Following a discussion on Twitter at the weekend, I was asked how to I capture moving items like pets, kids, people and such like. There are endless pro photography options but I am going to focus on simplicity.

To illustrate what is possible, I took the above shot using the Samsung Note 4. This was snapped in difficult lighting using the burst mode, and then cropped in slightly to focus on the action. So what else did I do to capture this scene. Well below is my thought process.

Framing. Think about what the scene looks like through the viewfinder (screen). If you are going to want to shoot leaping dogs, try and get in to a position where you know your dog will run or fly passed. In other words set the phone up ready with the view minus the dog or child etc.. Now as you start to see you object move in to the target area, and about 1 sec before, press and hold the shutter button. 30 burst photos will be taken. While this happens do not move the phone. Breathe in, tucks arms in to chest as you take the photos. You can never have too many photos! Simple really, but lets step back. If you see you dog running try and let the Note 4 gain focus and then when scene is in target view, then press and hold on screen shutter button to activate burst mode.

What about indoors in low lighting. Normally the Note 4 tries to avoid using the flash, so use the night mode which needs a longer shutter time. This mode is no good for people and pets normally. However, you might be lucky in night mode. For this you must try and hold phone still to get the best shutter and ISO options using the OIS. IF necessary don’t be afraid of using flash. Sometimes there is no choice. IF you need extra light, use the torch mode on another phone to shine at subjects. Beneath a certain low light, the camera will not perform miracles. Other options at night is trying to shoot with HDR mode. Personally I don’t recommend that. You might find having to use an ISO of 800.

In better lighting, another mode worth trying is either Sport or Shot and More. Both these work really well too. As does 4K video recording, then during playback taking a screen grab which will be a 8mp image. Shot and More only works where the action is going to appear left to right or right to left in a predicable line. Once snapped, you can create some fancy modes. Below is one such effect. Because the horse was always going to jump over the fence, the line and my positioning was straight forward to manage using Shot and More.

Of course, you can always tweak the manual settings on the camera app, but usually by then the moment has been lost. Generally, it is understanding the lighting tolerances of the phone. Bright light, dusk, sunrise, sunset, indoor lighting, snow all impact the shots. It is worth practising without people first in your actual setups to see what works best for you so you don’t spend time trying to guess what mode to use and the miss the moment.

So what tips have you got?