How to Take High Speed Action Photos

If your Costco Photo set doesn’t capture the speed and excitement you expect, it’s probably due to incorrect settings on your camera, in particular the speed. One way to do is to add a blur effect, and as is often the case it’s better to adjust the settings on your camera so you can capture the moment instead of adding effects later.

Settings to Adjust

The shutter speed is one of the keys to putting the blur in panning shots, so go to shutter priority mode. The shutter speed has to be low as does the ISO, so if you’ll be taking shots during the day have the ISO at 200 or 100. You can also go to manual mode: autofocus has its benefits but the results are more consistent when in manual mode.

Continuous shooting or high speed continuous is ideal in this situation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do the rapid gun approach when it comes to your shots. What this means is when you’re panning action shots, it’s better to do it in short bursts than take 3 to 5 shots as your subject moves. The key to efficient panning is to select the appropriate shutter speed in accordance with the movement and speed of the subject you’re taking pictures of.

How to Shoot Fast Moving Objects

If you’re shooting a motorbike or a race car, adjust the settings to 1/125 sec as that is a good place to start, while for cycling and slower objects you can go with 1/30 sec, and for walking and really slow movements you can make do with 1/8 sec. Whereas with other images it’s almost always preferable to go for the RAW format, here it’s better to save in JPEG so you can shoot more without worrying about the buffer getting filled up.

Any photographer will tell you that your reaction time is crucial, and it’s even more so when taking photos of fast moving objects. Be prepared to make adjustments as the position, lighting and situation can change. For a really good shot you have to locate a viewpoint where you can focus on the subject for a long time. This means adding a section before and after you’ve taken a shot, and when you do find this spot, take a few shots to ensure the shutter speed is satisfactory.

If there’s too much blurring switch to a higher speed, and if the background looks too sharp, set the shutter speed to low. There’s no hard and fast rule for this and you can only find out by experimenting with the settings.

As you’re adjusting the images, take a look at the exposure and ensure the background doesn’t overpower the subject. Adjust the exposure compensation to -1 if your subject appears washed out, but if it’s too dark set the value at +1. What it all comes down to is that panning can be an effective way to capture and convey motion in photos, and contrary to popular belief it’s not really that hard.