What's wrong with this picture?

[Jill Mickelson]

I took this picture this week. I have never had this
happen before to any of my pictures! I take LOTS of sunrise/sunset
pictures.

[Joel Merrill]

The shutter on a 35mm camera is actually two parts. When you have the film out of your camera sometime, open the back and fire it a few times at the slower shutter speeds. You will see that one shutter opens from one side to the other and then the other shutter follows it and closes. This is necessary so that all of the film receives the same amount of exposure. On slow shutter speeds one will open and then one will close but on faster shutter speeds the second one will follow the first one so closely that what is actually happening is the there is just a slit of light moving across the film at high speed.

What has happened is that that slit stuck for a moment and over exposed that part of the film and then kept moving. Your camera may be dieing. They rarely are worth getting repaired unless they are under warranty. If you were looking for an excuse to buy a digital camera, you have your excuse.

Edited to add this:

Is the camera dirty inside? Is it a very old camera? Here is a simple test. With the film out of the camera fire it several times at each shutter speed. Listen to it carefully as you do. It should sound smooth and even. It is kind of hard to listen to the faster shutter speeds and tell anything but from 1/15 of a second to one second you will notice if it sounded rough or has a catch in it. I said to fire each speed several times. Each speed should sound the same each time.

You can do a similar test with your lens aperture. When you are looking through your viewfinder, your mirror is down and you aperture is wide open even if you have it set at a small aperture. Then the instant you take the picture, the mirror pops up and the aperture closes to the set f-stop. I have had more trouble with them sticking. With the film out of your camera and the back open set it at a longer shutter speed like 1/2 second. Now point the camera toward a bright window and fire it several times at each f-stop. If it is set at f-16, for instance, it should always close the same amount and instantly each time you fire it at f-16. I have had mirrors stick too but they are more likely to stick up than down.

I see that you are shooting directly into the sun. I've read that if you hold a camera like that for a while, like on a tripod, the sun can overheat that spot on your shutter just like what we used to do with magnifying glasses to burn things when were were kids. The heat could have momentarily warped the shutter causing it to stick. I've never had this happen but I have read that it could. I doubt that is what happened in your case since the sun was so low in the sky. I rarely shoot into the sun but if I do I don't hold the camera there for long.

Joel

[Jill Mickelson]

Thank you, Joel! I do have a digital camera. Now that you mention it, maybe I was keeping the camera pointing at the sun too long. I'll be more careful about that in the future! Magnifying glasses.....brings back special kid memories! That makes a lot of sense! My camera is maybe a year old? It just got cleaned this summer. (by the Geek Squad!) Thanks for clearing up that mystery for me! Since then I have had no problem taking pictures of the sun. God Bless!

[Beth Larpenter-Shurbutt]

Sometimes that happens with my digital camera. If it happens the same in other lighting circumstances I would then think it is a problem with the camera. If it only happens when taking a photo of the sun, I would be more inclined to think it has something to do with how the light is striking the lens. I'm no expert though!!! Just my opinion.

Beth

[Joel Merrill]

Sometimes that happens with my digital camera. If it happens the same in other lighting circumstances I would then think it is a problem with the camera. If it only happens when taking a photo of the sun, I would be more inclined to think it has something to do with how the light is striking the lens. I'm no expert though!!! Just my opinion.

Beth
You could be right. I was just assuming that she had an older 35mm SLR. I've had a DSLR for a year but I've never had any problems with it yet. I've shot a lot of sunsets myself. Like I said in my first post, I doubt it is a problem with heat when the sun is that low in the sky. It could be refracting off the edge of the shutter blades or something harmless like that. It is right in line with the sun so that could have something to do with it.

It would be interesting if you could go out in those circumstances and get it to do it and then experiment with different shutter speeds and apertures. I wonder if it would do it with a polarizing filter?:fav03

Joel

[Jill Mickelson]

Thanks Beth and Joel....I so appreciate your thoughts on the sun picture....
so, if you have time, what do you think of this picture? My daughter was pointing to the water and said she saw a fish..... so what happened here???? Bless you!

[Joel Merrill]

I think that is just the sun reflecting off ripples in the water or maybe off the fish if it is close to the surface. You are shooting into the sun again. If you were shooting from a different angle you probably would have that reflection. A polarizing filter might help but even they won't eliminate all glare and a polarizing filter works best at a 90 degree angle to the sun. A little fill flash would help your daughter show up better. There is nothing wrong with the camera in this picture.

Joel :basic01

[Beth Larpenter-Shurbutt]

I must agree with Joel. You are facing the sun, according to the shadow of your daughter. That's when funny things happen to photos. Joel mentioned editing the photo with fill flash. I read somewhere to use a flash in the daytime to do that exact thing.

Good photo editors can also help cover a multitude of sins! The program that Dave McClung suggested, "Picasa" is wonderful. It's Free also!
Beth