Image degradation at longer exposures

Mister Vain · 15-02-2015 11:40PM #1

When using my ND grad for long exposures I notice the image quality really starts to degrade and the images look very soft. Anything up to 8 seconds is fine, but when I go beyond that things go a bit wrong. I'm using a Hama filter, its probably not the best but it seems to work well at shorter exposures. Could it be just that the filter is not of great quality, or perhaps there is slight movement of the camera in longer exposures. I'm using a tripod.

flyingsnail · 15-02-2015 11:49PM

How sturdy is you tripod? It is possible that there is some movement in the tripod causing the softness. Could you post an example of a soft image.

Mister Vain · 15-02-2015 11:56PM

Yeah I was thinking that might be the case alright. It's not one of the more expensive tripods, but I had it buried fairly well in the sand. I was taking some photos at Greystones beach. I'll show some examples one I get them onto flickr.

samhail · 16-02-2015 08:06AM

If you have image stabilization in your lens, turn that off too.

Mister Vain · 16-02-2015 06:50PM

samhail wrote: »

If you have image stabilization in your lens, turn that off too.

I was just reading about that last night actually. Something I never thought of. Also mirror lock up, although I don't think that's as important. I'm still fairly new to landscape photography; I'm more of a portrait shooter. I'll have to remember to turn off the IS the next time.

Mister Vain · 16-02-2015 08:26PM

I'm just after doing a little experiment in the house. I took a few long exposures with IS on and a few with IS off. The ones with it off are definitely sharper. That should be problem solved.

Image degradation at longer exposures

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