AboutTim Hrabia Expertise Picture quality problems and ideas for shooting great pictures.
Experience I have had my own darkroom since i was 14 and have developed color, black and white and Cibachrome prints from slides. I currently manage a department store photo lab and was a professional photographer for 8 years. I have shot weddings, boudoir, drag racing, rodeos and photojounalism. I have worked for 15 years with Fuji and Noritsu processors.
Organizations Northern Images photographers
Education/Credentials Several wedding photography seminars and photofinishing training seminars with Fuji and Noritsu.
Expert: Tim Hrabia Date: 12/4/2007 Subject: Blurred pictures
Question QUESTION: I have a Olympus sp-550uz camara with 18x zoom lens. Even with a tripod I still get blurred pictures when I zoom in.It seems like I being still, but they keep comming out blurred.Thanks for any help.
ANSWER: Good morning. I can think of two possible reasons for this, you may be using the camera in low light without a flash or it may be malfunctioning. There is an easy way to test to see if the problem is the camera itself. Set the camera in the fully automatic position and go outdoors and mount the camera on a tripod. Next use the self timer and do not touch the camera or tripod and then take several pictures of something that is not moving. Are they blurred or nice looking pictures? If they are blurred you may want to take the camera back and show them the pictures and ask for a replacement, however if they are nice pictures the camera is working fine. Are the blurry pictures you have indoors or outdoors, did the flash go off, was the subject moving? Please forgive me if these seem like simple questions, but I do not know your level of skill. If indoors and the flash did not go off the pictures may be blurred. Even though you use a tripod, which is good, and you are holding it may cause the pictures to be blurry. Please send me more info on what you were shooting or where you were and is the flash working. If every shot is blurry and all look the same you may want to go talk to your dealer.
Hope I helped a bit, sorry about being vague.
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QUESTION: I have been told I take good pictures. The pictures I was taking were in a indoor arena. They were of my grandaughters soccer game, under floresent lights. I didnt use a flash. Some were still some moving. I used the sports setting and had the image stabilizer on. I'm pretty sure its me and not the camara. Again, thank you for any help.
Answer I am very sorry about the delay in answering this question, but there must have been a glitch. taking pictures under the arena conditions you spoke of would definetly be a challenge. If you were able to shoot outdoors since then did those shots turn out ok? If they did then the problem may be with shooting under poor lighting. If you are still having a problem you may want to send the camera to Olympus and have them do a check to make sure there are not any problems with the camera. sorry that's all I can think of. Good luck with your shooting and again I apologize for the delay.
