[LRflex] Re: Observations on digital shooting
- From: <tedgrant@xxxxxxx>
- To: <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:23:44 -0700
Robert Lilley offered:
Subject: [LRflex] Observations on digital shooting
>I have used film all my life - 35mm through large format. Recently I held
>my nose and dived into the world of digital SLRs. In analog mode my
>picture taking was limited to the film on hand and I acted accordingly.
>Now my picture taking is limited to the amount of time I want to spend on
>the computer gleaning out bad shots and managing the myriad of others. I
>came to the conclusion I had to override the auto functions and go on
>manual to avoid "spray and pray" mode. The camera has a cyclical rate
>faster than an M-16. If I had it to do all over again I would buy a
>completely manual digital system. More is not better. <<<
Hello Robert,
Photographing the world about us as a professional published photographer
for 60 years I've always used motor drives on my Leica SLR's and Tom
Abrahamsson Rapidwinder's on the M cameras.
Not because I could "machine gun" a subject, but to quickly advance the film
without taking the camera away from my one and only eye that I see with.
Digital isn't any different and although the M8 has it's built in wider I
don't shoot any more exposures than I did with the M7's. Nor do I shoot more
digi images with the Canon SLR's than I did with the film Leica SLR's.
I will say with digital at the very beginning of using them, there is a
tendency to "shoot more" because we know we don't have 36 frames and have to
reload. This does lead us, and I have spoken to many others about how many
exposures they made with the switch to digital and nearly everyone "shoots
way more than they ever did with film!" But then you get a handle on it and
slow down and never think about it being digital and basically return to the
same routine you did when using film.
I think you are being too hard on yourself and the great value of digital
cameras and technique.
If in the days of film you shot one or two frames of a subject and that was
it. Why can't you use your digital camera in exactly the same fashion? After
all, you're the person pressing on the shutter release and if you hold it
down then obviously you're blasting away a bunch of useless exposures....
But that's your fault not the camera!
>> I came to the conclusion I had to override the auto functions and go on
>> manual to avoid "spray and pray" mode. <<<<<
"Spray and pray?" An interesting description never heard that one before.
:-) Hardly necessary because you should be able to set the camera to fire
one frame at a time. OR! Take your finger off the motor drive button
quicker. It doesn't sound like you're allowing yourself enough time to learn
the feeling of the gear therefore becoming discouraged too quickly.
>>More is not better."
Absolutely! Just because one blasts away doesn't mean they're all great
exposures, although over the years and certainly when motor drives came out
many photographers thought by holding down and blasting off 5 or 10 frames a
second they'd never miss the action picture of the year.
SURPRISE! :-) In 3.5 seconds at 10 frames per second the 36 exposure roll is
gone and the camera quit!! The peak of the action happened as the whiz bang
kid with the new "motor driven camera, "how did he do?" He missed the peak
action instead of using ones re-action to the action with one click at a
time!
For what it's worth take a deep breath and relax about the digital camera so
negatively! Just think "photography and picture taking in exactly the same
fashion you did with film and all will be well. I wouldn't go back to film
unless I were paid a very large amount of money for every second I was
involved from loading the camera until I'd finished the processing and
contact printing of the proof sheets for editing.
To put this in a perspective. My book "Women in Medicine. A Celebration of
their Work" I shot 500 rolls of film by the time we did the final cut for
publication and it surely wasn't machine gunned. It was one frame at a time.
On digital? Yep I'd have shot the same number of frames, but much easier
looking on the screen than the hours of processing film and contact sheet
production and editing..
So my on screen friend take it easy, give yourself a bit more time and
you'll love the digital stuff just as much as you did film.
cheers,
Dr. ted
tedgrantphoto.com
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