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picture taking

Adrian1
Posted 09/09/2010 - 09:45 Link
I went to the Dunsfold air show a few weeks back and i noticed that there where still a few people using film including me

but the big thing that caught my attenthion was the way some of the digital camara users just kept on clicking away, frame after frame. are they just hoping to take a good picture?

do you thing this takes something out of photography ? when i take a picture i thing about the picture i won't and try my best to achieve this.

Adrian
Father Ted
Posted 09/09/2010 - 09:50 Link
I've seen this too!
When I took this, there was a Canon user standing behind me who had his camera set to burst mode. Must have taken 20 shots in the time it took me to take this one.
I mean!! What??!! They weren't going anywhere!
http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i296/Father_Ted/PHOTOS/Arbroathsmokies.jpg
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snappychappy
Posted 09/09/2010 - 10:06 Link
Am afraid it's the digital age, take a hundred shot's to get one good one. Doesn't make a good photographer IMHO. Your just bypassing the creative process, no need to think!!. Having said that, when aircraft are flying overhead, you have very little time.
I shoot digital and much prefer to spend time thinking about the shot before taking, but I don't really shoot motor racing or football ect, that's where digital comes into it's own.
Adrian1
Posted 09/09/2010 - 10:14 Link
So it not just me . One person i was standing next to managed to take 200 pictures in the time i did 3 . in the end i had to move away from him as i from him because of the click clicking
thoughton
Posted 09/09/2010 - 10:27 Link
Yeah I've experienced (heard, really) this too. Like Snappy says, I can see the purpose when it's high speed action, or you're shooting a wedding and it's group portrait time, but other than that I can't see what the benefit is. Surely it just means a ton more PP later?
Tim
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Edited by thoughton: 09/09/2010 - 10:28
Backhouse
Posted 09/09/2010 - 11:01 Link
I bought a Canon 20D and have done exactly what you mentioned above. sat on a corner at goodwood and 'machine gunned' the cars as the came round panning as many shots in as I could. In a way this is nice and easy and you don;t have to think, but I did manage about 800 shots in the day and got maybe a 10% return of stuff worth PPing from them and I ended up with 69 pics from the day. Digital is a nice way to learn without paying for processing and being able to instantly reviw and see what went right/wrong, but I've gone and bought a spotmatic to try a have a bit of fun and make myself think a little more about my pictures. I do know people that stick their DSLRs on auto and rattle pics off at a hell of a rate, I don't want to snap like that.
Father Ted
Posted 09/09/2010 - 11:04 Link
Maybe because my camera is old and doesn't have a fast burst rate, but even at motor rallies I use single shot. I decide in advance what I want, focus on a point very close to where the car will be, then set focus to manual and wait. Car comes, Click and I either have it or I don't.
Getting there! Thanks to you guys

Pentax K10d, *istDL, Kit lens ( 18-55mm ), 50mm f1.7 lens, Tamron 70-300mm lens, Prinzflex 70-162 manual lens, Various old flashes.
fatspider
Posted 09/09/2010 - 13:29 Link
Fast frame rate cameras are for people who cant take photographs, they have to rely on the camera to capture one for them.

I could understand the need it if it was something that would be too quick for the user to respond to or if it was used to capture a sequence of shots. I personally find it much more rewarding to know I have waited patiently for my subject to be in the right position before pressing the shutter, that makes it MY photograph.
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Gwyn
Posted 09/09/2010 - 13:41 Link
fatspider wrote:
Fast frame rate cameras are for people who cant take photographs, they have to rely on the camera to capture one for them.

I could understand the need it if it was something that would be too quick for the user to respond to or if it was used to capture a sequence of shots. I personally find it much more rewarding to know I have waited patiently for my subject to be in the right position before pressing the shutter, that makes it MY photograph.

