Shooting action shots
You have a big day planned at some major event and there is going to be a lot of action, weather it be a race, sporting event, or anything that has a lot of action. But how do you shoot the action and capture that great shot?
First you’ll want to determine where the event is going to be held and the type of lighting and filters you’ll need. Make sure you have extra batteries and media cards. There is nothing worse than running out of batteries or disk space. Of course you’ll check that all your equipment is functioning properly. And most important of all use your tripod. But you do this at every shoot and that’s the basics. HOW do you take that action shot?
Read you owner’s manual on how to take the type of shots you want. It’s always good to refer to it every now and then especially if you haven’t taken a lot of these shots or if you it’s been awhile since you’ve opened the book. You might be surprised at what you find.
A couple of basic tips:
With a digital camera there is what is called shutter lag. SO there is really only 2 good methods of taking the action shot.
1. Anticipate where the action is going to be-• If you want your pictures to come out with the motion blur, slow down your shutter speed. Determine where the action is going and point the camera at that spot then just as the action starts to come into view start snapping.
• The same applies if you want to stop the action altogether. Point the camera where the action is going to be. Set your camera on action shot and wait until the action comes into frame and start snapping.
One thing to remember, do not wait for the action to enter the center of your view finder, if it is going fast enough you might miss the action. Sometimes if the action is moving quickly you might loose the shot with the camera trying to focus on the subject.
• If you have auto focus you will want to set the focal length by pressing you shutter button halfway, or turn off your auto focus and set it to manual.
2. Follow the action-
• As you are snapping the shot, follow the action. Keeping your camera on the tripod will help reduce camera shake and keep the action level. You do not want a shakky subject. This effect will also give the subject a diffecent motion blur by bluring the background insted of the subject.

References
Cryosphere.com
Popphoto.com
Picturecorrect.com
basic-digital-photography.com
First you’re going to need a location.
Your backdrop is important if you are setting up studio shooting. There are plenty of readily available commercial backdrops or a simple back drop you can make is using a wrinkled white sheet. (Sounds corny?) Pin the sheet so it drapes nicely and center your subject in the middle of the sheet. Recently I did this because I was shocked at the price of my son’s graduation pictures. The Portrait Company used plain white backdrops, and since I am a photographer I decided to recreate them myself. I took the sheet outside to get natural lighting had my son stand in front of them. Snapped off a few pictures edited them in Photoshop and then got them professionally printed at no other place but Wal-Mart. With some beautiful matting photo holders and no one could tell the difference. Saved me a total of $350.00.
Sunsets are one of the most popular photographs, but how can you make a sunset jump out at you? Before venturing out to shoot that sunset think about the composition you are shooting. Are you shooting action at sunset or are you shooting a landscape sunset. Apply all the basic photography tips to shooting the sunset. Starting with a good image makes for a better edited photo in the end. Now what kind of twist can you give a sunset to capture the viewer and draw them in?
This is where your digital darkroom comes into play.




