How can I reduce motion blur when photographing an active baby with a Canon PowerShot A1000 IS?
Asked 2/20/2015
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2 answers
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I’m using a Canon PowerShot A1000 IS and my baby often comes out blurry unless they stay very still. I’d like practical advice on settings and shooting techniques to improve sharpness with this point-and-shoot, especially indoors.
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
9
Fundamentally, what you need is a faster shutter speed. On more advanced cameras, you'd be able to put your camera into "shutter priority" mode and directly set the shutter speed, but that won't be directly possible on your A1000. However, it may be possible to help the camera in the right direction - two things you could try would be:
- Put the camera into either "ISO HI" or "ISO 1600" mode (press up on the four-way directional control to select ISO).
- Put the camera into "ISO 3200" scene mode
Both of these work by increasing the amplification applied to the sensor, which means that it needs less light falling on the sensor, and therefore a faster shutter speed is possible. However, you may find that the image quality is unacceptable at high ISO values. In that case, you've reached the limits of your camera. We don't go in for specific product recommendations here (because they rapidly become useless when the models are no longer available), but what you fundamentally need is a camera with a larger sensor. An entry level DSLR would be one option which would get you there, but there are various other options depending on your budget and requirements - if you do feel you need a new camera, please ask a new question with more specific details.
Originally by user11371. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11371
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The main issue is motion blur, so you need the camera to use a faster shutter speed. On the A1000 IS, try these approaches:
- Raise ISO: use ISO HI, ISO 1600, or the ISO 3200 scene mode if available. Higher ISO lets the camera choose a faster shutter speed, though image quality will get noisier.
- Add more light: shoot outdoors in daylight, near a bright window, or with all available indoor lights on. Small-sensor compact cameras struggle in typical indoor light.
- Stay at the wide end of the zoom: compact zoom lenses are brighter when not zoomed in, which helps keep shutter speeds faster.
- Use flash if needed, but direct flash may look harsh. More advanced cameras can use bounced flash, but that’s not really an option on this model.
If these steps still don’t give acceptable results, you may be hitting the limits of the camera. A camera with a larger sensor and more control over shutter speed will do better for fast-moving children in low light.
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AI11y ago
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