This article idea is thanks to my husband. Looking at this photo (above) I took on our recent Nicaragua photo tour, he asked “You captured the perfect expression and the perfect moment to fully describe the situation in the photo. Did you shoot that in burst mode?”.
No was the answer.
There has been much discussion lately about the capabilities of modern cameras and post-processing techniques, and what is and is not appropriate. I’ve even been involved in some debates that go as far as to ask when does it stop being photography, when is it too far?
One of those areas open for discussion is the ability to shoot rapid fire, or using burst mode, on your camera. Many DSLRs have the ability to shoot four, six, eight or even ten frames per second. But the questions that it raises are these:
Does it give you better photographs? Does it make you a better photographer at the end of the day?
My answer and opinion is no, it does not!
The Decisive Moment
Henri Cartier-Bresson, considered by many to be the father of photojournalism, is attributed with the phrase, “The Decisive Moment”. Even though he himself never claimed to have coined it, rather an American editor of his book by the same name struggled to translate Bresson’s words so he used the phrase as the book title, and it stuck. Generations of photographers have been influenced by its meaning, and it’s caused countless debates.
Cartier-Bresson said: “To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.” – quoted from Wikipedia
So what does it mean? Well, as the phrase implies it is something special, a fleeting moment in time, an instance that will never occur again. Capturing such a moment is important to creating interest, mood and emotion in your images, especially if you are doing documentary, journalism or photography of everyday life, but even applies to your travel photography and images you take of your own family.
Watch this short video of a chat with the master himself, Cartier-Bresson as he talks about this philosophy. That every moment only ever happens once, and the difference between a good picture and a mediocre one is millimeters.
I talk a lot about the history of photography in my classes and about why it’s important. You can learn a lot by studying the world’s best photographers throughout history. Many have influenced me over the years including Cartier-Bresson. His is a name often heard on many other photographers’ lists too. A few years ago I was lucky enough to see an exhibit of his prints at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and the images blew me away. There is a book of that exhibit available called Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century.
So study the masters. Go see exhibits. Do online searches. Learn from them.
To sum up The Decisive Moment – to most photographers it means pressing the button at precisely the right moment, when all the elements come together just so, to make it perfect. That includes: the light, capturing the peak of action, expression, position of the subject, shapes, composition – everything that is part of making a great image. It means making a conscious decision to take the photo at the moment, in that way. It means being ready, knowing your camera and its settings, understanding light, and composition. It means you, the photographer, are in control of whether you go home with a winning image, or a memory card full of duds.
The alternative – “Spray and Pray”
At the opposite end of the spectrum you have “Spray and Pray” which is a common photography phrase associated with the practice of shooting rapid fire, as many images as possible, and then hoping and praying that you’ve got something good. It is the antithesis of The Decisive Moment mentality, and way of doing things. Even the name sounds a bit derogatory, not like something you actually want to do, right?
This methodology of photography has been popularized with the advent of digital cameras and the fact that it doesn’t cost anything to click away.
When is shooting rapid fire an advantage?
Let’s go back to the question about whether or not shooting rapid fire will result in you having better images. I’ve stated that my opinion is that it will not do that, in most situations, with a few exceptions. In some cases, such as photographing things like sports, doing panning shots, or anything with action like birds or wildlife – shooting in burst mode, and taking multiple frames at a time, will likely help you get some good images.
The series of the old car above was shot in less than two seconds from the first image to the last. Panning is a technique that does require more shots, burst mode and practice. You may have seen this car before in Panning: How to Add a Sense of Motion to Your Shots – give that a read for tips on how to do panning.
This action shot series covers less than nine seconds from first to last image, and was taken by tour participant Bob Dixon. Great work Bob! Without the use of burst mode (high or continuous on your camera’s drive settings) capturing the whole series would not have been possible. When the action is rapidly changing and things moving, this mode can advantagious.
I photographed these pelicans several times as they swooped low over the waves and by using multiple shots I was able to get them all in a row in the image above. I probably could have gotten the same result shooting single frames, one at a time, but it may have taken longer.
When can shooting mass amounts of images be problematic?
So burst mode has its place, but for most other things you may photograph, I personally suggest slowing down and actually taking less photos. Keep in mind Spray and Pray comes in other forms besides rapid burst mode. Here are a few of examples.
Vacation photos gone wrong
Have you ever been on vacation with your digital camera and come home with a few thousand images? Pretty common now right? If you are old enough to remember what it was like shooting film, that just didn’t happen due to the cost, and photographers were a lot more selective. So of those 1000s of travel photos, how many were keepers? How much work was it to painstaking go through all of them to find the gold? Were you fearful of just hitting delete without carefully examining each image at 100% to check for sharpness first? There’s a pleasure/pain thing that happens in that situation. You experience great pleasure taking the images on your trip, and great pain culling them and perhaps finding out that you missed some great opportunities and didn’t get the shots you really wanted. Can you relate to this scenario?
