High school football is a huge deal in our small city, and with Homecoming week festivities kicking off today, I expect snap happy parents will be working overtime this weekend. In addition, to the big dance and big game, the local high school is hosting a massive pep rally where cheerleaders will take center stage.
Our neighbor is beside herself right now as her daughter is the captain of the cheerleading squad and is on the Homecoming court. Basically, my friend will be living with a camera attached to her face the entire weekend. I don’t think she has to worry much about snapping frame worthy Homecoming Dance pictures, as she has a good handle on how to shoot portraits. However, capturing high-flying cheerleaders in mid-air is an entirely different story.
My pal will need to bring her A-game to the pep rally. Otherwise, she will likely be left with little more than a few random body parts on her LCD screen. Most amateur photographers get extremely frustrated when they snap away and later realize that all they’ve captured is a bunch of fuzzy images. To avoid this from happening, you need to work on timing.
Start by documenting how long your camera’s shutter lag lasts. Shutter lag is the time it takes your camera to take a photo after you’ve pressed the shutter button. If your digital camera has a long shutter lag, the chances of you documenting your daughter’s toe-touch and her basket toss in the same sequence may be slim. Familiarizing yourself with your camera’s shutter lag and compensating for it will help you get the photos you want.
In addition, you want to learn about your camera’s shutter speed. The speed correlates to the amount of time the camera’s shutter is open. For action photography, you’ll need a fast shutter, to freeze motion. Typical shutter speeds are about 1/60th of a second, but for cheerleading, you’ll want to crank it up to about 1/250. Consider also that shutter speed is related to aperture. You will want a lower aperture setting when shooting action shots, in order to let in more light.
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