Photo Tip: Shoot a lot…
Jan 04
I wanted to know how professional photographers always had all of these great shots. The tip was that we never saw the bad ones, even though there were always some. The first tip I learned from a professional photographer is that you’ve got to shoot a lot. Does that mean going around and photographing everything? No! What it means, and I had a chance to see in action, was he didn’t get 1 shot of something, he got several.
In a post by Robert Scoble, on photo walking with a professional he talks about a photographer shooting 44 rolls at a basketball game. (That’s 1056 photos if using 24 exposure rolls.) Of all of those shots only 1 was published. But taking that many allowed for that one to be used. If the photographer had decided to not take the shot to save some money, none might have been published.
So here is why its important to take a lot of photos.
- People and Animals are always moving…don’t miss a good shot because someone is blinked, looked at their kid, etc.
- Auto focus may not be your friend, so move a bit during your shots o make sure you didn’t focus on the flowers in front of the person.
- If you shoot the same thing from several slightly different angles. You will find one you like better, I can almost guarantee it.
- It allows you to throw out the bad one(s) (when someone bumped into you, you pushed too hard and blurred the shot, etc)
The last one is the best point. When I had to shoot on film, I took my photos to a local place the bought back the photos I didn’t like. I spent a lot on film, but saved on some of the developing. It was the only way I could afford it, and I still didn’t shoot as much as I wanted to. Now that I shoot all digital I routinely throw out 1/2 to 2/3 of the photos I take. Why, as cheap as a digital shot is, I’ll shoot tons of photos. Both storage cards for the camera is cheap, as are hard drives to store them on. We only print a tenth of what we keep.
On a recent vacation, my wife and I shot over 2300 photos in 5 days. We narrowed it down to 1100. People marveled at how I had all of these great photos…but they never questioned the number I deleted because there were so many, I couldn’t have deleted any could I have?
In wedding photography of old, if you shot 120-150 shots total it was a lot. Now many wedding photographers will shoot 200+, and I’ve shot 400+ in just a few hours at a wedding. When we given the bride her final photos to pick from, she never has to see a bad shot, and still gets 150+, every time. She never asks if we have more, because we can give her so many good ones.
So shoot a bunch, and throw out the bad ones, and let people marvel at how you never have a bad shot in your thousands of photos.
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