The Costco Connection

By Daniel Johnson

IF, LIKE MANY active families, you are involved in a lot of fast-paced action, from traditional sports and outdoor activities to kids and pets playing in the yard, you probably would like to capture these great memories in photographs. Unfortunately, the results of action photography can be disappointing. Part of the challenge is that action photography requires good photography skills—sharp focus, interesting composition, good lighting—but you have less time to make decisions when you’re photographing a fast-paced situation.

Happily, there are several things you can do to improve the quality of your action photos, so let’s take a look at a few of them. You’ll be snagging share-worthy action in no time!

Use a high shutter speed

Click! You just took a picture. But answer this: How long did that click last? Half a second? A quarter of a second?

If you’re shooting action photos, you
need that click to be very short. The length of
your click—that is, the amount of time the
picture is actually being taken—has a huge
effect on the quality of your action photos.
This length of time is called the “shutter
speed,” and it’s adjustable. If you tried to shoot
action with a shutter speed of half a second,
the resulting image would be a blurry smear.
Even shutter speeds of 1/100th of a second will
result in blurry action photos. In order to
freeze motion in an acceptable manner, you
need to shorten your shutter speed by a lot.
How much? With most “average” action,

The Costco Connection You can find a variety of cameras in the warehouses and on Costco.com. Also, the Costco Photo Centers offer a complete suite of photographic services.

A “moving” experience

In our digital editions

Daniel Johnson provides more tips on shutter speed and shooting action photography.

(See page 13 for details.)

Easy tips for better action photography

you’ll need a shutter speed of at least 1/500th of a second—and 1/1000th of a second usually isn’t overkill. In cases of very fast action— or action that you are very close to—you might even need a shutter speed of 1/2000th or beyond.

Digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras and most point-and-shoot cameras have different modes available for controlling shutter speed. Camera modes such as “sports” and “shutter priority” allow direct control of shutter speed, while aperture priority mode allows you to control shutter speed indirectly.

With a smartphone, you might need an additional app (beyond the built-in camera app) that allows for more camera control. In any case, you’ll want a semiautomatic mode that gives you some control while still letting the camera help make exposure decisions.