Hellobee Boards

I'm a huge photo buff.

How long have you had an SLR/DSLR? SLR since 2000, DSLR since 2010.

What kind of camera/lens do you have? Nikon D700, I have a number of lenses but my favorites/most used are fixed lenses.

Favorite/most used lens? My 50 mm f1.4 is my most used lens, but when we travel, I also like my 35 f2.

Favorite/most used setting? Manual.

Tips/tricks for photographing your kids? Natural light and as high of a shutter speed as possible to avoid blurry pics.

duplicate post...

@josina: Back-button focus saved my photography. I had so many issues with blurry pictures and I don't have that problem anymore. Also a decent flash since my house is poorly lit...

@MamaG: I have this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Altura-Photo-Professional-AP-C1001-Accessories/dp/B00HK0A6LQ

It's got great reviews and is much more affordable than the Canon-brand one! It works great! I love being able to take multiple pictures a second with the flash going off each time.

@PurplePeony: Ugh, YES to wanting to see the picture before you even take it! This is Xander ALL THE TIME! Also, every single video I take has him going "Cheese!" followed by "I want to see!" and me going "I'm taking a video, Xander, I'll show you later!" LOL

@josina: the beauty of BBF is that you can keep your finger on the button so the autofocus is always working, and then when you press the shutter button, it fires instantly. You're much more likely to get good photos of fast-moving toddlers using this method, once you get used to it!

@Adira: oh gosh, yes. If I have to ask someone else to take a picture, I crank up the aperture so it's less likely to miss focus badly, pre-focus the camera myself, and hope for the best. I need to go back and figure out how to reset the focus quickly, I always forget the menu options.

How long have you had an SLR/DSLR? SLR for about 15 years but only used intermittently. dSLR since 2008. My first was a rebel xsi. I loved and learned on that thing.
What kind of camera/lens do you have? Canon 70d. Got it two years ago. Canon 17-55 2.8, 10-22, 35 f2, 50. 1.8, 55-250 variable
Favorite/most used lens? 17-55 followed by the 35 for portraits and the 10-22 for travel
Favorite/most used setting? AV or manual. .
Tips/tricks for photographing your kids? Good light. if you don't have good light you need fast (big aperture) lenses. The kids just move too damn quick for a slow shutter speed unless you want to jack your iso up super high

Ha, yeah when I hand my camera to my husband he gets the green box setting

I chose a mirror-less instead of an SLR, though I have an old film SLR. I have the Fujifilm XT-1 with the 56mm f1.2 lens and I absolutely love it.

@Littlebit7: ️forgot to tag you in my comment above. Would love any tips!

@Boogs: here's some photography 101. The higher your shutter speed, the less likely you are to have movement. Ideally with kids I like to shoot at a minimum of 1/125 or 1/250, but winter is so dark here that it's not always possible. The other thing you need is light. You can't effectively use higher shutter speeds without a lot of light OR a wide open aperture (this lets the light in). The smaller the number on your aperture, the wider open it is and the more light is coming in. This is all useful if you are shooting in manual mode, but it can be intimidating and confusing too. If you want to start by just getting comfortable, I would set the camera to Aperture priority and set your aperture to the lowest number. Then, the camera will do all of the calculations for exposure and you just have to worrying about focusing and getting the shots. Once you are more comfortable with the shooting aspect, then you can work on your manual mode skills.

I pretty much only shoot my kids in natural light because I know that if I take pics of them in the evening with house lights on, they colors are going to be gross and I'm going to be frustrated with all the movement. I personally don't like using flash.

@erinpye: I'm really curious about your camera! My DSLR is huge and heavy. While I'm by no means ready to give it up, I always wonder about more compact cameras. And man, an f1.2 lens! Jealous! My widest lens is f1.4.

@Boogs: hmmm. What do you think is the main problem? Still too much movement? What is your ISO set to? With kids, outside on a sunny-ish day ISO 400 should be fine. Inside I go up to ISO 1200-1600 or higher if necessary. Have you tried the back focus button that @Adira: mentioned? I basically never use the shutter focus button. You will have much better focus control using the back focus button.

@lamariniere: Too much motion, just busy kids I guess! I never heard of that trick before, but it sounds like I need to do some reading!

@Boogs: Definitely look into back button focus. I was having the same problem that all my photos were blurry, until I made the switch. The problem with the regular focus is that you have to press the shutter half-way, focus, and then take one picture. If your subject is moving, you have to maintain that half-press and you can really only take one picture, need to refocus, take another picture, etc. It's time consuming, and I found my kids were always moving right as I took the picture and the focus was off. When you switch to back-button focus, you decouple the focus from the shutter, so you can be constantly focusing and take the picture in between. I also can now old down the shutter to take continuous shots while I'm constantly refocusing. I still take blurry pictures, but now I'm able to take so many MORE photos in a short period of time, so I have a lot more that are in focus! Good luck!

@Adira: @lamariniere: Thanks so much!

@Boogs: so you said you are using your 50 mm right? is the whole picture blurry? only part of the kiddo? looks like the baby is moving and blurry? What aperture do you typically have it set at? You are going to let the most light into the camera at 1.8 or 2.0 and be able to have a higher shutter speed to freeze motion, HOWEVER there is less that will be in focus front to back. So if you have an apple on a table and 6 inches behind that is a banana, if you are shooting at 1.8 or 2.0 and you focus on the banana, the apple will NOT be in focus. It won't be until you move to, say, f8 that they will both be in focus.

also, what is your focusing set to? if you are using auto focus, the camera guesses what part of the picture you want in focus. the camera tries hard, but can be sort of dumb. if you set it to the center focus point, whatever you point the center focus at (should light up red when you look through the viewfinder) is what the camera will focus on.

@Littlebit7: I wrote a review on the X100T, if you want it wall me! It's PERFECT for travel. I'm about to write one on the XT-1 too

@Littlebit7: I walled the link to you!

@Littlebit7: No the background is blurred as normal, it's more the moving kid's face is blurry and stuff like that. Sometimes I have it on auto focus, but I noticed it was being dumb so I've been using the center focus and it does work better. I was setting my aperture higher (to about 7 thinking it was too low and that's why I was getting the blur. Now I know, so I'll lower it!