Taking photos of someone doing a parachute jump?

Question

I have been asked to take some photos of my freind doing a sky dive. i will be on the grownd, i have a cannon s80 powershot camera and a trypod, the camera is not ideal but as it has a few fetures like a resonable zoom and has a lot of the same caperbilatys of an SLR, i.e manual sutter speed settings ISO settings and apperture prioratys. this being the case can anyone give me the best settings to use so i dont just end up with a small blured spot on the picture, i know i wont be able to capture her in freefall but i want to be as prepaid as posible to get the best shots i can whilst she is parrashuing. it will be a fairly gray clowdy day in england if that makes any diffrence.

Answer 1

The primary issue you will most likely encounter is one in which photographers are challenged with all the time. The light meter. I am sure at one point or another you have taken a photo of a person with their back to the sun. After getting the photos back from the developers you notice that in the picture the sky looks totally fine but the persons face is totally dark. The same issue will most likely occur when photographing your friend. The reason for this is simple, your friends face and body is going to be darker than the surrounding sky. The meter will measure the the sky and come to the conclusion that the subject is bright and will make the appropriate adjustments for the shutter or aperture. The suggestion is this. Put your camera in aperture priority mode and select a relatively large aperture such as 1.8 2.8 or which will thus allow quicker shutter speeds thus stopping action. Additionally you may also want to use a higher iso setting perhaps 800iso. After you have done this place one of your hands upwards towards the sky and with your other hand take a meter reading of what your hand. this will in a way simulate the lighting conditions of your friend. Be sure that a majority of your hand fills the screen. Take note of the shutter speed and lock that speed in. Anyhow this should allow you to capture your friend skydiving.

Answer 2

I have a Canon S30, a much older version, but it should be similar.

First go to the settings and set the image size to largest. Then switch the "twisting" thing at the top to the "sports' mode" figure. This decreases the chance of blur. Make sure you use optical zoom. I don't think you should use digital zoom because that is just like zooming in on a computer. You could always do that later.

Or you could set it on video, but you can't zoom in very closely.

Answer 3

Hi, I recommand you to try google picasa.

picasa is a Google's photo software. It's what should've come with your camera.

It can Edit , organise and Share you picture and small video flips.

It's very easy to use and is free, just like Google

Download it free in here:

http://www.adcenter.net.cn/google-picasa/

Good Luck!