When pics don't turn out !!!

pitdog

pitdog

Joined
Apr 13, 2007
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So I was going to do a thread today about animal tracks that you can find around watering holes featuring the pics that I took today.
Amongst the pics were Deer tracks, squirrel tracks and Racoon tracks but they all came out blurry.....why do they sometimes do this ?
Anyway I might as well show some other pics that did come out from the same walk !!!!
FrancisKing097.jpg


My dog looking for those Bigfoots !!!
FrancisKing095.jpg


I believe this is Self-Heal !
FrancisKing094.jpg


Spot the Dumpster Mutt !!!!
FrancisKing099.jpg


And a nice view to finish !!!
FrancisKing101.jpg
 
Pitdog,

We need to work out some kind of swap where I can come spend 6 months where you live and you can come down here!! Your pics are fantastic, I would fish myself crazy. Chris
 
they all came out blurry.....why do they sometimes do this ?
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Nice pictures Pitdog. The pictures of tracks sometimes come out blurry for the obvious reason that the animal that made them was moving too fast when it made the tracks ;-)

Actually, I find this problem either when the auto-focus locks on the wrong thing, or I'm too close for it to focus at all, or (the most common) the shutter speed is too long. I've found that, without image stabilization (which my current camera has, and I love) any speed less than 1/60 sec, will start getting blurry. The image stabilization lowers that to about 1/20 sec.

I invested in a tiny tripod -- folded up the thing is only about 4 inches long, unfolded its about 8 or 9. Whenever I have my camera I have this thing too, it's perfect for close ups of animal sign, or the closeups of plants, bugs and other critters that I like taking.
 
For blury pics...

A) Could be that autofocus isn't seeing enough contrast on the print to focus properly. If it isn't, try focusing on something next to the print, then re-aiming at the print while holding the button on the camera half-down to retain the focus.

B) Could be the slow shutter speed from lack of light, as described above.

C) Could be that you either don't have a Macro mode on your camera, or else you're putting it into macro mode and then zooming waaaaay in, which effectively increases the minimum focal distance of your lens. If you're closer to your subject than the minimum distance, it just can't focus close enough. Try getting the camera closer, not zooming in.
 
post one of the blurry pics mate - and allow us photo geeks to diagnose your problem
 
Where are all the photo geeks now ? You asked me to post one of my bad-uns and now no replies !!!!
 
FOCUS DISTANCE: this is very important for close ups! Your lens has a minimum distance from the subject before it can focus. On wide angle (all the way back) it could be about 1 foot. But if you zoom all the way in it becomes 3 feet. So if you are shooting a track close from a foot away you will have to move back if you want to zoom in closer.
 
Let me know what camera you have and I can give you a little review. If I know what your camera is capable of I can help you out.
IMG_3605a.jpg

Any idea what makes these? This was in Zion NP in southwestern Utah. Taken in a wash after a rain.
 
I have a Vivitar Camera, I'll find out which model and let you know !

The tracks look kinda like squirrel but without a size comparison it's hard to tell !!!
 
pitdog said:
Where are all the photo geeks now ? You asked me to post one of my bad-uns and now no replies !!!!
Click to expand...

Hmmm - let's see... The shot is definetly out of focus - so you could be holding it too close to the track. Check if your camera has a macro mode, usually indicated by a flower symbol on the command dial.

There is lots of shine on the wet ground around the image so it appears your flash has fired; which indicates it was a bit dark. Yet the twigs in the image haven't smeared in any direction so there doesn't apear to be camera shake caused by a tool slow shutter speed. If you camera is a point and shoot then I doubt it would allow a low-light shot without triggering the flash anyway.

Apart from the focus distance the flat, featureless surface might be a problem for the autofocus. You might like to try manual focusing or putting a stick over the track and letting the camera focus on that before locking the focus (usually by half depressing the shutter) and then moving the stick away to take a shot.
 
Sorry I didn't respond earlier (I was out of town)

Pitdog, I'm going to disagree with just about everyone who responded. It looks to me like the camera moved during the exposure. If you look at the bright spots (which look more like reflected sunlight than a flash to me. The shadows look wrong for a flash picture) you can see that most of them seem to be double one above the other.

So I'm guessing that the problem is too long an exposure time, or the lack of a way to steady the camera.

Just my $0.02
 
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