Delay dilema
 

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping some of you digital wizards out there can give me some advice. I am having a second photo shoot with a toddler this Sunday. I was very excited to use my digital camera for the original photo shoot in May. Unfortunately the little guy was teething something fierce and was in constant motion looking for something to chomp on. The delay has not been an issue until I tried unsuccessfully to photograph the teething 14 month old. Any advice on how to cut the delay time? I have a Pentax Optio, 33L. I am pondering pulling out my Minolta 35mm with the manual focus (ugh!).
Hopefully all the teeth are through now and he will be calmer but any and all advice is appreciated.

Vianna

Ah, the digital age!
 

Vianna,
I know just how you feel. I have a Sony Cybershot and unless I'm in bright light or daylight, it takes up to one second from the time I press the shutter release to the time the darn thing actually snaps the photo! It drives me crazy!
Is there any way you can bump up the lighting situation?

On my camera I have a continuous shot option (where the camera just keeps taking one pic after another up to a certain amount of pics). I've not used this and I don't know if that would solve the delay problem or not.

I have just learned to shoot children in relatively bright light!

Many is the time I wish I had a decent SLR!!! (Or a digital SLR! I'm pretty sure you can manually adjust the shutter speed on those.)

I didn't realize that the light situation was the source of the delay. Thanks, Brenda, that was a big help. I'll practice photographing my kids in different light and see if that makes a difference. I may attempt the continuous shoot also. I don't know what an SLR is but I think I want one.

Thanks again,
Vianna

Dear Vianna,

I feel your pain. :)

As I think about it, there are two delay times. One is the time between pressing the shutter button and the taking of the image; the other is the recycling time required until the camera is ready for the next pic.

The first can be the problem the camera has trying to focus because of poor lighting or movement (both may have been at play during your session). The second has to do with the time it takes the camera to write the image to the chip. The higher the resolution, the longer it takes.

I use a Nikon 5700, and of course I want the highest possible resolution for my resource images. If I am photographing a very active 2 year old, he'd be running into traffic by the time I watch my little digital hourglass do its thing. So for young kids I still go back to my film camera. I have auto focus on my regular camera, and it is still much better than manual focus.

As far as I know, the only way to get the delay under control is to go with a SLR digital camera, which is an economic jump from where you and I are. Then you can do rapid succession photos at high resolution. If you already have lenses for your film camera, it might make $$ sense to get its digital SLR equivalent. Mike M probably knows much more than I on this subject.

I am always dreaming of new technology (geek). When my ship comes in , it will probably have a Nikon D-70 or D-10 onboard. The downside though, is that the SLRs are quite a bit heavier than their non-SLR counterparts.

Not that this is particularly relevant, but I generally reccommend to my clients that children be about 18 months old at the minimum. I'm not sure that has anything to do with how squiggly they are since I just photographed some REALLY squiggly kids who were 4 and 5. Just be patient, flexible and persistent.

Good luck!

Hi Chris,

I just spent a few hours on the net and on the forum learning about SLR cameras and now I want one. There are two musicians in the family and their need of the newest toy usually wins over my art wants but I think I have a good case for a new camera. For this Sunday I will load up my old 35 mm (wish I had auto focus) Minolta and the digital camera and hopefully get a good shot. I am also hoping the teething and drooling have ended.

Vianna

I had a Canon G2 which didn't have much of a delay but did produce a moir

Hi Leslie,

I am going to purchase an SLR camera soon. As you say it is a sound business expense. I may have a series of judicial portraits coming up shortly and would like to have a decent camera before then. There is a new Cannon SLR out that is less than $1000.00 and has recieved very good reviews. Meanwhile, the dreaded drooling teething toddler photo shoot is tomorrow morning. I experimented on my daughter using the continuous shoot function and found it worked better outside than indoors. Hopefully if I get him in the right light and let the camera fire off continuously. I will eventually get a good reference.

I have only had two photosessions with my digital camera, but along with the camera I've brought along a laptop computer. After the shoot I load the pictures onto the computer and the client and I go over them. Really beats having to find a one-hour processing place near the location and then waiting for the film to be developed. We can see whether we like what we've got and then shoot a few more if we need to fill in or catch some other detail or if we find that none of the expressions are quite right. I bought my son's old iBook for that purpose and it makes going digital even nicer.

Hi Vianna, i can appreciate the painful sessions you must go through with your camera. My camera, the Fuji FinePix S5500 comes with continuous shots functions but i have problems with delays too. In fact, even for the best digital SLRs in the markets still experience some forms of delays.

After checking out your cam model on dpreview.com, i reckon you can do two things for yourself :
(1) change the memory card
(2) Set your cam to high speeds
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/spec...x_optio33l.asp

Your model can do multiple shots too (see ? on continuous drive on the website). I met a professional photographer and he swears that different memory cards have different "transfer speeds" - the speed of transferring the photo-shot onto the memory card. He said to look out for cards with 80X or higher transfer speeds...of course, that comes with higher prices.

Next, your cam does a whopping max speed of 1/1500 sec shots. So that's another enhancement that you can use for those lightning quick shots you sought to take.

Hope all this helps your work from now on! ;)

Whew, it's over!

