Content Creation

One of the hardest jobs for any momtog is shooting moving targets. Not only is it hard to catch them in the frame, it’s also hard to keep the image from blurring. But, thankfully there are a few tricks of the trade that you can learn.

Use Autofocus

If you have a digital camera you can use the AF-C mode, which is continuous autofocus. This will enable your camera to focus on the moving object whether it’s far or near, and very quickly – thus giving you an opportunity to capture the image in the frame without worrying about the issue of blur.

Try Dynamic Mode

Most digital cameras today have another autofocus mode called Dynamic mode. This mode will also help control the image captured even if you’re moving in addition to the subject moving. If you’re tracking a bird or a motorcycle, and you’re in a car or other moving machine, then you can focus on getting your frame right while the camera does the work to eliminate blur.

Take the Photo from a Distance

It’s much easier to focus on a moving object if you’re not up close to it, for a variety of reasons. One is that you can get the image you want in the frame easier, though you may miss some detail, and secondly it won’t be likely to blur since the camera isn’t being forced to focus differently for what’s close and what’s far.

Shutter and Aperture

These are terms that to learn in order to take good photographs. Aperture is the opening of the lens, and is literally the camera hole and how big you open it. On your camera it’s listed as f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8 and so forth. The larger the hole, the more light gets in. The shutter speed you choose depends on a lot of math, including the distance you are from the subject, the direction of the motion, and other factors. But, in reality you just have to practice to get this right. Try different speeds on different shots to see what happens.

White Balance

You’ll need to experiment with the white balance on your particular camera. Learn how to set WB manually to ensure that it’s accurate and works best. The reason this is important is that if the WB is not set right (and it might be right on Auto), then the focus of the picture in your frame might not look as sharp as it should.

Avoid Flash

You may need to set your camera to manual mode to avoid any type of flash with motion pictures. Flash slows down things, so you want to avoid that if at all possible. This brings us back to why learning aperture is so important, because you want to avoid using flash and let in the right amount of light in other ways.

If you want to take professional moving images without blur, it will take some practice. As you practice and look at the results, take notes so that you can know what worked and what did not work. The more you practice, the better it’ll get.

I am not a professional photographer by any means, but I do take thousands of pics of my kids per year — literally thousands! These are a few tips on how I manage to provide consistent stream of kid pics for my Instagram.

1. Plan Ahead of Time

Having a plan for the type of shots you want to take is important for outdoor photos. Kids have a short attention span and the golden hour doesn’t last long. Test out on a different day the different settings for your camera, and check the weather so that you will know what type of settings you’ll need to use.

Use Your Autofocus

For novice photographers like me, I recommend using predictive autofocus. It works well for moving targets, such as Devin, who prefers to run from the camera. You can lock on the image before you take the picture so that you can track the movement before you take the shot.

People Look Great Outdoors

Kids are cute regardless. There is hardly any lighting that makes them look bad, but natural lighting provides beautiful amounts of light and gorgeous backdrops. If your subject is the landscape with a person in it, it will help the audience gain perspective. If your focus is the person, then the backdrop of nature can be blurred out so that the person shows up more.

Right Place Right Time

The best shots happen when you are in the right place at the right time. When you see some great scenes happening, don’t delay or worry about camera settings – just start taking pictures. Set it on autofocus and automatic and just start framing the images. The frame is more important than your worrying about camera settings. ( This is also why I end up taking most of my photos with my iPhone) Kids, especially little kids, don’t have time in their busy schedules to wait for you to set up your camera.

Adjust Your Exposure

If you really want to capture the vivid colors better, then it’s all about exposure. Play with the exposure, starting with dialing it down by -.05. It’ll make the image sharper, and the blacks look blacker and the colors look more colorful.

Look Down

The ground offers a great choice of background for portraits. Have your subject lay down and arrange some leaves around them, or they can lie in a grass/flower field with their hair spread out. Nature provides a wonderful backdrop and they’re less likely to run away this way.

Remember the Rule of Thirds

When you are aligning your subject in the view finder, pretend there is a nine-square grid in which you can easily arrange the image. This means that there are four areas of interest in the photograph, which are the interceptions of the lines. This is why you don’t put a person in the center of a portrait most of the time but over to one side, with other things being in the shot too.

Zoom In

When you’re taking outdoor shots, remember to reduce the confusion in the shot by zooming in to make your main focus on what you want the people to see when they look at the image. A good way to do that is to get what you think is your shot in the viewfinder, then zoom in a bit to take out anything extra. I tend to take tight photos cropped close to the subject. That’s just what I like. There are many truly talented photographers who are masters with landscape shots, but I am not one of them.

Category: Content Creation

Capturing Moving Targets without Blur