Here you’ll see I have over 3300 images that I took in Cuba in 13 days. That’s nuts! I haven’t had a chance to go through them all yet – in fact I still have images from a six month RV trip where I took over 27,000 images, and I haven’t gone through all those yet either. So you see, I’m guilty of this one too I’m afraid.
Auto-bracketing mess
Auto exposure bracketing (AEB) has also made it easy to shoot three images (one underexposed or dark, one middle and one overexposed of light) just in case you aren’t quite sure what your exposure settings should be. But what if the perfect expression, that peak of action, ends up being the shot that’s too dark and you can’t recover the details? Why not just expose all your images correctly and focus on capturing the moment? If you aren’t confident in your exposures or camera settings, perhaps taking a class would be a good idea. Shooting in RAW will also help as the files carry more information and are more forgiving in this area.
People photography and missing the mark
This trend extends into portrait photography as well. I personally know photographers who set up a group of people, put the camera on the tripod, get everyone in place, and get them to smile. All good so far right? Then they shoot 10-30 images in burst mode of the group, figuring that’s a safe number to get a good expression from everyone. Well, I can tell you that does NOT work. I used to do Photoshop work for a few professional photographers and I’ve been handed a similar set of images and asked to pull three or four different shots together into one (doing head swaps in Photoshop) because there isn’t a single image with everyone’s eyes open or mouth not gaping. Trust me, this happens a lot. Fixing it later in Photoshop is NOT good photography. I used to shoot about five to eight images for groups of people when I used film, and I never had an issue of not getting at least one good, usable image. I waited for the decisive moment each time I pressed the shutter when I could see everyone had a good expression, and I was usually right.
When I photographed this family portrait above I only took about 12-15 photos, all intentionally one at a time. Of those shots (I don’t know exactly how many I took now because I delete all the rejects) they had seven good ones to pick from including these two images. No need to spray and pray. I had an assistant (you could have a friend of family member help you) with me helping with equipment and setup, and also with getting the baby’s attention. I only clicked the shutter when I had some good expressions. You will get a much higher success rate doing it this way than just firing off 20 images in a row and assuming you’ll get some good ones.
Movie mode image grab? Just say no
I’ve never seen any of my students do this but I’ve heard of some photographers shooting in movie mode instead of still frames – and then grabbing one frame of the movie that is the “perfect” shot. I don’t know about you, but that seems at little bit like cheating to me, and WAY more work as well! Why make thing harder on yourself?
How to overcome this problem and take better photos
There are a few things I will recommend for you to practice to conquer this issue of over shooting. Even if this isn’t really an issue for you, try them out anyway and you may find that you still benefit.
#1 Shoot With Intent
Work on only pressing the button when you see the action happening. Watch closer and be choosy. Knowing what you’re waiting for is helpful too.
#2 Look Through Your Eye Cup
If you use the LCD live view to frame your images and shoot that way, turn it off and look through the eye cup. If you have a point and shoot camera that doesn’t offers an electronic viewfinder in the eyepiece, use it instead of the display screen. What this does it takes away your peripheral vision so you can only see what is in your field of view, what the camera sees.
#3 Use a Tripod
Yes, a tripod will slow you down, that’s the whole point. Slow down and be more deliberate with your shots. Check your camera settings, framing, exposure and make sure it’s all perfect before you shoot.
There are many advantages of using a tripod.
#4 Get Out and Shoot More Often
Practice, practice, practice. “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.” – guess who said that? Henri Cartier-Bresson again. He was a wise man. So it may seem counter intuitive that on one hand I’m saying “shoot less” and on the other hand “shoot more” – but shooting more often helps you become more familiar with your camera, learn about lighting, and hone your photographic instincts.
#5 Be One With Your Camera
Until you can change the ISO, focus mode, focus spot, metering mode, aperture, shutter speed and camera shooting mode ALL without removing the camera from your eye, you aren’t one with it yet! See #4 above.
#6 Make Some Prints, BIG Ones
Printing your work large (and by large I mean 16×24″ or larger, NOT an 8×12) may seem scary but seeing your images larger will help you grow as a photographer. Images that look great on your camera or computer screen, may not quite stand up to your standards in a large print. It will help you see the areas where you need improvement and give you focus on the which skill you need to work on next.
The images above are of Mike and Kerry in Nicaragua. They were out almost every morning (see #4 above) at sunrise photographing the fishermen bringing in their haul. We affectionately called them “the tripod guys” (see #3 above). But you know what? They got some really great images using those tripods!