Plenty of press photographers shoot in this way, because they have a better chance of getting "the shot" by doing so.
davidtrout
Posted 09/09/2010 - 17:15 Link
Gwyn wrote:
fatspider wrote:
Fast frame rate cameras are for people who cant take photographs, they have to rely on the camera to capture one for them.

I could understand the need it if it was something that would be too quick for the user to respond to or if it was used to capture a sequence of shots. I personally find it much more rewarding to know I have waited patiently for my subject to be in the right position before pressing the shutter, that makes it MY photograph.

Plenty of press photographers shoot in this way, because they have a better chance of getting "the shot" by doing so.

I use 'drive' mode when photographing fast moving steam trains. These beasts out on the main line don't hang around.
Press photographers certainly need high FPS shooting and in particular sports photographers where high speed action is an essential part of the job. Try telling your editor you missed the goal because you were shooting single frame and weren't quick enough on the shutter button. In a press scrum where the paps are fighting over who is going to get the best pic of a celeb high frames-per-second is a must.
I can't imagine it being much use for landscape photographers though.
But professional photographers have always used motor drive, even in film days. This has nothing to do with the advent of digital photography.
David
Edited by davidtrout: 09/09/2010 - 17:21
robbie_d
Posted 09/09/2010 - 17:29 Link
Horses for courses really.

It would be a little foolish to attend, say, a motorsport event and steadfastly refuse to use burst shooting (because it isn't embracing the true art of photography) only to return home with no useable pictures.

Similarly though, there are many applications where it is overkill (most applications with static subjects for instance. Particularly as burst fires off shots using the same settings. If I see something interesting I want to take a shot of, I may take a number of shots but with different settings (just to see which gives the best 'look').

I think it gets a little dangerous saying people aren't proper photographers for using burst mode. Continuing that logic means that anyone who doesn't solely use 'M' mode, doesn't meter off camera, doesn't focus manually and never checks shots on the inbuilt LCD isn't a 'proper' photographer, and I'm not sure there are many on this forum who can claim that.
If you can't say something nice about Pentax, you won't say anything at all.

Apparently.
womble
Posted 09/09/2010 - 20:10 Link
The Pentax LX with a motordrive (and probably a NiCAD powerpack) could shoot an entire 36 exposure roll of film in 7.2 seconds and an entire 250 exposure bulk film back in less than a minute...

As photographers we have lots of tools available, many for quite specialised functions. Some get misused. How many people have seen folks with the pop-up flash on their dSLR permanently on, whatever the circumstances?

K.
Kris Lockyear
It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart and head. Henri Cartier-Bresson
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Banjo
Posted 10/09/2010 - 01:35 Link
Adrian1 wrote:
... but the big thing that caught my attenthion was the way some of the digital camara users just kept on clicking away, frame after frame. are they just hoping to take a good picture? ... Adrian

It gets even better: many have their flash going as well!

Last week, I got a really nice shot of a helicopter leaving the roof-top heli-pad of our major hospital using an Asahi Pentax SP-F and an SMC Takumar f4.5/80-210 one touch zoom lens. I only took one shot, and it was a good one.

(Though it was originally out of sight, on the roof several storeys up, while I was on the ground, I could hear it revving up for a takeoff. I quickly made sure of the exposure and did some prefocusing and planned the composition -should the 'copter head that way- and had plenty of time to take the shot, as planned. )
Edited by Banjo: 10/09/2010 - 01:43
Banjo
Posted 10/09/2010 - 01:48 Link
Gwyn wrote:
...Plenty of press photographers shoot in this way, because they have a better chance of getting "the shot" by doing so.

It's called "Spray and pray".
Don
Posted 10/09/2010 - 13:25 Link
Banjo wrote:
Gwyn wrote:
...Plenty of press photographers shoot in this way, because they have a better chance of getting "the shot" by doing so.

It's called "Spray and pray".

like the marines... put as much lead in the air as fast as you can and you kill every enemy in the vicinity.
I'm more the sniper type... one shot one kill.. no miss.
Fired many shots. Didn't kill anything.

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