Troubleshooting

Problem: My camera produced crisp pictures, but the colors are dull.

Solution: Talk to the developer. Often they can take the negatives and boost the color saturation, brightness and/or contrast and reprint the pictures. If they can't, take your negatives to another place. With drugstore developers at every corner, there's bound to be one in your area with a competent technician. If the pictures are digital, try processing them using a PC program like PhotoGenetics or PaintShop Pro.

Problem: My pictures are all blurry.

Solution: You have one of two problems: Camera Shake, or Slow Shutter. Camera shake happens when you are shooting with a slow shutter and your camera moves enough to blur the image. You can tell camera shake because the whole picture will be blurred, often flowing in one direction. To cure this, use a shorter lens (not a zoom), use a tripod, secure the camera on someone's head/shoulder or the seat in front of you, and consider using the timer or a shutter release cable. 

Slow Shutter blur happens when your camera's shutter speed is not fast enough to stop the motion of the dancers. You can tell show shutter blur when only the moving parts of the picture are blurry. The solution is to set the camera so that the shutter is at 1/80 second or faster. Point-and-shoots may give you some trouble. Check out "sports mode" on some cameras.

Problem: I used a flash and the judges penalized my kids' act.

Solution: Ask before shooting next time. You're lucky they didn't get disqualified!

Problem: I got 20 good pictures from last week's competition - but I spent $100 on film and developing.

Solution: Get a digital camera! Keep what you want, and have an online lab make as many prints as your studio wants.

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