Techniques for photographing action subjects with any camera.
Take Action Photos with Any Camera
Technique #1: Pre-focus on action spots.
Trying
to focus on moving targets (like this little duckling photographed at
the New York Botanical Garden) is tough. The minute you think you have
them in focus, wham, they're gone before you can trip the shutter.
Instead, try putting your camera in manual focus and focus on a spot
where the action is repeating itself--home plate in a baseball game or
the top of a piling where a seagull keeps landing and taking off, for
example.
That's just what I did for this shot. I tried (and
failed) about a dozen times as this duckling kept hopping up on the
lily leaf and then--just as quickly--slipped back into the water. But
once I put the lens in manual focus and focused on the center of the
lily pad, all I had to do was wait for the duckling and fire when she
came into the frame. I had the camera on a tripod and locked down
tightly, so I didn't even have to watch through the viewfinder. I just
kept my eye on the lily pad and then fired whenever she hopped up
there. I also used a very fast shutter speed (1/1000 second) which was
easy since the sun was very bright. Not only did the shutter speed stop
the baby duck, but look how it froze the water on the leaf and the crop
coming out off of the beak!
By the way, even if you are shooting
with a camera that doesn't have a manual-focus mode, you can still use
this technique. Just frame the spot where you want to focus and press
the shutter release button halfway down (and hold it halfway down);
that locks the focus (and exposure) and then when your subject comes
into the frame, press the shutter release the rest of the way.
Interestingly,
many of the forms of action we photograph do repeat themselves in some
predictable way and predicting where and when that action will occur is
the key to photographing it sharply. If you just pause for a few
moments and study the scene before you start to shoot you'll have a
good idea of where you need to focus and how often the subjects will
come into the frame.
Anticipating the peak of action and using a high shutter speed are great ways to get sharp action photos.
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