Critique at a photo meetup made me fix my shutter speed issue

I was at a local photo walk in Portland last month. Someone looked at my night shots and said they were all soft because my shutter was too slow at 1/15th. I always blamed my cheap lens. Switched to at least 1/60th with higher ISO and it cleaned up the blur completely. Now I check my settings before every low light shot instead of just hoping. Anyone else get told something obvious they were missing for years?

2 comments

2 Comments

lunah8613d ago

That 1/15th thing really hit home for me. I was trying to shoot some neon signs in the rain with a 50mm and kept wondering why they looked like smudged glitter. A guy at a workshop pointed out I was basically doing a slow dance with my camera. Now I keep a sticky note on my camera strap that says "above 1/60 if you want legit sharp lines." The higher ISO thing sucks sometimes with grainy shadows but it beats having to throw away half my shots from a night out.

ninaw8813d ago

1/15th of a second handheld? No wonder everything was blurry, that's basically a prayer for sharp photos. I've been there too, always blaming my gear before looking at my own settings. It's wild how one simple fix can make such a huge difference.