Digital Shutters

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

action, digital photography, tips, how to