Secrets to Capturing Challenging Photos

I love my cat and my dog, but I don't have many great photos of them. I hardly ever attempt an action shot of a moving subject. Worse yet is the two-in-one challenge of trying to capture an action photo of my cat or dog. I know the secrets, so I will share my hints and tips for these challenging photographic subjects. Maybe we both can improve!

Here are some ideas that will help you capture those shots that may not be as easy as most snapshots, but are definitely worthwhile when you realize the potential impact of these images.

Children and Pets
I put these in the same category since both of these subjects have some of the same characteristics that makes photographing them take some extra effort. Here are my tips for photographing children and pets:

1. Be aware of the background and keep it simple. Use a blanket or wall, or go outdoors for less distracting backgrounds.

2. Keep the subject as far from the background as possible to put the background out of focus. Decrease your depth of focus by using a wide aperture setting.
3. Shoot from subject's eye level. Get down on the floor.

4. Use a long lens (zoom in). You can be less obtrusive will have a shallower depth of focus and will reduce wide angle distortion of faces.

5. Use natural (available) light. Pets and children don't like flashes. Plus you'll get red-eye with kids and "green-eye" with many animals.

6. If you are shooting outdoors, turn on your flash to fill harsh shadows. Use red-eye reduction.

7. Try to capture a natural activity: playing ball, Frisbee, running, crying, barking.

8. Give the child or pet toys, a blanket, or use furniture as a prop. You can distract your subject and add another element to your image (especially color).

9. Don't use a tripod; stay mobile, stay flexible.

10. Try not to have the camera in front of your face, use your display.

11. Include a mirror or reflective surface.

12. Focus on the eyes.

13. Shoot when your subject is asleep.

14. Play music during the shoot.

15. Show children the photos on your display.

Action Photography
Of course, it is very likely that your child or pet may be moving much of the time, so you may need to combine the tips above with some of these:

1. To freeze the action, set your camera to sports mode or set your shutter speed priority to a high setting. For an example of the difference in settings: freezing action in a soccer game requires a shutter speed in the range of 1/250 to 1/500, while freezing the tiny movements of a pet that appears to be sitting still, requires about 1/125.

2. Blur the Background. Take a cue from the sports photographers, and blur the background by decreasing the camera's depth of field. If using a camera that has aperture priority, you can do this by setting a wide aperture. The lower the f-stop number, the more blurry your background.

3. Pan. With your feet firmly planted on the ground, rotate your upper body and follow the subject with your camera. Just before the anticipated action that you want to capture occurs, start pressing the shutter release button and continue following the subject until you've pressed the button all the way down and the camera gets the shot.

4. Anticipate your subject's position and be aware of timing. Shoot too soon and you end up with something completely different than what you expected. Shoot too late and you will likely miss it entirely.

5. Despite all of their advantages, compact digital cameras are slower than traditional film cameras and digital SLRs. Be aware of your shutter lag. Lag may also be due to your camera trying to autofocus. Try manually focusing or locking your autofocus. Your autofocus is locked with your shutter release halfway down. Once your focus is locked (usually indicated by a beep from your camera), continue holding the shutter release halfway down until you are ready to shoot.

Have fun and good luck getting that perfect shot!

For more information on shooting in these and other special situations such as landscapes, black and white images, and portraits join us this Thursday night at 7 p.m. at the Land O' Lakes Community Center for the next in our series of digital photography classes. Call 813-929-1229 or email info@con2000.com for more information.

Editor's note: Have a question about photography? Email Maury Griffith at info@con2000.com. He will answer select questions in future blog posts.