Why does Child mode on a Nikon D3100 choose 1/20s indoors, and how can I freeze moving kids better?

Question

I’m new to a Nikon D3100 and have been photographing my kids indoors in available light. I assumed Child scene mode would favor a faster shutter speed to reduce motion blur, but the camera is selecting very slow shutter speeds instead.

Typical settings I’m seeing:
- Child mode
- flash disabled
- aperture at the widest available (f/2.8)
- ISO auto at 400
- shutter speed around 1/20s

At 1/20s, indoor shots of moving children are blurry. I expected the camera to raise ISO first and keep shutter speed to something like 1/50s or faster. Is this normal behavior for Child mode on the D3100, and what settings or approach would work better indoors?

user1943 · Accepted Answer

The manual describes child mode like this:

Use for snapshots of children. Clothing and background details are vividly rendered, while skin tones remain soft and natural.

So, while it probably affects the exposure program as well, from Nikon's own words the main concern seems to be with color rendering. Whatever effect this might have have on the automatically-selected shutter and aperture speed is "inside the black box". This is one reason I'm not fond of scene modes for learning. They're for people who want to avoid thinking about photography and just take some pictures. This doesn't really help ease you in to advanced knowledge in any way — it just gets annoying.

Since you're clearly thinking about how you want the shutter speed to be, I think it's time to abandon "child mode".

Why does Child mode on a Nikon D3100 choose 1/20s indoors, and how can I freeze moving kids better?

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