Shooting rate

[Farktographer]

I’m curious how often you all take photos and how many pictures you capture in a given session. I think I’m getting a bit trigger-happy. I just shot my 10,000th picture with this camera, and I’ve only had it for 5 months 😯

If I’m shooting an event, I usually shoot upwards of 400-500 pictures (niece’s birthday was 400, Easter was 500, Christmas was a whopping 1,000). Is this a newbie-obsession with my camera, or do you find yourselves doing the same sort of thing?

Also, if I’m shooting this much, I should probably have the thing serviced already, huh? It’s based off the number of shots, not the time you’ve had it, I’m guessing.

[sleeping]

That would be getting on for twice the rate I’m shooting at currently, but I’ve been consciously trying to at least post (if not shoot) fewer, better photos for the past several months, so that may be something of a factor. I did shoot seven hundred something frames at my sister’s wedding not so long ago though…

[olavf]

I think on an average afternoon out I’ll do about 100 shots, give or take, if I’m inspired. Events may be a bit higher, but as a whole it depends on what people are doing. (I just can’t take a bunch of shots of people drooling out of the corners of their mouth, you know?)

The other main thing that can effect my shot count is the lighting. If the light is sketchy, I tend to try and wait for the ‘good’ shots because I know which ones just won’t work.

[ravnostic]

When I took up the hobby for serious, I was shooting about the same–10K every 6 months or so. As I’ve learned techniques (amongst the most important thing was metering), that number has gone down; on a recent 8 hour jaunt I took about 600, most of which I like (some I love). Typically in a two hour shoot, about 200. The real number varies as to how much time I have to photograph.

//That number will be high today; I’m shooting indian cliff dwellings from inside today, a special photography tour. 🙂

[ennuipoet]

When I first when digital I was shooting like mad, I would routinely come back from a short walk in the neighborhood with 200+ exposures. If I were at a big public event like a parade I could fill two or three 4GB cards with 8mgpxl camera.

These days I might go out for two hours and shoot, max, two dozen exposures. I shot the Easter Parade here in NYC on Sunday on two bodies and took 280 exposures. What stopped me from machine gunning was starting to shoot film again. It took me back to the days when every time I pushed the shutter cost me money. Now I take the time before I click to think about the content, and instead of taking five or six exposures of the same thing I make sure the first shot is what I want.

I will still shoot multiples if the action is fast or the composition is dynamic. If I am shooting brackets for HDR I shoot twice, particularly if I am hand holding to compensate for camera shake. There is nothing WRONG with shooting 500 exposures every time you go out, but taking a second before you shoot to make sure you’ve got everything the way you want it makes you a stronger photographer. It teaches you to anticipate the shot as they develop and if you are shooting in RAW minor errors in exposure are easily correctable without shooting a bunch of shots to get the right exposure.

[Farktographer]

Yeah, and I’ve noticed over time that I’ve definitely gotten better with the composition when it comes to shooting family events. I went absolutely crazy with Christmas at 1,000 pictures and maybe only 150 were good shots. That’s compared to the birthday party where of 400 pictures I kept 250 that I considered good enough to share with everyone. I’m still having issues with cutting off half of a person’s head if I’m focusing on little kids though – the adults in the background get no respect from my camera 😈

I still slip into my old ways when I’m trying to capture something in movement, though. I was trying to get a couple shots for the upcoming Airborne theme on the hopper, and had my friend running around chasing birds. I took about 20 shots until I finally got a decent one 😯 It could also be because I’m forcing myself to shoot in all-manual, so I tend to get slightly over- or under-exposed shots that I then have to take twice or thrice to get right…. It is fun learning, though.

I agree limiting myself to shots should force me to get better at composing them the way I want in the first place. I’ll try to relax the trigger-happiness a bit, hah.

So do any of you ever bring your cameras in for service? I get mixed messages on other forums online. I see some that say it’s essential to make sure your machine is running fine, though most say you can usually just air-blow your sensor and that’s essentially all you’d need to do until the shutter starts dying on you (in your experience, how long until that tends to happen – if it even happens at all for any of you?).

[ennuipoet]

So do any of you ever bring your cameras in for service? I get mixed messages on other forums online. I see some that say it’s essential to make sure your machine is running fine, though most say you can usually just air-blow your sensor and that’s essentially all you’d need to do until the shutter starts dying on you (in your experience, how long until that tends to happen – if it even happens at all for any of you?).

I work under “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. My digitals have never been in for service, never had the need. I’ve had my Canon AE-1 serviced when the shutter stuck on me, but the ONLY reason I spent the money was it was my Mom’s camera and it has a ton of sentimental value. I shoot on several classic cameras and I try to service them myself as much as possible, I won’t entirely break one down but I will strip an old camera and clean one to the best of my ability. (I don’t touch shutters, all I am going to do is break it). You can reasonably expect a modern consumer level digital camera to give you hundred thousand shutter activations without a problem. Higher end camera should have more, you get what you pay for. There is no magic number before they shut down, I’ve a 20D that I am quite sure is well over 100k and it is still humming along without a problem.

