How can we capture great action shots?
If you are like me, it is not too difficult to find a moving subject! The tricky thing is actually getting a photo where your moving target is in focus. With the photo above, I did not want to simply freeze the action; I wanted to capture the motion of our dog as he chased after a baseball.
See how happy he looks! He is CRAZY about baseball.
Here are a few tips that may help:
Good lighting will make it easier to capture a subject in motion. I took this photo outside on an overcast day.
AI Servo or Continuous Focus. Set your camera to AI Servo anytime you are taking action shots, such as kids playing, dogs running, sports events, moving cars.
Rapid Burst. This setting involves how many frames per second your camera will capture. My camera has 3 different settings. Set yours to the fastest one.
P or Av Mode. I usually set my camera to Av mode so that I don’t have to think too hard with all of the action going on. I set my aperture somewhere between f/8 and f/16 and let the camera do the rest. The photo above was taken at f/8 but I wish I had set it higher. If you have a point and shoot, look for a running man or sports mode on your camera.
Panning your subject. Panning is a technique in which you will deliberately move your camera parallel to and at the same speed as your subject. Once you lock in your focus, continue to hold your shutter button down and follow your subject keeping it in the same place in the frame of your viewfinder. If you have your camera set to rapid burst, you should hear your camera continue to fire off until you release the shutter button.
Every image you take using this method will not be in focus, but you should come away with at least one or two good shots.
Now it is your turn! Practice taking some action shots and then share them with the Friday Photo Challenge Flickr group. Label your photo with “action” somewhere in the title or description. I will post a few more funny takes on our dog chasing the ball.
If you write a post on your blog using your “action photo”, you can link up here with Mr. Linky.
I cannot wait to see what you come up with!!!
