Don't be a "Machine Gunner"

[imagemaker46]

The problem shooting indoor events is that it does disturb other people and can be distracting. Even with my 1Dx the only time I blast away is during football running plays where a player is coming towards me, otherwise I'll just shoot a couple frames at a time. I probably average 400-500 images during a football game, but then as team photographer, I am shooting the warmups, coin toss, generic signage and game action and portraits on the bench.

 

[Solarflare]

*shrug*

I recently went on vaccation with a friend. The later had a single memory card and said if it was full, he would stop. I had quite the reserves, as usual. I shot about 4-5 times the pictures, and in the end had about twice the amount of keepers. Plus, to be honest, most of his pictures wouldnt have ended up keepers of mine.

Well, granted - I definitely didnt "spray and pray".

I think its about balance. Just dont go to extremes. Dont expect every single frame to be a success. Press the shutter whenever theres a chance its a keeper, even if it isnt. But dont stop thinking when you're making pictures, either.

 

[Designer]

Having started out in film, I developed the habit of carefully composing and exposing each photograph as if were a future masterpiece. (LOL)

In those days, even if I could have obtained a motor drive, I never seriously considered it.

Now even though each frame is very cheap, I still hold onto the old habit of shooting one frame at a time.

Someday I'll put my camera into continuous mode to make sure it works.

 

[407370]

I would love to spray and pray but my old FUJI takes a full lunar orbit to empty the buffer after a burst shot.

 

[Overread]

I tend to have my 7D on its full 8fps mode all the time unless I'm shooting macro then I have it cut to 4fps (because the flash unit can't keep up if I go for a burst of shots - which I might well do for a handheld focus stack - otherwise its single shots).

I don't tend to gun too badly, normally two or three frames - I might gun for more if what I'm shooting is very action orientated and also if I'm not sure what the subject will do - so getting more helps; plus one can look back at a more detailed sequence of events and then more easily spot the "moment" the real action shot happens (or the moments as sometimes a specific event can have several key points).

I think this is one of those things that when you read it - such as single shot on spots - it sounds wrong when you've not done it, or when you've only done it once before. But I can only back-up what others said - the more you come to understand a subject and situation the more easy it is to predict what will likely happen and thus when to take the shot you want. It's like driving - when you start the other cars could go ANYWHERE - but after a while you start to build up an understanding of what the speeds, angle, directions and road will all combine together to direct that car and thus where its most likely to head.

 

[oldhippy]

Years ago, actually decades ago, while trying to flick the lid of my Zippo lighter. My dad butted in and said. You know there's only so many flicks, till that top comes off.
I think of that when I hear of spray and pray. 5000. Times 15 events equals end of shutter life. I try to balance but not over use. Just thinking. Ed

 

[ph0enix]

OMG!!! 5,500 frames in a two and a half hour, indoor event! Utterly laughable! She'll need a garbage truck to haul away all the rubbish! I have never heard of such ridiculous overshooting. Wow...what a waste of resources.

Seriously! Who has the time to sift through all those trash photos.

 

[Gary A.]

Oh for the days when you'd roll into a wedding with a half-dozen '36' rolls in your bag and figure you had enough for two weddings!

When shooting assignments, I'd tried to limit myself to four rolls. Anything more than four started to be a pain figuring out developer quantities and then having to examine every frame for the best shot(s).

 

[bratkinson]

I fully understand the need for multiple frames per second to record "the moment" of someone being tagged out in baseball or something like that. Maybe race cars too, predicting when they'd be in exactly the right spot to get "the moment" during the action, or perhaps during a crash.

But this morning, I found another "the moment" to capture online...a sound barrier breaking vapor cone. I never knew there was such a thing. It lasts only milliseconds, so it took the photographer many tries over 5 years to capture one...
Jet breaking sound barrier looks like this - GrindTV.com
But then, I Googled it, and it looks like there's a number of sound barrier vapor shots.

 

[JerryVenz]

Yes, your camera's shutter does have a limited life and it's not always a long as advertised by your manufacturer. One of our Nikon's shutter packed-it-in at 55,000 frames--costing us $400.00 to replace.

The ONLY time I use my camera's max-frame rate is when doing extreme action--especially unpredictable action like rodeo.

Still my very best sports action photography ( racing cars, motorcycles, airplanes ) was done one-frame-at-a-time. These were planned, and executed with knowledge of the sport--having been a racer myself. I found that MY timing of when to click the shutter was far better than the GAMBLE of just hitting the motor-drive ( yep, I had a Canon F1 with motor-drive and 250-shot bulk-film-back--and boy was THAT bulky!).