So think about what you are shooting before you just fire away. Ask yourself, “Is this the best image I can make of this subject?” and if they answer is no, don’t take the shot. Find a better angle, or come back when the light is better.
Want more information on Henri Cartier-Bresson, check out these books.
- Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Minds Eye: Writings on Photography and Photographers (Hardcover)
- Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Modern Century (Hardcover)
- Henri Cartier-Bresson: Discoveries (paperback)
- Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Man, The Image & The World (Hardcover or paperback)
Cheers,
There are a very few labs left that handle film but they are out there
A histogram is part of every image – view it in any image editing program and you can see that same histogram again that you saw when you shot it.
Exposing for the highlights is great – IF you actually want detail there and it’s a light colored subject. But if you have a histogram pushed over to the right to get more in the light areas, but your subject is black – it’s overexposed and you can tell when you’ve shot it. Have you read this?
http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-read-and-use-histograms/
“After a certain age, you got the face you deserve, I think” – this is the best quote for me.
Darlene, thank you so much for posting the Cartier Bresson film – I can watch this again and again. I adore his photographs, each one to me is a story. The first time I have heard his voice, loved his narration and bits of humour. Thanks you!
Thanks Edmund. Do you have an example of a histogram that doesn’t “come up to scratch” as you say? What time of scene like a sunset?
Like Darlene & Allen (we’re showing our ages here) I learned on film. I know Darlene cut her teeth on a 4X5 like I did, there was no spray unless you got to close to the neg washer, but still in those early years a lot of praying. Later as an equestrian photographer, I had to “anticipate the moment” / “capture the decisive moment” and when the mirror clattered up on the old Canon there were times I really didn’t get to see what I captured till the film came back from the lab and we ran it through the Photovix. Then I learned to shoot with both eyes open and could pursue the second and third shot if something interesting was happening. I agree with Darlene there is a time & place for “Burst Mode” however relying on Spray and Pray in those situations where it is not needed (i.e. group portraits ) does nothing for the art. I feel most professionals who are sought after for their style, creativity and ability to deliver predictable images consistently with confidence for their clients will use “Burst Mode” when appropriate. Using the “Fixing it in photoshop later prescription ” on what should be straight forward imaging does not make you a photographer… it makes you a computer technologist.
Using Photoshop/Aperture/Lightroom to bring about the creation of a work of art where photography is a component is embracing technology. The same can be said of HDR and enhancement programs. They use technology to enhance what is already there. That is just pushing the boundaries of traditional photography ito the next level. Does the ends justify the means… we could debate that far into the future. A hamburger coming out of a “boil’n bag” in a fast food joint and a fresh handcrafted gourmet burger are both hamburgers. Could you tell the difference? I would hope so….
As a side note William Mortensen 1897-1965 had his Camera Craft publications burned & he was described by Ansel Adams as alternately the “Devil”, and “the anti-Christ.””[6] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mortensen}
Mortensen was a classically trained artist, he manipulated and retouched his pictorial images to create what the camera couldn’t. Ahead of his time… yes. He was a phenomenal photographic artist and technically superior darkroom technician, thus his work and books demand high prices when they come available and are held in high esteem by collectors and museums. Did he spray and pray? Using a 4 X 5, I doubt it.
You’re comparing apples and oranges. There’s a difference between comparing the quality of a ‘boiled’ burger and a ‘real’ one in taste, in most cases, but photography is entirely different. By your logic, you’re claiming you can tell the difference between a single perfectly timed shot, and the same shot picked out of a burst of 10. I sincerely doubt you can.
Maybe not but you’ve still missed the point of the article. See my reply to your comment.
Hi Larry C, although I started with 35mm I earned my living with a 5×4″ which is still somewhere in a heavy, expensive, hand made wooden box with all the lenses and dark slides, a black & red hood, changing bag to enable more film to be fitted and a huge wooden tripod. The advantage was, with bellows between the body and the lens every lens was tilt/shift. I would take the exposed film home and develop it in a long (and rather smelly) process in my darkroom before getting to see whether I had what the client wanted.
My work was with color transparency film, Cartier-Bresson used B&W negative film, before that there was albumen-silver wet slides, cyanotype, salted paper etc. Technology moves on – I once mocked someone for having autofocus! One of the benefits of digital (have you seen the size of a scanned 35mm slide?) is the ability to post process – almost any photographer who will be reading this will do some processing of their image.
Would I go back to 5×4″ – no way! Darlene is quite right with her 6 steps to better photos and the more thought you put into a photo, from the quality of the light to the right moment to press the shutter and the framing off the shot (get off your butt and move to the perfect position, don’t stand in one place and zoom), the more successfully are you able to express yourself in your art.
