How come...?

[ldg40]

When I try to take an image with my cheepy Kodak of an object with just it's own lighting (no flash) does it always come out so blurry? The subject has alot of foil with the Christmas lights obscured, yet is the light source. Does this have something to do with the quality of camera?

[YMS]

May be "camera shake", Linda. Could you be moving (ever so slightly) as you press the shutter? Or perhaps the subject is not in focus when you take the shot?

[ldg40]

I can imagine me shaking, tell myself to hold my breath and all...been doing it my whole life! :D But after 10 shots, you would think just one might turn out okay, but alas this is not the case. Perhaps after less caffeine? Thanks YMS for your advice, :) perhaps I'll set up a table (makeshift tripod) in front of the object tommorow and see if it helps.

[Chris49]

[QUOTE=ldg40]I can imagine me shaking, tell myself to hold my breath and all...been doing it my whole life! [/QUOTE]

Isn't rule Number one "Don't hold your breath"? :)

...or maybe that when your going through a tunnel :D

[flondo]

it may not be shake,but it may be-dirtylens/bad lighting/
but probbly slow shutter speed.
With auto cameras that seems to be the usual-
if it is an SLR-I have no idea-(how do you do a shrug with those little emotions?)

[ldg40]

[QUOTE=flondo]it may not be shake,but it may be-dirtylens/bad lighting/
but probbly slow shutter speed.
With auto cameras that seems to be the usual-
if it is an SLR-I have no idea-(how do you do a shrug with those little emotions?)[/QUOTE]

Ahhh...this may be the one Flondo- :shrug: I was wondering about shudder speed, which seems to be out of my hands. Unless there is a Kodak digital guru out there! ;)

[Newby]

Well depending on the model of Kodak you should be able to adjust things just as if it were a SLR, look through the menus to see if there is mode that allows you to make those type of adjustments..

What's the model Linda?? I would be more than happy to help :)

[Sierrakitten]

Does your camera have the "push the button half way to lock the focus" feature? The low light and reflective surface might be over loading it's little brain. If you have the focus lock, focus on something that is the same distance then quickly reframe and shoot. If not, try taking the picture while focusing on something near your original subject, then crop in PS.

[ldg40]

Nope, no focus features (that I know of). What is SLR? The model is: Kodak easyshare DX4530 5 mega pixels. Thanks everyone!:)

[Sierrakitten]

(From the web) The autofocus range is 23.6 inches to infinity in normal mode and in close-up mode it covers from 3.9 to 23.6" in wideangle. The auto focus is a multi-zone type AF system.
Take it off auto focus or snap something close that it can get a good read on and then crop the picture.....:-)

[ldg40]

Thank you again-everyone for your thoughts and ideas on this. I've taken almost 40 shots of the said image, noticed I had a "night" selection and using this setting, this is the best I could come up with. Yeah GP I tried the "sport" setting as well. :) Unbelievable that this is the best I could get.....

[Sierrakitten]

I think it's the hot spot that is causing your problems. Is there any way you can put a small amout of light on the back wall? (flashlight thru paper, maybe)
Have you tried different white balance settings?

[Newby]

Well in looking at the manual you do have the ability to control the exposure, but that's about it. There is a feature that allows you to control the time of the exposure, but it is only for long exposures and not short ones.

If it is the light in the front throwing it off maybe stepping down the exposure and adding a back light like SK suggested would do the trick..

Sorry I could not be more help Linda

[down2earth2]

There's just no way to hand-hold a camera on a shot like this and not have some camera movement during the long exposure. I see you were going to set the camera on a table to steady it. One more thing to try: once you have everything set up, use the shutter-delay setting (the one that let's you dash around to get in the picture yourself) so that you won't introduced any shake by pressing the shutter button as the camera takes the shot.

Good luck.