Why does my digital point and shoot camera need the flash to take good action shots?

Question

When I take pictures of my kids in action, the background is fine but the kids are a big blur.

I've tried setting the ISO to 800 manually and taking pictures without the flash and they are a little better than when on auto or kids and pets setting, but still have some blurring. I would like to not HAVE to use flash because of the slow flash recharge time.

I have a Canon Powershot A530.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Welcome to the compromise of compact cameras. You're learning the limits of your aperture. The Canon A-series cams have very decent aperture ranges in general, but there's only so much you can expect from a camera that goes down to f2.6 (or worse, f5.5 if you're zoomed in close). What happens is that there's just not enough light coming in through the lens to keep shutter speeds fast enough to capture fast-moving children. Often you need to be able to hit shutterspeeds of 1/120 second or greater to freeze a kid. You need lots of light for that, like outdoors. If you're in a low-light setting, it gets tough, and pushing up the ISOs might only buy you a stop or two on the shutterspeed.

Here are some suggestions.


--First, keep the zoom at it's widest wide-angle setting (actually you get almost no barrel distortion if you keep it one stop in) and get closer to the subject. That'll keep your f-stop down to f2.6, your widest aperture setting on that camera. That'll buy you a few more stops on the shutterspeed as well.

--2nd, take the shot in Tv mode so you can dictate the shutterspeed. Obviously...try to keep it at 1/120s or faster.

--Keep it at the maximum usable ISO for the print you intend to make. You knew this one. Usually I don't push the A-series cams past 400ISO for high-quality 4x6 prints though. Those ultra-tiny photosensors are really not that sensitive. One of these days someone other than Fuji will start developing quality high-performance CCD sensors. Until then, we're stuck with lousy high-ISO performance. and lots of smudgy noise reduction on 800+ISO.

--Practice your ability to pan the camera with the subject. In other words...blur the background...not the subject. It's a tough skill to master, but you'll be much more capable for it, and it'll add a wonderful sense of dynamics, which is what kids are all about, right?

--Use flash (or the "kids and pets" scene mode if you have it, or the action mode) if you don't mind the unnatural lighting, and for those spur-of-the-moment/last resort cases when it's just too dark. Adjust the flash exposure or EV down if you find it washing out your subject too much.

G'luck!

Answer 2

Flash is for low light situations, not to stop action. If you can set shutter speed, the higher you can get it, the better it stops action for the photo.

My daughter has a Canon Powershot SD450 and it has an action setting on the speed wheel on top of the camera. It looks like a person running. If you have something like that, use it ... it's for 'stop action' type photos. That way, both the background and the moving figure will be clear. Unfortunately, compact digital cameras don't allow you to adjust the aperture or f-stops (how far open the lens actually is) on the lens of your camera ... that's what controls the amount of light exposed in you picture.

You can turn off the flash manually and should do so if the light is decent. Keep in mind that the average 'throw' on a flash is only 10 to 15 feet, so if you're trying to light something 20 feet away, everything in front of it will be really bright, but the object you want lit, will remain dark.

Answer 3

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