Shooting Kids Techniques

[schizo]

Hi,

Quick question on shooting 'dynamic' non-stationary kids....

Scenario: My little one runs back and forth to a distance about 5-7m away from me. Starting from the furthest distance, as he is running towards me, I tried shooting him in burst mode but all the pics were oof. I tried multiple times, using continuous af, autofocusing at one point and when he reaches that focus line i start to release the shutter but all cannot. Pics still blur. Already brought up the iso to 800-1600 as it's quite dark and brought up that high so i can achieve a better shutter speed, around 1/320 - 1/400s.

Any kind soul'ed bros can help to explain is the technique wrong or is the camera not capable or is the lens not able to af fast enough?

:embrass:

 

[rains]

Hi, I use external flash to help me freeze my kids' movement and to eliminate movement blur.

 

[Squid]

Photographing a child in physical action is challenging as they are unpredictable in their actions. Photographing children in indoor or low light situation makes it more challenging.

Perhaps, a good starting point will be photograph the child under bright outdoor condition where high shutter speed is easily achievable, as I am assuming thread starter is using kit lens for the shots. From my personal experience, shutter speed of 1/160s to 1/200s would suffice most situation.

From the above starting point of getting enough light to photograph the child in action, other alternatives to explore are multiple off-camera bounce flashes setup and large aperture with fast auto-focus capability lenses.

 

[schizo]

Hi rains,

I did use an external flash but still new to it thus faced some complications where it didn't light the background enough, in other words, my son was sufficiently lit but the other area was dark. That was why I decided to up the ISO further to try and increase the background light.

Hi squid,

Agree that shooting outdoors is better but i didnt get to enjoy that benefit. I was using a 70-210 f4 lens but somehow the autofocus wasn't able to catch up with my boy. From what I saw, it seems the focus was always slightly behind him, based on other kids around the area. Still trying to understand that though.

Thanks for the advice. Apologies for the newbie language and terms.

 

[joe]

Shooting kids picture is not a easy to take try to keep within your own area and also keep out of dangerous tools which was not suppost to lying anyhwere in the house.Try to take pictures in the park,not at the road side.Try not to take picture at crowed places such as shopping mall etc...cos you need to look out for him/her might run out of your pace.Try not to take too near to him

 

[catchlights]

to stop action, you need continuous AF with shutter at 1/500sec and above, else you will need flash to stop action.

when everything failed, try duct tape...:devil:

 

[schizo]

joe,

thanks for the safety tips. yup, shooting when he's too near also harder to capture...

catchlights,

duct tape aye? evil indeed. :sticktong

 

[pinholecam]

Shoot plenty; (they usually repeat the action)
Sometimes, let the action dull a bit; (eg. what is the point of photo after photo of kid running... to what...to where? )
Use flash;
Pre-focus if necessary;


Don't give up

 

[ed9119]

ha ha its easier shooting Usain Bolt running than kids running around lolzzz :bsmilie:

great advise above

 

[allenleonhart]

dun give them candy though... its not gonna like make them docile... they will go on a sugar high... and run faster than speedy gonzales.

 

[allenleonhart]

shooting kids... there is always rope, more rope, and calling in the parents...

u can try to anticipate, and seperate ur AF from ur AE button, so that u can prefocus

or get a camera upgrade haha

 

[schizo]

pinholecam,

thanks alot for the advice...

ed9119,

er? usain bolt? At 9.26s within 100m? U sure? i think my af will burn out before he finishes. Haha.

allanleonhart,

camera upgrade? Hmmm. (thinking) heh