Photography, like any art, is a rewarding and aesthetic trade, especially when you know how to go about it. The beauty of photography is that anyone can take good pictures with the right knowledge and aspiration. That goes for even the seemingly difficult high speed or action photos that appear in sports and car magazines or on the internet.

Ever taken pictures of something in motion, and then it comes out blurry and with no detail? You probably have suffered so much that you do not even bother taking pictures anymore. But there is something called burst photography that helps take continuous pictures with high-speed action and make them come out with the detail you see in those trendy magazines!

Most people assume burst photos are only taken by expert photographers with only professional Digital SLR cameras, but the reality is that amateur photographers and anyone with a reasonable mobile camera can also learn to take good burst photos. For example, AKASO action cameras also provide burst photos mode. 

What Really Is Burst Mode?

Burst Mode, continuous shooting mode, sports mode, the continuous high-speed mode is a camera mode that allows the photographer to take burst shots or multiple shots at a time by simply holding the shutter button on their camera. In most DSLR cameras, a photographer can take as many pictures until they realize the memory buffer fills up. Burst shots are used by photographers to take photos of subjects in motion. Burst photography is quite useful because with this mode, photographers do not need to anticipate the exact time to take the shot, but they can take multiple shots and then choose the right one.

The key to the use of burst mode is knowing when to use burst mode and how to apply it. Burst shots should be taken if you want to take images of subjects in motion. Taking burst photos on stationary objects just unnecessarily fills your camera memory card and computer hard drive, especially when they are raw photos, which are generally larger in file size.

Tips on Using Burst Mode for Better Motion Photography

Before you use the burst mode on your camera, you need to understand the limitations and specifications of your camera. It denotes mainly issues of frames per second (FPS), which are the number of pictures your camera can take in a single second. It helps you understand how you can take your burst shots. Some good qualities DSLR cameras go up to and even exceed 20 FPS, and some lower quality items reach just about 6 FPS.

1. Check your SD card

In the case of taking burst shots, the type of memory card you are using can affect your buffering and considerably limit your burst photos. If you are shooting in burst mode, Class 10 or UHS Class 1 or 3 are the best options because they do not limit your camera with slower buffering.

2. Change to Burst Mode

Like said before, you do not really need a special burst camera to take good burst shots; all that is needed is to change your drive from single to continuous mode and take good shots.

On most cameras, switching from single to continuous mode is quite simple. It is because some cameras have a shortcut button for the burst mode, usually labeled with small overlapping rectangles or with CL or CH, which means continuous low and continuous high. These functions are necessary if you want to preserve space while taking burst shots, or if you want to get many shots at once.

If you want a long high-quality burst, you should also adjust the quality of your images to a lower level, especially JPEG. It helps you get better bursts, and you are more likely to get your shot this way.

3. Adjust your camera’s focus mode

If you want to avoid a mistake with the focus of your burst shots, it is strongly recommended that you couple your burst mode with the autofocus mode of your camera. Otherwise, you might take shots, where only the first picture will be in focus, and the rest will be hardly visible. Some cameras have plenty of other options, apart from just autofocus, depending on the direction, trajectory, and behavior of the targets. The three common auto-focus modes are single autofocus, continuous autofocus, and hybrid autofocus.

The other option is to pre-focus your shot before taking the burst photo and then switching to manual focus. This way, the camera will not revert to autofocus and ruin your burst. This procedure is usually common with professional photographers so that they take their burst shots within the exact confines of their desired focus or when taking shots of vertically moving objects.

4. Take your shot

Once your settings are in place, remember to hold your camera shutter button until you are done. Most cameras will take bursts for about 4 seconds until they stop.

While taking the photo, track your subject through your lens to get an understanding of its direction before you begin to take your burst shots. If you understand this, you will not miss out, and you will be better prepared for sudden changes.

Another trick when taking a burst shot is to slightly lead your subject so that you do not struggle with catching up when you are taking your continuous shots. Also, action images look better if the subject is moving to the image than out of it, so make sure the image is ahead of the subject than vice versa.

Now that you know more about burst shots, you have probably discovered that taking good burst shots does not need you to have professional continuous shot cameras, but just simple knowledge on how to take a picture. Even your mobile phone has these burst modes that can help you take some good burst photos.