Making shots count.... !!

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wrx_dazza

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Name
Daren
Edit My Images
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I've been thinking today about the film vs digital, and come up with a personal challenge.
The challenge is to go out and limit myself to say, 24 pictures max and not preview any of them until i upload.

My reasoning behind it is thus:-

I will be forced to only take purposeful shots
I will try my hardest to get the settings right first time (or risk using another frame for comparison)
I will hopefully not "throw" any pictures, without first learning something from them all.
I think it might be a bit of fun.

Is this something anyone else here has done?? - or am i just mad :cuckoo:

Dazza
 
No, you're not mad. It sounds like a great creative exercise, as well as a technical one. I hope you enjoy it.
 
Well, I have a 512mb CF card and an 8 GB one. When I am shooting in Raw, the 521mb card holds about 35 Raws, and the 8GB holds around 525. I am going to start using my 512 on walks, and everyday photography to also think more about each shot, but when I do an assignment or do something important, I go with the 8GB to get as many "keep" shots as I can.

This system works for me, it is really good!
 
You're not mad - I have been doing this kind of thing for years - and it does help you improve as a photographer because it makes you stop and think.
 
Sounds like a good plan - I'll be interested to see the results!

Shooting RAW with a 5D mk II or similar certainly makes you think before pressing the button. When you know every shot is going to use up another 25mb or so of storage, you tend to be a little more selective with your shots! :)

A.
 
Sometimes I have no idea how to shoot a full roll of 35mm.
I have a 36 exposure roll of Kodachrome in a Nikon FM2, I need to shoot it before the only lab on Earth stops processing Kodachrome this year.
Its been in since November, I'm on frame 16.
Sometimes there just isn't a shot worth taking unless you force yourself to shoot rubbish, just because you can....


:)
 
thx guys, i will start on this little exercise and let you know how i get on. :)

:)
 
Go and shoot an entire wedding on a 512Mb card LOL - that's what I used to do in the film days - and change rolls every 12 shots too. No thanks - viva le digital! :)
 
just bought a film camera on here for exactly this purpose. It will be a short term project - mainly to get me to think before i click
 
joxby said:
I have a 36 exposure roll of Kodachrome in a Nikon FM2, I need to shoot it before the only lab on Earth stops processing Kodachrome this year.
Click to expand...

Kodachrome... how sad.. another bit of history bites the dust. I was reading about it on Wikipedia only the other night.

Mind you, I'm partly to blame.. I used to shoot nothing else, other than the odd roll of B&W and colour neg when I wanted the pics scanned on to CD, but I succumbed in 2008 and went over to digital.

The reasons? Cost (£10 a roll including developing), the lack of a CD-ROM option at processing time, and the processing at Duane's, which I suspected wasn't up to the quality of Kodak's own processing (excessively contrasty slides).

My slides, all lovingly numbered and filed away, are now replaced by .CR2 files stored on CD-Rs, DVD+R's and a hard disk. I only hope I'll still be able to read them in 10-20 years' time :|

A.
 
sounds like a rod for your back...sort of religious thing
digital allows us to shoot shoot shoot....and you cant go back for some

good luck anyway...hope you find the right answer here
 
This is something we've been talking about at uni over the last few weeks.

It's now just so simple to run around taking 20 shots of the same image and keeping one and electronicly binning the other 19. Something that the lecture said was that in her personal work she tends to take an 'extra one of two just incase the first didn't turn out, but on reviewing them finds that the first is always the chosen one'. We came to the assumption that it's because that's the image she wanted to capture in her mind, not the split second later.

Been trying to cut down on how many I take but not gone to the extrem of not viewing them before uploading, risky but will bring some amazing photos.

Have fun, let us know how it goes.
 
so no one will be shooting 365's it will all be 36's. sounds like a good idea though, another trick is what gold old gavin hoey shown me and that is to have one lens (50mm alot of the time) one location and just 15 minutes to get the best photo you can, i like this excercise because it limits you and makes your creative juices flow.
 
AMRODP said:
This is something we've been talking about at uni over the last few weeks.

It's now just so simple to run around taking 20 shots of the same image and keeping one and electronicly binning the other 19. Something that the lecture said was that in her personal work she tends to take an 'extra one of two just incase the first didn't turn out, but on reviewing them finds that the first is always the chosen one'. We came to the assumption that it's because that's the image she wanted to capture in her mind, not the split second later.

Been trying to cut down on how many I take but not gone to the extrem of not viewing them before uploading, risky but will bring some amazing photos.

Have fun, let us know how it goes.
Click to expand...

taking a lot of shots to get a good one out of the bunch is quite in order for a lot of professionals...hence the digital mode giving the flexibility and reducing the overall cost as if using film.

its not that you cant take 20 good shots but if someone else was selecting one of them for £500 to do a page spread...you would take them to cover the choice angle..

its fun:|
 
mrcrow said:
taking a lot of shots to get a good one out of the bunch is quite in order for a lot of professionals...hence the digital mode giving the flexibility and reducing the overall cost as if using film.

its not that you cant take 20 good shots but if someone else was selecting one of them for £500 to do a page spread...you would take them to cover the choice angle..

its fun:|
Click to expand...

i agree 100% that for giving extra choice and siezing certain opportunities its worth rattling a few off, but the exercise was for me to learn some restraint and thought before taking the picture. Its not because i'm tight on battery power or hard drive space, purely an exercise for forcing me to think things through systematically and hoping it will serve me good in the future.

nothing wrong with taking 100 shots of my mates new car for him, but the other end of the spectrum is where "I" want to learn.