[ravnostic]

I took about 20 shots until I finally got a decent one 😯 It could also be because I’m forcing myself to shoot in all-manual, so I tend to get slightly over- or under-exposed shots that I then have to take twice or thrice to get right…. It is fun learning, though.

I agree limiting myself to shots should force me to get better at composing them the way I want in the first place. I’ll try to relax the trigger-happiness a bit, hah.

I think you’re using a DSLR, right? Are you aware of the metering guide when you look through the viewfinder and how to use it? If not–ask–we’ll tell you!

//it’s something I picked up through PopPho’s ‘Ultimate Photoguide’ ‘freebie’ disk they sent me, unasked for. (They gave the option of returning the card to order the series, returning the card with the cdrom to decline or–and I read to fine print to find this–doing nothing, which counts as a decline as I didn’t ask for it. It’s the only thing of value I got from it–because the folks around here taught me everything else I needed to know [up till now])

And there are moments when trigger-happy is the way to go; some of the shots I took today are (hopefully) good examples; turkey vultures in flight. So don’t rein yourself in completely or you could miss something, too. 🙂

[Plamadude30k]

I’ve taken 13617 photos in 2.33 years for an average of 15.95 photos per day. I guess I shoot slowly!

Really, though, my photography comes in bursts-mostly during the summers when I can get somewhere interesting to photograph. For example, between May and August of 2010, I took 5105 photos for an average of 45.17 photos per day, almost 3 times as many photos as my bulk rate. That’s still below your rate, Farktographer, which is approximately 66.67 photos per day (assuming 10000 photos over five 30 day months). That ain’t a bad thing-I’ve always thought I should take more photos. I am accelerating, however-in my first year with my camera, I took 3648 photos. In my second year, I took 7320, and this current year, I’m on track for about 8000, not taking into account any photography trips I do this summer (which will probably boost the total to well over 10000, especially if I get that d7000 I’ve been lusting after). Generally, I’ve also been taking more photos per outing these days on the idea that if my percentage of good photos stays constant, I’ll get more good photos by taking more photos total. The principle seems to work most of the time.

Also, if you’re shooting in raw, don’t you want to slightly under-expose? The digital zone system for metering suggests that kind of an approach. It’s exactly the opposite of film-you shoot for the highlights and process for the shadows, just because of what digital sensors can handle.

Also also, I have no idea about servicing. I just cleaned my sensor with some sensor swabs recently, and that seems to be all I’ve needed since I got my camera. I’m sure mileage will vary, though.

/I love the smell of data analysis in the…mid-afternoon.

[Kestrana]

No idea how many total photos I’ve taken in just over a year of having this camera but I too am finding as time passes I take less and less; partly because I can now get the shot I want the first or second time when I’m out and about. As to how often we go shooting, we take cameras whenever we “go anywhere”, which is a lot and a lot of the places we go because we want to shoot. The most I shot was about 1800 pictures in the trip from Washington to Connecticut. Las Vegas was about 950, Boston was about 600, day trip in Washington D.C. was about 250 and last trip to the local state park was less than 100.

[Farktographer]

ravnostic – yeah, I’m using the D7000 (I love it so so much). I’ve been metering properly from what I can tell, but some situations still throw me off – getting the right metering on a sunset, for instance, or getting a ray of light correctly exposed coming out of clouds. I’m guessing things like that just take practice to see where exactly I want to meter for. Periodically I’ll take some very over-exposed shots of people but usually that happens when I forget to re-meter after moving from a shady area to a sunny one. I do hope I never reign in myself enough to miss a good shot, though 🙂 I notice I get really trigger-happy with wild animals and moving targets (though I think my niece counts as both).

Plamadude – wow, numbers. I’m not used to seeing those sorts of stats being tossed around after a day of work 😕 I agree, I’ve been getting great results shooting slightly under-exposed in raw. It gives me a lot more to play with especially when I go into the processing software. I decided to get myself a Giotto’s Air Rocket to clean off the sensor, but it sounds like that’s about all the service I’ll need for a while

[sleeping]

Also, if you’re shooting in raw, don’t you want to slightly under-expose?

No, not if you can help it (providing you can avoid blowing the highlights):

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

[Farktographer]

Also, if you’re shooting in raw, don’t you want to slightly under-expose?

No, not if you can help it (providing you can avoid blowing the highlights):

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

Interesting read – I’ll have to try that technique sometime and see if it makes a noticeable difference.

[Plamadude30k]

Also, if you’re shooting in raw, don’t you want to slightly under-expose?

No, not if you can help it (providing you can avoid blowing the highlights):

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml

Yeah, that’s absolutely true, but when the dynamic range of the scene exceeds the possibility of your sensor to capture, you do want to meter for the highlights and hope you can process out the really dark shadows (unless you WANT to blow the highlights out for some reason, which you might). One thing I learned long ago in my early music career was that the rules are there to be broken, but only if you understand why they’re there in the first place. That being said, my philosophy is to generally figure out what the mid-levels for the scene should be and meter for regions that are 2-3 eV higher just to avoid blowing them out. I’ve gotten really good at estimating the eV range for any given scene just by looking.

/sorry for the slight threadjack

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