This looks to me like you had the camera on AV setting and there was insufficient light. Thus the exposure was too long. With a long exposure, there was too much movement.
Before snapping the picture, you need to know your iso, aperture, and time. These three items are pivotal. The book I referenced earlier explains these three items very well.
If you are able to provide your exif data, that would help. You could tell us your iso, ƒ stop (aperture), and time.
Your time was likely greater than 1/60 of a second; your exposure was too long and this is simply camera shake and movement of your subjects.
From your other photos, I believe your camera is functioning properly. In helping you diagnose your future problems, please provide the following:
- a link to your picture
- iso setting
- ƒ stop
- time
- lens
Having a quick look at your photos, the horse and baby photos look good. The squirl is slightly out of focus, and you can see that the log is sharper. The closer you get to a subject, the less your 'depth of field' is. With object as small as a squirl, that's going to more pronounced than usual. You can also see that the depth of field is very shallow, probably less than inch, so getting the squirl in focus is very difficult, autofocus or not.
Your problem on the party shot is that your shutter speed is way too slow. I would guess that it's excess of a 1/4 second (you can check the EXIF data to find out). What happens is that the flash freezes the action, and then the slow shutter speed lets in the ambient light. Because the shutter speed is so slow, it's blurred the ambient light part of the image. What you need to do is use a faster shutter speed, and open up the lens to compensate for the faster shutter speed. If you just change the shutter speed, the ambient light will fall away, and the shot will look a lot darker. A standard indoor flash exposure for me would be F2.8 - F4, ISO 400, and anywhere from 1/60 to 1/15th of a second.
The more you shoot, the better feel you'll get for this stuff.
Your problem on the party shot is that your shutter speed is way too slow. I would guess that it's excess of a 1/4 second (you can check the EXIF data to find out). What happens is that the flash freezes the action, and then the slow shutter speed lets in the ambient light. Because the shutter speed is so slow, it's blurred the ambient light part of the image. What you need to do is use a faster shutter speed, and open up the lens to compensate for the faster shutter speed. If you just change the shutter speed, the ambient light will fall away, and the shot will look a lot darker. A standard indoor flash exposure for me would be F2.8 - F4, ISO 400, and anywhere from 1/60 to 1/15th of a second.
Just to add to David's comments, if you are using a Canon (Nikon might be similar), you might wish to use Program mode in the creative zone. It uses the flash to determine the length of the exposure time, not the ambient light. Or you can use M (Manual) mode to dial in the aperture and shutter speed. If you use AV, you need to watch that the time is not too long.
When I was at The Royal Tyrrell Museum (see pics here) and was using my flash, I used "P" for program mode. Shooting in a dark museum without a tripod is challenging.
Flash photography is tricky for the new photographer. So I wouldn't worry about this stuff just yet. Make sure you learn about iso, aperture settings, and time to achieve the right exposure. Once you have a reasonable understanding of those concepts, it is easier to make sense of flash photography.
Kevin
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Kevin, Lens 24-105L- aperture-f/4.5-iso setting 800-time1/5-Parameters +1/3AEB, this was the setting taken on the blurred picture.
Hi Ed,
Looking at the shadows in your photo, I don't think you had an on camera flash? There appears to be a strong light source on the LHS of the photo judging by the shadow cast by the woman in red onto the man in blue. And there is also the visible light on the RHS side of the photo.
I agree with David earlier about time. You had 0.2 whereas he mentioned a concern about it being greater than 0.25 secs. I think we're splitting hairs. Probably both the camera and subjects were not "still" and that resulted in the blurry movement. Look at the man in blue. See how much his face moved during the 0.2 seconds? Look at his nose and cap.
Now look at the table items. Because they don't move but are yet blurry, we know that the camera moved. Look at the two women and the man in blue. The two women's movement are about the same. Likely just the camera movement. Now look at the man in blue. His movement is more than the two women's movement. Thus, he moved and the camera moved.
Short answer: Too much time, too much camera movement, too much subject movement.
Solution: Use a flash with the appropriate settings. If unsure, try "P" mode.
Thank you all for some great advice. I have learned a lot today. Will keep shooting until we get it right. I just purchased the book Understanding Exposure, by Peterson.
Again thank you all,
Ed Strehl
__________________ Ed Strehl
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
I should point out that part of the beauty of shooting digital is the realtime feedback you get, from chimping the files and being able to instantly view the histogram. Add to that, the fact that all of this information, including camera settings is stored with the file for review on your computer later and you have some very powerful tools.
Between the above, and the resources this forum provides, I for one, could not have gotten my head around this stuff as quickly, in the film days.
White Balance so easy, even our 5 year old can do it.- Melissa Strickland
Re: Blurry Pictures 
Linear Mode
