Why Are My Photos of Moving Subjects Blurry? (And How to Fix It)

Why Are My Photos of Moving Subjects Blurry?

You line up the shot. Why Are My Photos of Moving Subjects Blurry?

Your child runs across the garden.Your dog jumps for a ball.A bird lands on the fence.

You press the shutter at exactly the right moment…

…but when you look at the photo later, the subject is blurry.

If this happens to you, don’t worry. It’s one of the most common frustrations beginners experience when they start photographing moving subjects. And the reason is actually very simple.

What’s really happening when you take a photo

When you take a picture, you hear a click.

But that click is actually two sounds.

It’s the sound of the camera shutter opening and then closing again.

This happens incredibly quickly, usually in tiny fractions of a second, which is why your ear normally only hears one sound.

The moment between the shutter opening and closing is when the camera is collecting light to create the photo.

But here’s the interesting bit.

Anything that moves between the shutter opening and closing again can appear blurry in the final image.

If your subject moves during that time, the camera records that movement. So instead of freezing a single moment, the movement shows up as blur.

This is where shutter speed comes in

The length of time the shutter stays open is called shutter speed.

If the shutter stays open for longer, movement is more likely to appear blurred.

If the shutter opens and closes very quickly, the camera captures a much shorter slice of time, which helps freeze movement.

That’s why faster shutter speeds are so useful when photographing things that move.

How fast should your shutter speed be?

The exact shutter speed you need depends on how quickly your subject is moving.

As a children's photographer, I’ve learned from experience that a shutter speed of around 1/250 second is often fast enough to freeze everyday movement like children running or playing.

That’s a good starting point for a lot of real-life situations.

Here are a few rough guides you could try:

1/125 - Good for people standing or moving slowly.

1/250 - Often fast enough for children playing or everyday movement.

1/500 - Helpful for faster action such as dogs running or sports.

1/1000 or faster - Useful for wildlife, birds in flight, or very fast movement.

These aren’t strict rules, but they’re helpful starting points when you’re experimenting.

A simple way to try this yourself

If your camera allows it, try using Shutter Priority mode (often marked as S or Tv on the mode dial).

This lets you choose the shutter speed while the camera automatically adjusts the other settings.

It’s a simple way to experiment with freezing movement without needing to control everything manually.

The bigger picture

Shutter speed is one of the three key settings that control how your photos look.

The other two are:

• aperture

• ISO

Once you understand how these three settings work together, you can start telling the camera exactly how you want your photo to look.

If you'd like to understand your camera properly

If you’d like to understand how these settings work together and learn simple, practical techniques for getting the most out of your camera, that’s exactly what I guide beginners through inside my Get Camera Confident course.

It’s designed specifically for beginners and helps you move beyond Auto mode so you can start taking photos you’re genuinely proud of.

Explore Get Camera Confident

Sarah Lester is a professional photographer with over 20 years of experience behind the camera. She specialises in helping beginners feel confident using their cameras in a clear, simple and jargon-free way.

Her Get Camera Confident course has already helped more than 1,000 students start taking photos they’re proud of.