help on blurry pics at night?

Question

Nikon D-70 my pictures come out blurry ..
I am trying to capture night shots in a lit street exp night
carnaval and the pics always come out blurry
what am I doing wrong..
and the best setting is ?? I have f3.5 at 300 and moving pics..
thanks for a newbie

Answer 1

First of all take your lens off of auto focus, and focus the lens yourself, autofocus cameras can have problems focusing at night. So you have your F stop at 3.5 and your shutter speed at 1/300 a second. 1/300 of a second is a pretty fast shutter speed so either you must be figeting a lot or the lens itself isn't focusing properly hence the reason as to why I say to change it to manual focus. How about your ISO, what is your ISO at right now, is it at say 400? You might want to try perhaps 1600 ISO or higher (I am not certain about this cameras ISO settings), remember the higher your ISO number the more sensitive the sensor is to light and the quicker your shutter speed is. If this approach fails then get yourself a tripod and a shutter remote control. Also it may help you when you are photographing to hold your arms as close to you chest as possible and minimize your breathing when you actually shoot your photo, should stabilize your images.

Answer 2

I disagree with most people on here. If you are actually shooting at 3.5f-stop and 1/300 of a second for your shutter speed, than you dont need a tripod.

I wonder if you are having issues focusing in the low light, i had that problem on halloween.

If you have any of the photos posted online, let me know and ill take a look. I can tell you that 300 is fast enough to not need a tripod. Also you could email me one of the photos and ill try to figure it out with you.

[e-mail]

if you were looking for somewhere online to post it, try flickr

http://flickr.com/photos/thejokker/

Answer 3

If your lens is at its largest aperture and you're still getting blur, you need to use a tripod. You could also change to a wider angle lens, or a prime (non-zoom) lens, because they are faster (that means they have larger maximum apertures.) In addition to a tripod, setting your camera on self-timer mode will reduce blur, because you won't have the motion of your finger pushing the shutter button.

If you don't have a tripod, find a wall you can lean against, take a deep breath, and gently squeeze the shutter. In a pinch, I have braced myself against my husband's back for a tripod, but I don't recommend that unless you have nothing sturdy to lean on. You can also sit on a bench, or have your camera propped on something like a purse on a table. Just make sure nothing is in front of the lens.

Answer 4

Tripod and Shutter Cable Release.
Or on the cheap side:
Place your camera on something and turn on the timer mode.

I've done allot of poorly lit open shutter (bulb mode) shots. The goal is to minimize your touching, and ultimately moving, the camera as much as possible.

Answer 5

You need a tripod to keep the camera still.