Blurred Train Picture - Can this really happen? I was setting up to take a picture of the steam train run through north georgia. I was roughly 30 feet off the track, camera with wide...

gainesn Loc: Chickamauga, GA

I was setting up to take a picture of the steam train run through north georgia. I was roughly 30 feet off the track, camera with wide angle (16mm on D7500) on a graphite tripod. I pre-focused, manual focus, on the track at f8 apeture. Shutter speed was about 125 - 250. (ISO set to 100 in apeture priority). The test shots were perfect. The train pics are all blurred. Is it possible the train whistle, blurred the picture? I did not feel any vibration in my feet.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Post an example and store the original.

Tex-s

gainesn wrote:

I was setting up to take a picture of the steam train run through north georgia. I was roughly 30 feet off the track, camera with wide angle (16mm on D7500) on a graphite tripod. I pre-focused, manual focus, on the track at f8 apeture. Shutter speed was about 125 - 250. (ISO set to 100 in apeture priority). The test shots were perfect. The train pics are all blurred. Is it possible the train whistle, blurred the picture? I did not feel any vibration in my feet.

I can't speak to your image without seeing what you describe, but I can tell you that while experimenting with longer exposures and/or very narrow apertures to shoot a NM refinery at night i had a similar outcome. A passing 18-wheeler introduced enough vibration to my tripod to markedly reduce sharpness in the refinery details. I can only imagine that a train that weighs far more could introduce enough vibration to do the same.

bnsf

Lets see the phots then we can tell you what you did wrong. What l think happened was that the shutter speed was set tooo low. 250 or 400 would be great for moving subjects. anything lower could cause a blur.

autofocus Loc: North Central Connecticut

I suspect Tex above is on to something. A tripod is a stiff support and will not absorb ground vibrations as well as your own body might. That said, you might have been better off shooting hand held. Also, did you turn off your IS setting on the lens, I'm assuming it might be an image stabilized lens and they recommend turning off IS when mounted on a tripod

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

gainesn wrote:

I was setting up to take a picture of the steam train run through north georgia. I was roughly 30 feet off the track, camera with wide angle (16mm on D7500) on a graphite tripod. I pre-focused, manual focus, on the track at f8 apeture. Shutter speed was about 125 - 250. (ISO set to 100 in apeture priority). The test shots were perfect. The train pics are all blurred. Is it possible the train whistle, blurred the picture? I did not feel any vibration in my feet.

How blurry? A shutter speed of 125-250 is not really
that fast if the goal is to stop action.

sandiegosteve Loc: San Diego, CA

Trains shake the ground and 1/250 can show motion blur from walking. Were you trying to get the train blurred with the background nice?

bnsf

l shot many railroad photos using a shutter speed of 250 and never had a blurry photo in close to 10000 slides and close to 5000 photos. Try this the next time you are taking railroad photos, put the camera on fully automatic then after the photo is taken look at the settings and this gives you a guide to use on your next series of photos. It is a process that take awhile to get the hang of but when you do boy you are going to enjoy taking photos like l have been doing for years.

big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

Did you, per chance, have your anti shake turned on in the lens? I have screwed up many a shot forgetting to turn that off when on a tripod.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

gainesn wrote:

I was setting up to take a picture of the steam train run through north georgia. I was roughly 30 feet off the track, camera with wide angle (16mm on D7500) on a graphite tripod. I pre-focused, manual focus, on the track at f8 apeture. Shutter speed was about 125 - 250. (ISO set to 100 in apeture priority). The test shots were perfect. The train pics are all blurred. Is it possible the train whistle, blurred the picture? I did not feel any vibration in my feet.

Was the entire photo blurred or just the train?

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

First you pre focused on track, which puts the train behind your focal plane. I have no ideal if your shooting parallel or at an angle to the track which would affect your focus even more. Now the train is Moving through the photo, at what speed we have no ideal. Lots of reasons to be blurry...... We can guess all day, or you can post some images.

bleirer

gainesn wrote:

I was setting up to take a picture of the steam train run through north georgia. I was roughly 30 feet off the track, camera with wide angle (16mm on D7500) on a graphite tripod. I pre-focused, manual focus, on the track at f8 apeture. Shutter speed was about 125 - 250. (ISO set to 100 in apeture priority). The test shots were perfect. The train pics are all blurred. Is it possible the train whistle, blurred the picture? I did not feel any vibration in my feet.

I don't think I'd blame the train whistle. You'd have to have a resonant frequency, like you might feel when your chest vibrates at a fireworks show, but it would have to be so strong to rattle....what part? The tripod leg? the camera body? It doesn't seem to be enough. I would look for another reason.

rmorrison1116 Loc: Near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania

I've had similar outcome with graphite tripod. They are not as inflexible as aluminum.

dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia

gainesn wrote:

I was setting up to take a picture of the steam train run through north georgia. I was roughly 30 feet off the track, camera with wide angle (16mm on D7500) on a graphite tripod. I pre-focused, manual focus, on the track at f8 apeture. Shutter speed was about 125 - 250. (ISO set to 100 in apeture priority). The test shots were perfect. The train pics are all blurred. Is it possible the train whistle, blurred the picture? I did not feel any vibration in my feet.

Given your stated settings you had plenty of DOF from around 25 feet in front of the train tracks to infinity beyond. So that is not the problem. That leaves the wrong stabilization setting or the train speed was too fast for your shutter speed. Without seeing the photo it is really hard to tell.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

If the train was going very fast, 1/250 might not be enough to stop the motion. I often do panning shots of fast moving objects near me, and 1/250 gives more motion blur of the background than I would have thought.