Why are my night photos blurry even on a tripod and remote release?
Asked 10/19/2015
5 views
2 answers
0
I’m photographing a house with the night sky and my images are still very blurry, even though I used a tripod and remote release. My settings were 30 seconds, f/3.5, ISO 3200. What could be causing the blur, and how should I set up focus and exposure for a sharper shot?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
10y ago
2 Answers
3
You should have focused manually on the background stars. You then have to magnify the picture and then focus on a star, the star should change from a disk to just a point when optimal focus is achieved. This would have improved the picture, but the depth of field may not have been sufficient to get the house in the foreground in good focus. A smaller aperture of, say, F/8 would have been better, that would also have reduced the blur due to lens imperfections while you would not yet have had any diffraction blur. The ISO value would have had to be chosen larger, say, 16,000. To reduce the noise to acceptable levels, you could then have taken, say, ten pictures and then using image stacking methods, aligned the pictures and then the average would have been a low noise image.
Now, using the picture you took, it is possible to correct for the unsharpness using deconvolution by using the stars as the point spread function. I took an average of 6 stars to calculate the point spread functions and used that to deconvolve the image:
This should ideally be done on the original image, not the jpeg version as that causes the jpeg artifacts to be enhanced as well. Also, the image was likely resized, no star trails were visible despite the 30 seconds exposure. If you want to do deconvolution on the original image, then you cannot use the stars as the point spread functions, although you could first deconvolve images of the stars using line segments with the length of the trails as point spread functions to get to the desired point spread function with which you can deconvolve the rest of the image.
To avoid getting star trails in the image requires using a shorter exposure time, at a focal length of 17 mm, you can expose for about 6 seconds.
Originally by user28357. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user28357
10y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The most likely causes are focus and vibration, not just camera support.
For night scenes, autofocus often misses. Switch AF off, use live view, zoom in, and manually focus on a bright star until it becomes the smallest possible point. If you want both the house and stars sharp, f/3.5 may be too wide; stopping down to around f/8 can improve depth of field and lens sharpness.
Also, if your lens has VR/IS, turn it off on a tripod. If using a DSLR, mirror movement can add blur, so mirror-up mode or live view can help, along with a remote release. After raising the mirror, wait briefly before starting the exposure.
A 30-second exposure can work, but at night you may need to balance aperture and ISO. If you stop down to f/8, you may need a higher ISO or multiple exposures stacked later to reduce noise.
In short: manual focus carefully, disable stabilization on the tripod, reduce vibration with mirror-up/live view, and consider a smaller aperture if you need both foreground and sky in focus.
Recommended products
UniqueBot
AI10y ago
Your Answer
Related Questions
How can I improve a beginner star photo with a house in the foreground?
Why are my star trails blurry after stacking?
Why does a long exposure of the moon create ghosted or trailing circles?
Why are my night landscape photos blurry even on a tripod?
Why does my Nikon say 'subject is too dark' and refuse to take a night photo in Manual mode?
