Why am i getting a blur???

[napatom2005]

I had a chance to chase the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad on Sunday. their prize posession is a Baldwin 2-8-0 steam locomotive. First time i have seen a steam loco in operation. shooting conditions were less than ideal. a bright overcast with on and off rain. sometimes a sprinkle, sometimes a deluge. this was teh best picture i got from the day. but i got a blur at the left hand side of the picture. is it as noticable to you guys as it is to me? and is there anything else i could have done to improve the shot? Thank you in advance for your help.



Tom

[hora]

I can't really notice any blur at this size, but I took a look at the larger size on Flickr and the left side of the picture is a bit out of focus. I'm new to photography, so I can't really explain why, hopefully someone else can help you there. But I want to say that this is an AMAZING shot, beautiful capture, I love it in b&w. Excellent capture!

[Sime]

Hey Tom, great shot... Nicely framed, great lines (front left of train leading into the picture and back through the carriages) ...for me, the "softness" I think, comes from the lighter bit of metal behind that bar on the front (directly below the three on the light thingy) that bit of metal, when I looked at it in your flickR on biggest size, made it look soft but I dont think it is... Nice job.

[pma]

I think this is great shot napatom2005. glad you shared this with us. I think the subtle bit of blur adds a little sense of motion into the shot since that's what the shot is capturing.

[xysmas]

Without looking at your EXIF data, its a bit of a guessing game. I assume you took this with your focus point being at the middle of the frame with a somewhat low aperture - f 4~ to try and stop action in the overcast light. What was your shutter speed / aperture for this?

Good shot, btw.

[epeyton@tampabay.rr.com]

I love the shot just the way it is

[ike]

Lovely shot, showing us exactly what we are missing with todays advancements in transport.

I only notice a slight bit of softening, not really blur, but i think if you lowered your shutter speed by 1 stop and your f number a stop (lower number) you would have possibly got the shot a slight bit crisper with the same result (not sure thought)

Best thing about the shot that i love is you have captured the trains personality, with the smiling front plate showing how he is happy to be out again pulling all the heavy carriages,

ike,