Darlene – in your two images of the extended family on the steps above you say that these were the distillation from your shoot. Not to the point of ‘spray and pray’ I know – but these two are very different. In the one everybody is looking at the camera and you can hear the chorus of ‘cheese’. In the other they are all looking with natural interest at the young lad trying to stimulate the baby, Five are in profile . The shot has internal human interest . Which would you say ‘captures the moment’ better ?
See that’s the thing about portrait photography – it’s not my choice it’s the clients’! So whichever they prefer. I like the interactive one personally but we did different ones like this intentionally and I took a few images when I felt the timing was just right.
I use both-you can use the decisive moment while using spray and pray. For instance I was shooting sting rays the other day. I knew I wanted one shot of one coming straight toward me so I could get a straight on face shot. They move fast so after trying a few times with one shot to get my straight on shot and missing it every time, I switched to burst mode. I got the shot.
Another time I was shooting baby ducks. I wanted a close up of their feet as their feet were orange and black. Those babies also were fast movers, so while I knew the shot I wanted, I did not know if I could get it. I used continuous burst mode and I did get a close up of just their feet.
Summer swim team starts next week and you can bet that at meets I have to use continuous burst modes to get any decent shots at all. I also do a lot of macros where I can wait for the decisive moment-unless I am trying to shoot bees-in order to get a decent macro I needed continuous burst as they move erratically. Shooting stills of buildings, people, flowers etc I can wait for the decisive moment. Shooting moving people, things, or animals needs spray and pray in order to get the decisive moment shot.
Perfect applications and examples!
Ugh. This kind of trivial superiority complex is everything that’s wrong with the industry. Cameras come with hundreds of settings, and no method of photography is ‘wrong.’ Every mode is useful, as is every setting; including burst mode. The concept that you’re a poor photographer, or not as good a photographer, based on the techniques or methods you use to capture the image is no different to sitting there and telling people that choosing to shoot with a Nikon camera makes you worse than a Canon user, or that editing on a PC with Photoshop is worse than on a Mac with Lightroom, or because they shoot raw and edit it afterwards rather than ‘getting it right in camera.’
I shoot live music in local venues, and I shoot burst mode. On a good day, I have bright lights whizzing around and an animated band leaping around the stage, and on a bad day I’ll have two dark, red gel lights and half the band standing in shadow. Burst mode, and knowing my settings, allows me to capture the best moments in a gig. I can’t sit there and wait for the ‘decisive moment’ when I can barely see what’s going on. Bursting a set of 5-8 shots means I can choose the difference between a drummer’s sticks blurring, or frozen in mid air. It means the difference between the guitarist standing there and looking boring, or having the most amazing look of joy or concentration on his face that you might have missed if you’d waited a fifth of a second. Maybe there’s a strobe going off – can you time for a quick strobe that’s faster than the blink of an eye?
Burst mode is just another tool in your toolbelt. If it helps you get the shot, more power to you. It’s no more ‘cheating’ than touching up your image in post production is. Just because you can’t do it on film doesn’t make it an illegitimate technique. If you wind up with too many shots, so be it – I can shoot three bands, come home with 1,000 shots, and pare them down to the best 36 or so within an hour or two.
Sir Blake. I think Ms. Darlene covered her points quite well. There’s no hint of a trivial superiority complex being expressed whatsoever. Seems to me she makes it very clear there are situations in which Burst Mode is applicable, photographing bands as you do being one of them. Ms. Darlene IMO is doing her best to serve those with ears to hear. Slowing down and being more deliberate in making images does make one a more observant photographer. Plus it increases the possibilities of having a higher percentage of good images. I too learned on film, thus spray and pray was potentially expensive and wasteful. Obviously digital has changed all that. Also, being a musician that sometimes plays in wedding bands (keyboards), I talk to the photographers when I can. A lot of them agree that sifting through all the images is not something they look forward to – it’s a necessary part of the gig. With that said, I think it’s great that you’ve got a quick workable culling system in place. Thumbs up, sir. Write an article. Share your knowledge and expertise. Be well.
Yes exactly, thanks Allen
Blake did you actually read the article? Um I said that! Read it again noting the part where I said “When is shooting rapid fire an advantage?” like the whole middle section. You’ll notice I talked about moving objects and sports being applicable for burst mode.
You missed the point. I teach and see many new photographers using this mode on still objects and blasting off 20-30 shots of the thing. In my opinion that’s not necessary and you will get better results being more intentional.
Yes there is a time for each – maybe read it again.
I’m convinced that Blake does not read the articles