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photo118 · Apr 9, 2005, 7:56 PM

Help. Recently took some nighttime shots while on vacation. Shots had alot of the lignts streaking. Looked like a picture stretched out with the colors of the lights. Any help or advise will be helpful. I also got some out of focus shots. Don't know why. Camera is a Nikon 8800. Thanks alot for the help.

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kex · Apr 10, 2005, 5:43 AM

Which shutter speed did you get?
You can normally take pictures to 1/40 sec without getting blurred pictures.

I guess the shutter speed was even slower at night. So you'll need a tripod to avoid shaking and blurred pictures.

BillDrew · Apr 10, 2005, 2:41 PM

Likely you are seeing shake (any non deliberate camera motion while the shutter is open). Take a look at the EXIF data in those pictures to find out what the shutte speed was.

It is easy to confuse shake with out of focus for smallish amounts of shake. Again, knowing the shutter speed will help decide that.

Carskick · May 3, 2005, 10:02 PM

As the others said, a slow shutter speed, longer than 1/40th of a second can blur the images. The best thing to do at night is use a tripod, set the camera on something, or lean on something.

Turning up the ISO can allow you to use a faster shutter speed in the same lighting situation, reducing the blur, but it will add noise to your images. Using the flash will allow night shots of close images to be shot, and may help with far images as well, but not always.

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Apr 9, 2005, 7:56 PM	#1
photo118 Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 142	Help. Recently took some nighttime shots while on vacation. Shots had alot of the lignts streaking. Looked like a picture stretched out with the colors of the lights. Any help or advise will be helpful. I also got some out of focus shots. Don't know why. Camera is a Nikon 8800. Thanks alot for the help. style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000000"

Apr 10, 2005, 5:43 AM	#2
kex Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 1,022	Which shutter speed did you get? You can normally take pictures to 1/40 sec without getting blurred pictures. I guess the shutter speed was even slower at night. So you'll need a tripod to avoid shaking and blurred pictures.

Apr 10, 2005, 2:41 PM	#3
BillDrew Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Hay River Township, WI Posts: 2,512	Likely you are seeing shake (any non deliberate camera motion while the shutter is open). Take a look at the EXIF data in those pictures to find out what the shutte speed was. It is easy to confuse shake with out of focus for smallish amounts of shake. Again, knowing the shutter speed will help decide that.

May 3, 2005, 10:02 PM	#4
Carskick Senior Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 276	As the others said, a slow shutter speed, longer than 1/40th of a second can blur the images. The best thing to do at night is use a tripod, set the camera on something, or lean on something. Turning up the ISO can allow you to use a faster shutter speed in the same lighting situation, reducing the blur, but it will add noise to your images. Using the flash will allow night shots of close images to be shot, and may help with far images as well, but not always.