Capturing motion

[nora]

I'm not sure whether this is the right forum to post this question but on here I've come across a lot of pictures that capture an object that's in motion like birds, fireworks.. I'm really new to photography and I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to capturing moments like that.. I tried throwing a sponge in the air and capturing it but somehow I'm either too late or too early when capturing it.. what's the secret behind it? Does it have to do with the kind of camera you use?

[Ads]

[Digital Matt]

What camera are you using? It will be difficult if you are using a point and shoot camera, because there is usually quite a bit of shutter lag, or lag time between when you press the shutter release, and when the picture is actually taken.

An SLR camera will have very minimal shutter lag. You need a relatively quick shutter speed to freeze motion. It will vary depending on what you are photographing, but you can pretty much figure at least 1/250.

[Torus34]

A necessary skill for capturing fast-moving objects is to keep the object in the viewfinder during the moment when you press the shutter. The natural tendency is to stop moving the camera as you start to press the shutter.

You can practice to learn this skill. It's kind of like learning to pat your head with one hand and rub your tummy with the other at the same time.

Season's best to you and yours.

[Torus34]

Digital Matt's fast shutter speed recommendation is also the thing to do. Put it together and you should get useful images.

[Groupcaptainbonzo]

Probably what you need to do is "Pan" ie Follow the target with the camera until after the shutter has tripped. Or are you talking about "Blur" ie taking a longer shot and leaving the shutter open for a while so that the background is sharp, and the subject has moved which blurs it and creates the impression of movement (often helped with the application of some "second curtain" or "slow sync" flash)

[britonk]

I used to find this difficult with a point & shoot - but at least you have an optical viewfinder! You try this with one of those electronic viewfinders - man that is difficult.

Make sure your camera is in "sports mode" or "shutter priority" if it has it. Also if there is a setting for single focus or continuous focus set it to continuous - this will ensure that as you move with the subject the camera will continually focus on it while the shutter button is pressed half way.

Good luck!

[ftops]

well, for one thing use the flash: it will stop the light and expose only what you need. if you want an image to come out using natural light only, make sure you have everything set appropriately (ISO, exposure, shutter speed, f-stop...). i dont know what youre using, but an SLR is really good for this, while p&s are not. most cameras have a continous-shot feature where you can just hold down the shutter and it will take x consecutive pictures per second. check your manual and see if you have this feature, although i notice a little loss of quality whenever ive done this with a camera.

[nora]

Thanks for the advice.
Right now I'm using a Sony DSC-W50.. not professional or anything but good enough to take nice pictures and it takes about 10 seconds before I can take a picture with flash which makes taking pictures of moving objects very hard. Does anybody know how to set the shutter speed if that's even possible?