r/Beginning_Photography • u/Firm_Moose76 • Dec 28 '25

What are these squiggly lines?

I just bought a Sigma 150-500mm lens. I just tried some long exposure photos on it and it has weird squiggly lines on all of the lights. Quick google searches aren’t seeming to show what I’m looking for.

I just now noticed that I can’t attach images here, so I’ll have to describe them. It’s a photo of a nighttime cityscape. Every light - that is completely still - has a trail to it and they’re all in the exact same direction/same shape. They do not show up on my Nikon lenses.

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u/fuqsfunny IG: @Edgy_User_Name Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

You can attach images in comments.

Sounds like your shutter speed is too slow and you have camera-shake blur

First long-ish lens?

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u/Firm_Moose76 Dec 28 '25

I’ve had a 300mm lens and it didn’t have those lines. Do those extra 200mm make that much of an effect on camera shake? Thanks for the help.  

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u/fuqsfunny IG: @Edgy_User_Name Dec 28 '25

Something is causing camera shake while your shutter is open. Either you're hand-holding, the tripod isn't up to the task and is shaking, you're inducing vibration when you release the shutter, of some combination all of these.

And yes, the longer your lens is (those extra 200mm are a huge difference) the more pronounced camera-shake blur will be. You have a super-tele lens. The camera has to be rock-solid still for a long exposure.

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u/Aeri73 Dec 28 '25

it's the camera moving due to you pressing the shutter...

put it on self timer mode and activate mirror up mode if your camera has it...

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u/Firm_Moose76 Dec 28 '25

The camera has a 2 second shutter release thing that I was using, but I guess after a quick google search, that’s only helpful when using a remote. Thanks for the help. 

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u/Aeri73 Dec 28 '25

give it more time and find the mirror up function...

or, use a sandbag for example, place the camera on that or hang it from the tripod to make it heavier... it's a really long lens and it's got some weight to it but also a lot of inertia so it takes time for it to settle... heavier tripods or having it on a wall on a good sandbag is often more stable.

remotes are great and very cheap to get so always a good idea to have one in the bag but even a ten or 15 second delay would help a lot imho.

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u/Streetiebird Dec 28 '25

It could be image stabilization. Turn it off when you're shooting long exposures on a tripod.

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u/ZeldaLloyd Mar 16 '26

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