photo shoot of 10 month old

<p>Hello All,<br>

this is my first post in photo.net. So, please excuse me if I may have made any mistakes..<br>

my camera is a Nikon D5200 and have a 35mm f/1.8 lens.<br>

my daughter is now 10 months old. Until a few months ago, photographing her was no hassle as she was pretty much static and that helped me to get some nice crisp pictures.. Now, that she is 10 months, she really gets close to the camera and thus I have been having getting pretty out of focus pictures.. my question really is what focus setting should my camera be configured to esp when she is moving around pretty much in all directions.. <br>

I have tried the Sports Mode and also Auto-Focus but somehow I am not happy with the pictures.<br>

Really appreciate all your inputs!<br>

Thanks in advance<br>

Regards,<br>

Kira</p>

 

<p>Hello Kira,</p>

<p>Have you tried manual focus? I used to shoot my kids' soccer games, and often found manual focus worked better than any of the auto modes. I assume the 'sports mode' is continuous focus, which should work as long as you keep the focus point on your daughter. </p>

<p>You also need to make sure your shutter speed is high enough to stop movement, so I'd go for 250 or higher. This might require you to shoot at wide apertures like 1.8 or set your camera to a higher ISO to accommodate a smaller aperture to get greater field depth.</p>

<p>Finally, she might be getting closer to the camera than your lens will focus, so make sure you are at or beyond the minimum focusing distance of the lens.</p>

<p>First, never use any special modes like sports. When you do that, the camera starts deciding things for you and doesn't tell you what it's doing. You can never learn anything that way.<br /><br />Bill is correct that you want a high shutter speed to stop the action. But you do not want to be at 1.8. At that setting, the depth of field (the range in which things are in focus) is only a couple of inches in front of back of the spot you focus on, leaving you no margin for error as the baby moves around. You need to be around 8.0 or even 11 if possible. That gives you far more margin for error<br /><br />To get both 1/1250 and 8 or 11, you need a fair amount of light. If you are outside you can set the ISO on 400. If you are indoors, you probably want to shoot by window light and use ISO 800 or 1600. If you are going to shoot indoors at night, you most likely will need flash, and that's another whole discussion.<br /><br />You can use autofocus and probably should if you are a beginner. But be sure that the AF sensor in the viewfinder is on the subject's eye. Not the nose, face, ear, cheek but the eye. Always on the eye.<br /><br />As friends warned me when our children were born nearly two decades ago -- you spend the first two years teaching them to walk andn talk and the rest of their lives telling them to shut up and sit down. Good luck. :)</p>

<p>[[my question really is what focus setting should my camera be configured to esp when she is moving around pretty much in all directions..]]</p>

<p>There are a couple of things at play here. First, in a mode that allows you (I'm assuming the auto-modes do not allow you to change the AF options) start with AF-C (Continuous Servo AF) when the child is moving. Select the center focus point, and keep the center focus point on your moving child, with the idea that you plan on cropping later. Make sure, also, that you are not using Live View mode, but are, in fact, using the optical viewfinder. </p>

<p>Next, make sure you have the camera set to continuous shooting (allowing multiple shots by just holding down the shutter button). </p>

<p>Lastly, take lots of photos, fully realizing that you're going to delete most of them later. </p>

<p>All that being said, if you want good photos, then you need to make sure you are setting yourself up for success and not failure. Do not expect to just be able to pick up the camera at any possible second and 1) dial in all those settings and 2) have a cooperative child. You need to plan for times when your child is in good light, and is less interested in the camera. I have found that shooting from further away and/or trying to not be the object of attention, helps tremendously. A 35mm lens may not allow you to do this, though again, with 24MP to use, you could easily be further back and crop in. If you have your partner help you, by providing distraction next to your daughter (but without being directly in the frame) then you can catch more of those spontaneous moments. <br>

If you're looking for more formal portraits, then the amount of work you will be doing will increase exponentially. Sometimes providing toys/props will help, if you can temporarily distract them from looking down. </p>

<p>Toddlers are curious scientists and want to explore what you're doing. </p>

<p>If you put them in the refrigerator for a while, the cold will slow them down.</p>

<p>(please, just a joke, ... put down that baseball bat!).</p>

<p>Seriously, I'd go with autofocus, but you need a lens that will focus well in low light -- that's the tough part. A 35mm f/1.8 <em>should</em> be fast enough, I would think. For getting larger images (don't forget that a 35mm image can be cropped, too), the classic 50mm f/1.8 would be better. That would be a short telephoto on a DX camera.</p>

<p>Good advice from the above, too.</p>

<p>Maybe add some light to the 'studio'?</p>

<p>I have an 11 month old at home. Ever since she started crawling, she's constantly on the move. Catching toddlers in focus, particularly indoors where the light is low, can be quite challenging. </p>

<p>I tend to use AF-C auto-focus with a single focus point. I use aperture priority, with the lens usually set to f2.8 to f4 (with a 1.8 lens like yours) depending on how low the light is. I then adjust the ISO to get a shutter speed of 1/125 (preferably) or at least 1/60. I try to keep it at about ISO 1600 or below to keep the noise down.</p>

<p>That being said, I tend to get the best images of my daughter when she is distracted by something (toys, another person, etc). It's about the only way I can get her to sit still long enough. Otherwise, she's usually trying to climb up my leg or into my lap. When she's distracted but I want her to look at me, I'll call out her name or make a loud noise to get her attention.</p>

<p>That's how I got this shot.<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17921932-lg.jpg" alt="DSC_4076small" width="467" height="700" border="0" /></p>

 

<p>thank you for all your responses..really appreciate your efforts. <br>

I will keep you posted on how I got the pictures.. </p>

<p>thanks</p>

<p>My best results of my daughter at that age came when she was either distracted from me and what I was doing, and, often by using a bounce flash to ensure enough light and freeze motion.</p>

<p>My "little one" is now almost 5. He started walking at 10 months and I gave in and bought two lights (Alien Bees) when he was just over a year old. <br>

I'm mostly a film shooter and not a portrait shooter, so I'm mostly out of my element with him to begin with. But I've gotten used to taking as many shots as I can just to get a couple of better ones. And I've made little booklets with the "outtakes" for the grandmothers - they love them because they show more of his personality.<br>

As for settings, I'd go with what Craig S. suggested - f8 or f11 and as fast as you can get for a shutter speed (hoping for 1/250).</p>

 

Try to attach or open and use any simple flash which has great action stopping power and will allow you to use that F 8 or F 11. Failing that, consider doing videos. Why not. My camera has a mode that registers faces and tries to stay focused on them. Maybe yours does too and that would be worth a try. Anyway, flash is perfectly fine and will get the shot when indoors or in dim light wherever. I used it a lot indoors with my kids when I used slow film and it caught action well. But I missed quite a few as well. Sometimes a little motion of the hands is OK. You can't focus as fast as a kid can move I fear. Try the flash for the heck of it.