One of the best feelings a photographer can have is shooting a photo that perfectly captures the spontaneous emotion of a particular event. If you snap the photo of your daughter just as she opens her favorite birthday gift, capturing the joy on her face, it's a great feeling as a photographer.
To capture these types of photos, though, you need to be ready to shoot at all times. After all, shooting a spontaneous photo usually involves one chance that’s over in a second or less. This can be a significant challenge.
Try these tips to help you shoot photos that are spontaneous and show more emotion among your subjects.
- With a point and shoot camera, you usually can press and hold the shutter button halfway down to have the camera pre-focused on the subject. This will save time when you're ready to shoot the photo, as the camera will be pre-focused, leading to fewer shutter lag problems and better autofocus results, giving you a better chance of capturing the emotional reaction you want immediately as it occurs.
- Be ready to shoot at all times. Have your camera in your hands, or at least in the room with you. Know where it’s at all of the time.
- You may want to adjust the camera’s settings to make sure that it doesn’t enter power saving mode for a longer time than normal. If you normally have a power saving mode set for 5 minutes, you may want to increase it to 15 minutes. That way you will be ready to shoot all of the time, rather than having to battle with a camera that’s in power saving mode. Make sure that your battery power is fully charged to allow this to work.
- If possible, try to shoot photos from a location where you won't be noticed. The subjects are more likely to be spontaneous and natural if they don't know the photo is coming. To make sure no one is upset with you for shooting photos without permission, make sure you let everyone know ahead of time that you'll be shooting photos in this manner.
- Try different zoom options with spontaneous photos. For example, sometimes you'll want a close-up on the subject's face, perhaps when a child is eating cold ice cream, for example. Other times, you may want to zoom out and capture the subject's entire body to shoot an odd movement.
- However, if you’re worried about catching the spontaneous photo, you will want to set the zoom at a particular length and just leave it there. Make sure that you’re standing in a position that will allow the selected zoom length to work well, so you don’t have to worry about adjusting the zoom while trying to shoot the spontaneous photo.
- If the light is low where you'll be shooting your photos on the fly, consider having a tripod attached to the camera. That way, the camera will be ready to shoot, without having to worry about keeping the camera steady in low light.
- Try different angles to turn a standard photo opportunity into a spontaneous photo. For example, with a standard group photo, consider walking to the side and shoot the group at the edge of the frame, perhaps focusing on the people who are looking at the group. Or, if you're shooting a sporting event, focus on the coach or sideline players with the action out of focus in the foreground, trying to capture the facial expressions of those on the sideline.
- Look for the emotional reaction after an event occurs. Where most people may shoot the event, the spontaneous reaction to the event may be just as entertaining.
- Finally, don't overlook a spontaneous photo opportunity. For example, maybe you're planning to shoot a group family photo outside at 3 p.m. The spontaneous photos in the 5-10 minutes before the group photo can be a lot of fun, where people are preparing for the group photo, and may end up being more memorable than the group photo. As a photographer, always be ready.
