Articles from Parent Magazine
by Matthew Panzarino
Capturing Your (always) Moving Children
With Your Digital Camera!
Children are always on the move. Most of the time in un-predictable ways, directions and speeds! Any parent knows that those moments are usually some of the most important ones to capture, but, especially with newer digital cameras, this has always been a real chore, mostly due to one characteristic: Shutter Lag.
Especially disappointing to folks coming from film, shutter lag is a short delay, sometimes called a "lag", between when you press the shutter release and when the picture is taken. This problem is probably the number one complaint that I get from people about digital cameras and unfortunately there's not a lot you can do to eliminate it entirely. But there are a few things you can do to minimize it.
It helps to know what causes shutter lag to begin with. When you press the shutter release, your camera has to do a lot of things, like focus, measure and set the exposure, adjust the white balance etc. So how do you fix it? You can’t eliminate it, but you can help to shorten the delay by doing some of those things in advance! When you sense a picture opportunity coming up, press the shutter button down HALF-WAY to lock in the focus, either on the subject, or on a location where they are going to be (a diving board, or home base!) then wait for the right moment to take the shot and press the shutter the rest of the way. Catching the action with a much shorter delay! Most digital cameras have this “2-Position” shutter and this technique, called
Pre-Focusing is one even the pros use! It may take a little practice to get the technique down, but the change in your pictures will be priceless!
So to sum up, Kids + Movement + Digital Camera? Pre-Focus. If you would like more help with shutter lag, feel free to stop by Horn Photo to speak with one of our photo experts!