I went online about 30 minutes before the client came and was happy to see the information you sent, Marcus. Thank you so much for looking up the info on my camera. I did go into it's guts and make a few adjustments. The mom came with a high chair and Barney tape (Big Help) and the 6 year old sister (Not Big Help). I set the toddler so that his high chair was in good light and used the continous shoot option. The only problem with that function is that the camera insists that I also have continuous playback.. I should have found a way to shut off the playback but between the jealous sibling and Barney blasting in the background I found my ability to read camera functions hamperd. Again, outside in the shade (It is a beautiful sunny day) the camera excelled and the shots were fast and lovely. Unfortunately the little guy felt the session was over and we complied. Out of 100 photos there are 4 that are charming and usable.
Leslie, I did show the photos right away to the mother on my computer which is in my studio. I burned a CD of all the shots plus a file of the favorites. I do think a laptop would be nice and will add that to my wish list.

Thank you again, everyone for all your advice. I learned a lot.
Vianna Szabo

That's great Vianna!
I'm glad the tips have helped. Please share with us the final artwork from the new shots, when you've completed it! :sunnysmil
I'd love to see it.

No shutter delays here!
 

Hi Marcus,

I just wanted to chime in that at least some SLR Digital cameras on the market have no perceptable shutter delay at all! I don't mean to say they have no shutter delay, but that it just is not humanly perceptable.

I purchased my Nikon D-100 three years ago when it was advertised as being the original pro-sumer camera of its kind with no effective shutter delay. That was a huge selling point for me!

I can report that in the field and daily use over the past three years, those claims are absolutely true. I have taken over 90,000 pictures with it and any time it was of a moving object, it was captured just as it was anticipated with my shutter activation.

The only delays I get are with the memory buffer after seven continuous high speed shots (or taking a picture of a black object in the shadow, at midnight!). Some newer SLR digitls are significantly improved in that regard. But hey, I'm not really shooting movies, so that does not affect me so much.

Regards,
Garth

PS: Here's an example of good shutter timing without delay (probably mostly dumb luck). I have never even seen this flame in real life. Straight photography from my Nikon D-100 (no Photoshop).

And another!

Woah... now that's a really cool photo Garth !

More Battle of Germantown Pics (real and fake)
 

Thanks Terri!

Okay now I am on a roll with another example of precise D-100 shutter timing.

The first two pictures are the real-deal, no retouching. Those battered marble sculptures actually were present and in the midst :exclamati of the original Battle of Germantown on October 4, 1777.

(Note: the Americans lost this battle. 70 men died on the front lawn of this house. The British were barracaded inside, and this proved to be a very well built house indeed! Even cannons were not up to the task. The site is Cliveden of the National Trust, and it still bears its original battle scars on the facade, and inside. To visit the website: click here. Those battle poster shots are mine too. Actually everyone is invited to attend the next Battle reinactment on October 1, 2005. Its free! See you there.)

On the second pair of pictures I had fun and added effects to an innocent image of four boys in a mock drill. I can assure you their muskets were not actually loaded! :o The fire was taken from the image in the previous post, and added in Photoshop. What fun!

The point I am making is that if this camera can ably capture the precise moment of a gun being fired, it stands to reason a wiggly toddler on the loose doesn't stand a chance eluding a trigger finger on this shutter! The Nikon D-50, D-70, and D-100 should each be about the same capability in this regard.

Garth

Amazing photos!
 

Garth,

Those are amazing photos. You're right if a camera can handle that it most certainly can take on a wiggily toddler. I'm attaching some of the photos taken yesterday. You can see a definate difference between the indoor and the outdoor light in the color and clarity. Indoors I could almost hear the camera doing calculations. Unfortunately outside the little guy decided enough was enough and that the session was over. I will use those shots for color reference though. These are not great shots but I suppose you go to photo shoots with the camera you have.....

Vianna

Hi Vianna,

That is quite an adorable little guy. The outdoor shots do have excellent color; I doubt another camera would do any better. It's too bad if you cannot utilize the outdoor distracted theme (in a way like I had to with my painting .Arianna and Taylor). The only caution about those outdoor photos as color references are that the little boy's beautiful skin is a reflective screen highly influenced by everything around him. The orange shirt, surrounding greenery and sky really come into play here. It would be easier if you could use these photos with their original context and theme, like having the caregiver in the orange shirt in the image, or him running free in the garden.

Garth

That is a beautiful painting of Arianna and Taylor, Garth. Gorgeous color and a wonderful feel to it. I am especially impressed with the skin tones. How nice the parents were supportive of this pose. In my case this is the third portrait I am doing for this family. Each child has been represented in a 16x20 head and shoulders pose in pastel at approximately 14 months of age. He is a real cutie but I am restricted by the previous portraits and the wishes of the mother. There is nothing prettier than a little one in the garden in morning light. I'm not going to copy the skin tones exactly from the outdoor shoot but use them to reference the indoor pose to spice them up. Wish me luck, and thanks for all of your input.

Vianna

Thanks Vianna!

When you get a chance, it would be interesting to see your three portraits posted in a grouping. It's always a dilemma do make three portraits work together. I'm sure you will do fine though.

Garth

Hi Garth,
Just a tiny, wacky nitpick, if you don

Excellent nitpick!
 

Allan that bothered me too. Glad you noticed that detail!

Well here, I've reworked this gag. It seemed easy to fix. What do you think?

Sorry about the aggressive hijack, Vianna!

Garth

Bull

No problem on the hijack, Garth. Thanks for your vote of confidence on the portrait. I'll show all three when I am done.

Vianna

Vianna,

It is really fascinating to look at all the reflected colors in the skin. Look at his left arm in the last photo......it is all blue in the shadow side.

Allan

Allan,

I agree. I wish I was working from the photo where his mother is holding him. I love the reflected complementary colors. Hopefully I can sneek some of that into the portrait. The colors are so rich and subtle.

Vianna