How to get a sharp nightscape photo? [Archive] - Canon Digital Photography Forums

kenwood33

17th of January 2007 (Wed), 19:21

Recently I started exploring nightscape photography. However I have been unable to get a sharp nightscape photo. For example, the photo below was taken at 28mm, F6.3, exposed for a few sec on a tripod. As you can see it lacks details and sharpness. There is no wind that night and the tripod was very stable. The focus point was the middle (the blue bridge). Is it an issue with the lens (tamron 28-75) / camera (rebel xt)? Or is it because there is not enough light hitting the bridge, buildings etc.? Any thoughts?

http://lh3.google.ca/image/wwszeto/RaxU7VoRsVI/AAAAAAAAAAc/odXGChu2cd8/IMG_6670-01.jpg?imgmax=576

Steiglitz

17th of January 2007 (Wed), 21:59

If you had a tripod, and windless night, why didn't you use the lens's sweet spot which is normally F8 - F11? Stopped more then that you'll get fuzzy images from light defraction.

The blue middle part of the bridge has little contrast which might fool the AF...Try choosing another part of the compostion to focus on, something more contrasty.

Shoot in raw, and apply USM during post processing to finish it....this should work beautifly.

Beautiful composition, by the way!