What is settings to capture images of Children

[bighnaraj]

Hi,

I am new to this Photography School. My Self Raj. Recently I have purchased Canon SX120 IS camera. Want to take photos of my son who is very active. In this case, I am not able to take any steady shot of him. Everything is blurry. I tried Kids/Pet mode but failed.

I tried for Manual Mode also with these setting.
Shutter Speed: 1/30 and Appreture:2.8 and ISO- 800. But its very dark. I dont want to use Flash.

So please anybody tell me the solution and any other way.

Thanks
Raj

[bighnaraj]

I tried for Manual Mode also with these setting.
Shutter Speed: 1/30 and Appreture:2.8 and ISO- 800. But its very dark. I dont want to use Flash.

[alexsimpson]

to freeze your sons motion you are going to need a faster shutter speed.

The light part is simple - get him playing somewhere there is more natural light ie. outside if you dont want to use flash

[bighnaraj]

Hi Alex,
when I increase the shutter speed the image is getting more dark. This is the main problem lies. In outdoor situations, yes I can use faster shutterspeed but how can I take snaps at home.

Thanks
Ra

[bighnaraj]

anybody can help me on this

[gturner]

you need to start by understanding how a camera works.

read this: Learning about Exposure – The Exposure Triangle



with you ISO already at 800 and your aperture at 2.8, your camera is at is limits and it is still only giving you 1/30sec shutter.
You need at LEAST 4 times more light than you currently have in that room to start even thinking of taking even slow action shots.
The camera cannot help you. In fact very few cameras could.

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by gturner

you need to start by understanding how a camera works.

What GTurner said.

All you're telling me is it's dark and you get blurry shots, and all I can really answer to you is get more light into your scene and get a faster shutter speed. I guarantee you'll want at least 1/60th of a second. So, what that means is you have to introduce enough light into your scene to get at least that setting. I'm assuming that you're so new to it that you'll likely need 1/100th or better.

It's that simple because there's no setting out there that will fully compensate for lack of light, especially not with your camera. If you had a newer DSLR with those amazing high ISO ratings, then maybe, but now, you need more light, and you need to know how to use it.

In the end, if you're going to really try to understand how to take better photos, you need to understand light and your camera better.

[bighnaraj]

Hi

yes its true that I am new to this. I have only this semi SLR kind of camera with me. which have ISO upto 1600 and 1/2500 shutterspeed and 3.5 aperture. with these limitation I want to use best out of it.

So as you suggested I need to give external light to my room to give good snaps. Is there any other solution which can be handled thru my camera.

Thanks

[BigFuzzy]

Originally Posted by bighnaraj

So as you suggested I need to give external light to my room to give good snaps. Is there any other solution which can be handled thru my camera.

As GTurner mentioned, you're probably already at the limits of what your camera can do. I can't imagine it goes wider than 2.8, but if it can go to iso1600 that is one way to get faster shutter speeds (at the expense of more noise).

If you posted a couple of examples, we might be able to help you out. Otherwise, learn how to get the best possible shutter speed with your camera if you're not able to get more light into the scene.. that's about all you can do (without using flash, which I'm not sure why you're against since you can also control it).