Best Setting for Fast Moving Objects

[manda88]

This may seem like a really stupid question as most cameras have the fast setting thing, but I find that when I use it, the picture comes out more blurry than if I were to use the Auto setting. I have a Sony A350 and I'm still trying to figure it out. It comes with the S setting for taking pictures of fast things, and its got the setting of a picture of a little running man which is for taking pictures of fast things outside (I hope you like my use of big, professional words). The other day when I was waiting for a bite I decided to try and get a few pictures of the ducks on the lake as they were landing in the water or as they stodd upright in the water and flapped their wings. All the pictures I took came out with their wings blurry and basically looking a bit crap. Is there anything I can do to stop this?

I will try and upload a couple of these pictures when I get home so you can understand what I'm babbling about.

[Benny_the_bream]

You need a faster shutter speed in S mode you control the shutter speed and you need to up it to 1/500 is ideal to stop most motion if you have enough light if not you will need to up ISO post the pics up with the exif info (shutter speed apperture no. and ISO)

[manda88]

Here's one of the pics
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a380/miserable_penguin/DSC01777.jpg

I think I've just been a bit of an idiot cos I just looked at what I had the shutter speed at and it was at 1/25 so that answers my question really doesn't it! I had the ISO set to auto.

[Les_Paul]

Thats only part of the equation, how have you set the cameras AF up? Single shot or continous. Single point or predictive? Take a good look at what the cameras AF can do and remember even with fast shutter speeds trying to nail a bird in flight often needs panning as well. Looks like the light did you no favours either.

[manda88]

Yeah it was very cloudy and grey that day unfortunately, I had it set to single shots as the continuous one doesn't take them particularly quickly, it's about half a second between takes, it just seems a bit slower to me as with my old digi camera it used to take them like bullets! I have no idea what AF is and I have no idea whether it was single point or predictive, sorry! It's my first SLR so I don't know a lot about the 'technical' bits!

[markskarl]

Hello friends
Using the higher numbered ISO (not merely "high iso") is what I've used. I sometimes fiddle with the exposure for fast shots, but not usually. It might seem a bit counterintuitive, but a grainy (noisy) shot with a blur applied is usually fine. I like guassian blurs of 2 pixels or so (the blurring gets done on your computer, not in the camera).

[markskarl]

Using the higher numbered ISO (not merely "high iso") is what I've used. I sometimes fiddle with the exposure for fast shots, but not usually. It might seem a bit counterintuitive, but a grainy (noisy) shot with a blur applied is usually fine. I like guassian blurs of 2 pixels or so (the blurring gets done on your computer, not in the camera).