 

[Gary A.]

I wonder how anyone with a reasonable expectation of living a normal life can go through that many photos and select a few good ones. So let's say that she uploads all 5,500 shots, and spends about 10 seconds each frame to decide if it is one that she keeps.

10 seconds per frame, 6 per minute, would take her 916 minutes, or 15 1/4 hours. Add in some time for breaks, you're up to say 20 hours of just deciding which ones to keep. Then there is editing, if any, so add in some more time for that. Oops, forgot to pay the bills, feed the cat and walk the dog, I was so wrapped up in going through all those photographs.

Annnnnd there's somebody that gets the "waste of resources" concept. Hey, I've shot probably 100 press conferences/speakers. It's not "that difficult" to get a few decent frames. It's called "paying attention", and "timing". Good Christ...even at 6 frames per second, each frame is separated by 1/6 of a second! A fricking eye-blink is 1/10 of a second. As a kid in junior high and high school, I used to dink around with the digital watches I wore...I could reliably start, and stop, the chronograph in 0.07 seconds. That's seven one-hundredths of a second, for TWO, discrete button presses, not just one!

Firing along, blindly,like an idiot, at 6 FPS, that means exposures are 0.16666667 seconds apart. Krikey--that's basically BLIND LUCK. If one cannot shoot with better timing than that,then one sucks pretty seriously as far as having ANY sense of what is called "timing".

Take. One. Properly-timed. Frame.At.A.Time. Try.To.Get.It.Right. Do.Some.Simple.Math.

For me, it all depends on what you're shooting. Using high FPS is purely situational. I use it a lot, mainly because that's how I was trained to shoot than anything else. The professional cannot afford to miss 'The Shot', to miss the defining image. High FPS is a useful tool/crutch to capture that shot. When the competition is on your immediate left and right and they are shooting at a high FPS, you cannot afford to give away that advantage. If I told my boss I missed The Shot because I was saving the company money ... I'd probably end up in the emergency room, looking at a pink slip of paper, while waiting to have a shoe removed from my behind.

I have to admit I still remember and admire this Time-Life photog. We were shooting the president, (Ford). We were all set up across the room from the dias in some hotel. Next to me, on a tripod, (the only tripod in the room), was this Time-Life guy. The president come out and everytime he sneezes, every motordriven camera in the place opens up. Not this guy. He waits and waits until he sees the shot he wants and 'click' ... a single click. I shoot my typical four rolls ... he shot maybe one roll, (probably a 24 exposure roll at that, lol).

Gary

 

[Gary A.]

Yes, your camera's shutter does have a limited life and it's not always a long as advertised by your manufacturer. One of our Nikon's shutter packed-it-in at 55,000 frames--costing us $400.00 to replace.

The ONLY time I use my camera's max-frame rate is when doing extreme action--especially unpredictable action like rodeo.

Still my very best sports action photography ( racing cars, motorcycles, airplanes ) was done one-frame-at-a-time. These were planned, and executed with knowledge of the sport--having been a racer myself. I found that MY timing of when to click the shutter was far better than the GAMBLE of just hitting the motor-drive ( yep, I had a Canon F1 with motor-drive and 250-shot bulk-film-back--and boy was THAT bulky!).

My experience has been different. My best action images were best served by a combo of timing and high FPS. The combination of these two elements provides a much higher consistency rate than either element alone.

Gary

 

[Overread]

Gary - agreed. Timing is everything - time your shots to the right moment, but also use the fast frames per second. This maximises the chances of getting that right moment; the higher frames is helping you, but it still relies upon the photographer getting that right moment (and chances are the first 3 or so frames will have the shot you want).

 

[TheStunch]

I always try think about culling the photos when I squeeze the trigger, if I have to kill 800 photos for 4, I need to rethink my shooting strategy.

 

[Derrel]

5,500 frames at a two and a half hour podium-heavy event. Constant, repeated 18- to 25-frame bursts. LMAO. That's basically 36.66667 frames per minute. For 150 minutes. I can only imagine what a PITA this woman was to anybody who had the misfortune to be near her for the duration of this indoor event. I bet there were some awesome moments of people talking, and some amazing pointing gestures, perhaps some awesome hand-clapping shots, and probably some incredible handing-over-the-microphone shots, maybe a few shuffling of the notes shots! exciting stuff!