Tips for Capturing Great Candid Shots

Candid photography is all about catching people in the act of being themselves. This type of photography demands lot of patience & practice at the photographers part, as being a photographer you have to wait for the right moment to happen and then capture it creatively. Candid shots are simple, natural and beautifully mirror essence of the moments. Capturing candid shots is not that easy as it may appear, so here are few tips to adopt when taking candid shots.

1. Keep your camera ready all time - Keep your camera available, as you never know when a fantastic frame will occur. Whenever you see a moment unfolding, capture it in your camera. Keep the camera charged enough, so that you do not miss any moments. Candid photography is all about spontaneity, so carry your camera everywhere.

2. Background - When taking candid shots, select a shooting position that provides a distraction free and clean background. You can shoot using a wide aperture; this will fill the frame with subject and blur the background. To overcome any background disturbances, you can frame tightly.

3. Capture people unaware - Now this sounds so obvious but the beauty of candid shots lies in capturing people unaware. This way you can produce shots that are more natural. Even if they know you are clicking pictures, let the scene play and keep yourself uninvolved in the scene. Wait patiently and let them do whatever they are doing setting their hair, dancing, laughing, talking to someone or whatever, when moment happens capture it in your camera without subject intentionally interacting with your camera. 
   
   
   
   
   

4. Use different angles - Experiment with photographs using different angles like from the side, up above, from front, behind; this provides an unconventional angle and can give your photos an interesting depth. Especially when you taking candid shots of kids, get down on your knees while clicking photos.

5. Use continuous shooting mode - More the number of clicks, more are the chances of capturing interesting candid moments. For this, you can use continuous shooting mode on your camera and capture multiple shots, this provides you an edge when it comes to selecting best shots. When you watching a scene you want to capture, take at least 9-10 photos of the same scene, later you can select the ones that perfectly describes the moment.