Zoom Zoom

[cheguthamrin]

Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/4.8
Focal Length: 38 mm
ISO Speed: 800

Taken with Flash
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3172/...2921757696.jpg
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 55 mm

Just playing with the Hotwheels (and the camera) earlier. Enjoyed playing with the kids, but I was not pleased with the outcome.

What could I have done to make the cars look sharp?
Higher shutter speeds makes the picture look dark - its taken in the living room / natural lighting. The other picture was taken with the in flash.

[Major_Small]

Two things you could do - up the ISO (which would probably bring in too much noise, as it's already high), or experiment with dragging the shutter. That's a little advanced though. Basically, you use a flash to freeze the action, and a long shutter speed and open aperture to capture background light. It won't be perfect, but it'll be better. If you want to try, but don't think you have the ability, use night portrait mode - that's essentially what it does.

I think your first task, however, is to get focus in the right spot. You're focusing on the end of the track, but that wouldn't make a very interesting shot - the cars would just be frozen on the track. I'd try to catch the cars in the air, with the child in the background. If you could somehow make the thing at the end of the track less prominent (or remove it), that would be much better as well.

[PhotoNewt]

Have you tried second curtain flash? This fires the flash just when the shutter is about to close allowing for the car to render a little sharper with a blur behind to accentuate the motion.

More light will also help, moving the toy closer to a window can improve your shooting environment.