Blurred photos

[Aussie Diver]

I took my A75 out yesterday for a dive, no stobe attached, and I was finding that the photos were often bluring. It's very possible that this was because the camera was moving often when i was taking the photos, as there was a fair bit of current, but also it was an overcast day, so there wasn't a lot of light (although i wasn't deep, maybe 12m. Vis was great). I was wanting to know how ppl get around this problem, what settings you usually use, etc. Thanks.

 

[lukeROB]

Use camera in manual and use a shutter speed 1/60th or higher - faster for fish. Adjust your aperture from here. Or use in Shutter priority.

Get close to what you are trying to take a picture of - within 1m.

If you are close use the internal flash.

Post a picture to show what you mean by blurry and I will be able to give some more specific answers.

 

[jonnythan]

I usually put the camera in manual mode.. then use the lowest ISO setting I can while keeping the shutter speed at 1/30 with the aperature as open as it goes. Haven't used it diving yet, but that tends to work well indoors in low light.

 

[magnetite]

I find that the added inertia of the strobe tends to dampen out many of the small movements that might otherwise blur the photo. Everthing is just more stable when more mass is involved. This was particularly eveident in some of the small videos I've shot. I always leave the strobe attached even if I'm not likely to use it (rare).

 

[iainwilliams]

I took my A75 out yesterday for a dive, no stobe attached, and I was finding that the photos were often bluring. It's very possible that this was because the camera was moving often when i was taking the photos, as there was a fair bit of current, but also it was an overcast day, so there wasn't a lot of light (although i wasn't deep, maybe 12m. Vis was great). I was wanting to know how ppl get around this problem, what settings you usually use, etc. Thanks.

It is very difficult at times to keep the camera still underwater. I suggest you shoot at nothing less than 1/100th 1/125th per second. This may mean that you can only shoot medium light or with a higher ISO rating of 100 or 200 - or use flash always

My experience only - my images were also blurred and I was shooting at 1/60th.

If you are unsure to whether the blurring is camera shake, focus or animals moving too fast - camera shake will cause everything to be slightly blurred, Animals moving too fast will cause front or rear of animal to be blurred, however, other still items maybe in focus, and finally, if focus is out then something somewhere in the image will be in focus depending on depth of field.

Hope this may help....Iain

 

[alcina]

From my experience with people using the A70 for the first time the following things cause the blurries:
- using program or auto mode
- using aperture priority and not noticing that the shutter speed has dropped to less than 1/80.
- you are too close and are actually inside the minimum focus distance.

For the A70, and I would guess the A75 would be similar, you shouldn't have much trouble using ISO 100 for almost everything and shooting as low as 1/80.

Switch to manual. A couple of good starting places are f/5.6 and 1/100 or 1/125...if it is really bright, we have found going to f7 and 1/200 or f/5.6 and 1/350 are better and then adjust from there. Manual isn't too hard to learn - it just takes a little practice. Not sure about your camera, but on the A70 I have if the scene looks bright and colourful in the LCD it is a bit overexposed...the image should look slightly darker than you think is "right". YMMV

 

[orangeBloke]

You can also try the half shutter depress to lock the focus before you take the shot. Just press the shutter button down half-way, wait for the camera to focus and then push the button the rest of the way.
It can mean a little more time is taken but the results are usually clearer

 

[fdog]

Post a picture to show what you mean by blurry and I will be able to give some more specific answers.

Second that.

All the best, James

 

[sbloomer]

I usually put the camera in manual mode.. then use the lowest ISO setting I can while keeping the shutter speed at 1/30 with the aperature as open as it goes. Haven't used it diving yet, but that tends to work well indoors in low light.

Unless I understand you wrong, can I ask why you keep your shutter speed constant and manipulate the ISO setting? This is counter intuitive, and I would have thought, not very good practice.

Normally the only reason to choose the lowest ISO setting is to reduce noise (in digicams), because this reduces the CCD's sensitivity to light. So lower ISO means you have to reduce shutter speed for a given aperture. When not using flash the only way to freeze movement is to increase shutter speed (by opening up the aperture) for a given exposure reading, or increasing ISO to keep the shutter speed up.

That being said, because of the good depth of field one gets from digital cameras, I use Aperture Priority and ISO 50 and try keep the aperture around F4 to F5.6 and the camera decides the shutter speed, with 1 stop bracketing if necessary.

 

[jonnythan]

I try to set the iso at 100 because it produces good pictures. If I can't get enough exposure at iso 100 and 1/30, I go up to iso 200. Then I'll leave it there and manipulate the shutter speed and aperature for the desired shot. The idea is that 1/30 is the absolute minimum shuter speed I'll use.. but if I'm shooting at 1/500 and getting good shots, I'll drop the iso.