the sensor collects data....in lamens terms....so for night pictures the camera is collecting data for a much larger amount of time...if the camera moves then it is like looking at multiple overlayed pictures and becomes distorted..this is needed in low light so that the camera collects enough reflections to make a picture...

i probably just said something wrong and confused you ever more...sorry

[Shane]

I've read the manuel twice i'm completely confused with shutter speed and aperture. Most of my bluriness came from lighting, I've tinkered taking the same picture a variety of ways in the day with some decent results.

Lighting doesn't directly cause blurriness. Having the shutter open too long while either the camera and/or the subjects in your picture are moving causes blurriness. Motion blur is like having a bunch of video images stacked on top of each other in one picture. The longer the shutter is open, the more video frames you will have in your one image (the more blurry it will be).

To understand the three components of exposure control, shutter speed, aperture size, and ISO, it helps to think about how your eye works. A camera works similarly to your eye.

What do you use to shut your eye? Eyelids.....that is your eye's shutter. Close your eye. Now open it and shut it again as fast as you can, leaving it closed after just a quick blink open. That's a fast shutter speed. Your eye didn't allow much light to come in, right? Now open your eye for as long as you can hold it open without blinking and then close it. That is a long shutter speed. Your eye took in a whole lot of light during the time you had it open. Your camera's shutter does the same thing. It can open for 1/2000th of a second or even less, or you can set it to bulb setting and leave it open for 30 minutes. When it is open for longer periods, more light is allowed to come in through the lens and hit the film or camera sensor in digital cameras.

You may hear people talk about EVs or Exposure Values. To increase light by 1 EV, you need to double the amount of light. One way to double the amount of light is to double the time the shutter is open while all the other settings stay the same. If you go from 1/500th second shutter speed to 1/250th second, that doubles the time the shutter is open and the second image will be a good bit brighter than the first, as a result.

Your eye has an aperture - the pupil. Your pupil can grow bigger to let more light in when needed, or it can shrink down really small to keep too much light from coming in if it's very bright. Your camera's lens has an aperture as well. This is a hole that can be bigger or smaller too, depending on your settings. You use the f/stop setting to control the size of the aperture. Without getting too technical about why it's called "f/stop", all you need to know is that smaller f/stop numbers mean LARGER apertures and more light. One "stop" is the same as one exposure value (EV). Because of the ratios involved in calculating f/stop numbers, the stops along the string of f/stop numbers are: f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, f/22, f/32, f/45, f/64, f/90, f/128. Each of these are one stop or one EV apart. If you go from f/8 to f/5.6, then you have doubled the size of your lens's aperture, and that will double the amount of light hitting your camera's sensor. Or, if you go from f/8 to f/11 you will cut the aperture size in half and cut the light in half as well.

Aperture size also affects depth of field. This is the depth of focus in your field of view. Really large apertures like f/1.4 or f/2.8 make it harder to keep things that are very close as well as things that are distant all in focus at the same time. Small apertures like f/22 or f/32 can focus a wide field of view from near to far. The focal length of your lens combines with aperture size to affect depth of field too, but that's just the basics.

The third component to exposure in cameras is ISO. ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor to light. Low ISO numbers, like ISO 100 or 200 are less sensitive to light, so more light is required to get the image to show up. But these lower ISO settings produce much clearer images than high ISO settings, and low ISO pics will have more color saturation as well (bolder colors). Low ISO requires slower shutter speeds and/or larger apertures to let more light in. In low-light situations, this can mean motion blur if your camera or your subject are not completely still.

High ISO settings are more sensitive to light, so less light is required to get a good image. This means you can use faster shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures with high ISO. The downside is that high ISO settings will usually give you "noise". Noise is a grainy appearance in your pictures.

Low ISO is like your eye with sunglasses on. High ISO is like your naked eye with no sunglasses.

So there are these 3 variables for exposure: shutter speed, aperture size, and ISO. You can adjust one, two or all three of these things to change the amount of light hitting your camera sensor. If a certain picture really needs the fastest shutter speed possible (like sports), then set a shutter that is fast enough and then adjust the other two until you get a good exposure with enough light.

If you want to have a really shallow depth of field so that your main subject is in focus while the background is blurred out, then set a really small aperture (low f/stop) and then adjust shutter and/or ISO until you get a good exposure.

I try to shoot ISO 100 or 200 as much as possible to reduce noise, but in really low light situations where a flash won't help or I don't want a flash, I will have to raise ISO sometimes. I concentrate mostly on shutter speed and aperture usually, just depending on what the situation calls for.

You really need to learn how to read your camera's histogram. The histogram will show you if you need more light, less light, or have a good exposure.

A good book, like the one Hillary mentioned will explain all this too you much better than I can here, I'm sure. Playing with your camera in manual mode will help you figure out what happens when you change one your your settings too. That's the best way to learn, really. After you do some reading, play around with your settings and see how they work.