Keep that camera At The Ready!
I have found it useful to keep your camera "set up" for
catching images "life on the fly." What are these camera
settings? They're simple and easy:
Use a wide angle lens, a fast shutter speed, and medium
depth of field to capture fun, spontaneous moments with
kids. Your chances of getting good pictures are great if
you just keep the camera in this set-up by default.
Let's go over what these settings mean...
What is a wide angle lens? "Wide Angle" refers to any
lens below a 35mm focal length that has a wider field of
view than the human eye.
It allows you to include a huge area of the scene (side
to side) and is good for getting "up close and personal"
fun shots with kids (who normally aren't afraid of the
camera). At the same time, a wide-angle lens allows you
to include much of the environment the kids are in as well.
What is a fast shutter speed? I consider a "fast" shutter
speed to be anything that's 1/200 of a second or faster.
I like it for spontaneous shots because this faster speed
freezes action, so if your kids are running around and you
snap a photo, they won't be blurry. It also helps
compensate for shaky camera handling.
What is depth of field? The short answer is: It's what
controls what portion of your photo will be in focus. It
is controlled by aperture opening size (also called f-stop).
A shallow depth of field allows a photo to be out-of-focus
in the foreground and background of the image and in-focus
at the middle ground where your subject is.
A larger depth of field would mean that everything is in
focus, even foreground and background.
The nice thing about wide angle lenses is that it's hard
to get a lot of blur (shallow depth of field), so you can
set the lens at a fairly wide aperture (f-stop) without
having to worry about getting your fast-moving kids out of
focus!
By the way, while we're on the subject of shooting kids,
don't forget to get your camera down on their level--into
their world!! That way your photos will be from their
perspective. This usually makes the images all the more
interesting! Until the next time.....
I have found it useful to keep your camera "set up" for
catching images "life on the fly." What are these camera
settings? They're simple and easy:
Use a wide angle lens, a fast shutter speed, and medium
depth of field to capture fun, spontaneous moments with
kids. Your chances of getting good pictures are great if
you just keep the camera in this set-up by default.
Let's go over what these settings mean...
What is a wide angle lens? "Wide Angle" refers to any
lens below a 35mm focal length that has a wider field of
view than the human eye.
It allows you to include a huge area of the scene (side
to side) and is good for getting "up close and personal"
fun shots with kids (who normally aren't afraid of the
camera). At the same time, a wide-angle lens allows you
to include much of the environment the kids are in as well.
What is a fast shutter speed? I consider a "fast" shutter
speed to be anything that's 1/200 of a second or faster.
I like it for spontaneous shots because this faster speed
freezes action, so if your kids are running around and you
snap a photo, they won't be blurry. It also helps
compensate for shaky camera handling.
What is depth of field? The short answer is: It's what
controls what portion of your photo will be in focus. It
is controlled by aperture opening size (also called f-stop).
A shallow depth of field allows a photo to be out-of-focus
in the foreground and background of the image and in-focus
at the middle ground where your subject is.
A larger depth of field would mean that everything is in
focus, even foreground and background.
The nice thing about wide angle lenses is that it's hard
to get a lot of blur (shallow depth of field), so you can
set the lens at a fairly wide aperture (f-stop) without
having to worry about getting your fast-moving kids out of
focus!
By the way, while we're on the subject of shooting kids,
don't forget to get your camera down on their level--into
their world!! That way your photos will be from their
perspective. This usually makes the images all the more
interesting! Until the next time.....
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