.....and really looking forward to it :thumbs:

love the "single lens and place" idea above too. another thing to consider.

:thumbs:
 
Practice and learning from your mistakes is what will improve your photography.

Taking less shots is less practice.
 
WeddingHack said:
Practice and learning from your mistakes is what will improve your photography.

Taking less shots is less practice.
Click to expand...

Taking fewer shots is only less practice if it's because you don't have your camera out. Since I dropped from around 1200 images per wedding to around 600 per wedding I have found my work has improved massively. The process of thought is, for me, part of the practice, and I love visualising the image before I press the button. It makes every image count, near as damn it.
 
I think a lot of people go though this phase. I often do the same myself but from a slightly different angle. I go out and only allow myself 1 shot of any given subject. It also has the side effect of me not taking shots of everything that moved because once I start to think about shots I start to pick out the ones I really want to photograph.

I say go for it, you'll be surprised how much you learn and gain from it.
 
I'm tempted to have a "swear jar" kind of thing. Set a limit, say 36 per day. You can exceed it, but every shot over means 50p in the swear jar. The proceeds go to a charity of some sort. That way you won't be stuck if you chance upon something fantastic after you've finished whatever you'd planned, but you'll still think twice
 
wrx_dazza said:
I've been thinking today about the film vs digital, and come up with a personal challenge.
The challenge is to go out and limit myself to say, 24 pictures max and not preview any of them until i upload.

My reasoning behind it is thus:-

I will be forced to only take purposeful shots
I will try my hardest to get the settings right first time (or risk using another frame for comparison)
I will hopefully not "throw" any pictures, without first learning something from them all.
I think it might be a bit of fun.

Is this something anyone else here has done?? - or am i just mad :cuckoo:

Dazza
Click to expand...

Stick the camera on M too :)
 
wrx_dazza said:
i agree 100% that for giving extra choice and siezing certain opportunities its worth rattling a few off, but the exercise was for me to learn some restraint and thought before taking the picture. Its not because i'm tight on battery power or hard drive space, purely an exercise for forcing me to think things through systematically and hoping it will serve me good in the future.

nothing wrong with taking 100 shots of my mates new car for him, but the other end of the spectrum is where "I" want to learn.

.....and really looking forward to it :thumbs:

love the "single lens and place" idea above too. another thing to consider.

:thumbs:
Click to expand...

yes on reflection its not a bad exercise...when NOT to take the photograph could be part of the lesson as well...
i have thrown away soooooooooooo many slides and torn up prints

best of luck...
 
Fezman said:
just bought a film camera on here for exactly this purpose. It will be a short term project - mainly to get me to think before i click
Click to expand...

Unless you process them yourself, or shoot slide, that's a pretty pointless exercise regarding exposure & WB :(

Personally - if you have a mere clue about the basics of photography analysing your images straight away will be FAR more useful an exercise than hoping you didn't take a load of crap and waiting a week to see - by which time you've forgotten all settings etc. too (no exif on film :D)

There are good reasons for shooting film, but learning isn't one of them :shake:

All IMHO of course :D

DD
 
ZoZo said:
The process of thought is, for me, part of the practice, and I love visualising the image before I press the button. It makes every image count, near as damn it.
Click to expand...

I agree. Previsualising the shot is a very useful technique.
 
Sorry for getting off topic, but Mr Pants, I love your avatar.
 
wrx_dazza said:
I've been thinking today about the film vs digital, and come up with a personal challenge.
The challenge is to go out and limit myself to say, 24 pictures max and not preview any of them until i upload.

My reasoning behind it is thus:-

I will be forced to only take purposeful shots
I will try my hardest to get the settings right first time (or risk using another frame for comparison)
I will hopefully not "throw" any pictures, without first learning something from them all.
I think it might be a bit of fun.

Is this something anyone else here has done?? - or am i just mad :cuckoo:

Dazza
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good challenge to me.
 
mr_pants said:
I agree. Previsualising the shot is a very useful technique.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm missing something - but isn't this is ONLY technique??? :thinking:

Do people really point n shoot in the hope of getting something, rather than seeing the image and then trying to shoot it :shrug:

In landscapes I pretty much always see things this way, even so far as pretty much knowing what PP I'll aiming for too. I have a huge mental 'bin' for images and only when the bin doesn't trigger do I get my camera out :)

DD
 
DiddyDave said:
Maybe I'm missing something - but isn't this is ONLY technique??? :thinking:

Do people really point n shoot in the hope of getting something, rather than seeing the image and then trying to shoot it :shrug:

In landscapes I pretty much always see things this way, even so far as pretty much knowing what PP I'll aiming for too. I have a huge mental 'bin' for images and only when the bin doesn't trigger do I get my camera out :)

DD
Click to expand...

Yes, the trap of just shooting and hoping that something turns up is an easy one into which to fall.
 
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