Night Photos! Blurry? Help?

[TRichPhotography]

What's wrong with the top Blur area? Iso is set on 1000,

[RichardTaylor]

What shutter speed, aperture, and focal length were you using?

[milosh]

Seems to be:

Exposure time: 0,5
F number: 5,3
Exposure program: 2
ISO speed rating: 1600

[EOBeav]

Originally Posted by milosh

Seems to be:

Exposure time: 0,5
F number: 5,3
Exposure program: 2
ISO speed rating: 1600

The water at the bottom is sharp, while nothing else is. Change your aperture to f/11 to f/16 and you should lose that problem. Read up here on DPS to learn more about the exposure triangle, if that's a new concept to you.

[arlon]

What EO said. F5.5 gives little DOF and the focal point seems to be way to close. Might also use manual focus and just use something just short of infinity. Smaller aperture would definately help especially with a short tele lens. Wider angle lens would have had a lot more DOF too.

Real issue is just that the point of focus seems to not be on the subject. If the focus had been centered on the middle light tower on the bridge it may have looked a lot better. Nice place, do it again!

[Doug Sundseth]

+1 to the DoF and focal point comments.

The other thing that looks to be happening is that you're blowing out channels in some of the bridge lights pretty badly, I think. When you overexpose (even in a single channel), you can get some pretty nasty blooms around lights. I think that might be happening here.

[JFSanders]

This can be a frustrating shot without a tripod and a remote release.

[inkista]

Yup. Focus is off. Stopping down will make it easier to get your target inside the DoF, but careful focusing is still needed. The bonus of using a smaller aperture is you'll also get starbursts from point light sources.

When I've got a camera on a tripod for night shooting, I tend to focus manually, using liveview and 10x magnification on the LCD. Easier than trying to figure it out through the viewfinder.