Continuous / burst shooting

Subject: Continuous / burst shooting 2009-05-05, 14:04

I was stood next to a bloke at Abingdon this weekend while the Chinook was displaying and he was taking hundreds and hundreds of pics of it in burst mode. At one point it taxied along the runway in front of us and he must have taken in excess of 200 photos of it at that point alone, it sounded like a machine gun going off.

I was just wondering if this is now a normal way to take pictures of aircraft (or anything for that matter)?

Personally, I fire off a couple of shots while trying to compose the best photo I can... this guy seemed to have a more spray and pray approach.

How do you lot take your photos? Spray and pray or more carfeul and considered?

I am really interested in peoples answers to this.

Admin Location : East Midlands Spotter Watch Member : Yes

That is a bit excessive.

However on a fast jet fast flyby I do get trigger happy as I use centre point focus.

Today I was on all point focus at CBY. And could only fire off 4 shots at a time

Subject: Re: Continuous / burst shooting 2009-05-05, 14:10

My D40 is really rather slow in continuous shooting mode. I may get 10 or 12 on a fast jet pass, at Abingdon say.

Subject: Re: Continuous / burst shooting 2009-05-05, 14:13

It would be interesting to see what he'd do when all his batteries were flat,when there was something interesting to take photos of !!!

I've never used the continuous mode and never will.

Subject: Re: Continuous / burst shooting 2009-05-05, 16:30

I shoot half speed burst on my 40D which is about 3 frames/sec and rarely get more than 4 shots out of a burst. Single shot of aircraft on the ground though. I've grown out of machine gun mode but am paying the price now - I have about 8k jpegs to sift through Roll Eyes

Al

Subject: Re: Continuous / burst shooting 2009-05-06, 10:45

Ill do a long burst if it is something very interesting and I will only get one chance - say an aircraft at low level. But if its airshow stuff, normally only a few shots of each pass, if that. Having said that, on my first DSLR airshow last year I took 600 shots of the typhoon display, and binned all but one! Opps

Moderator Location : Between Coventry and Leicester

One shot mode most of the time. 3fps for some passes, thou i do crank up to 5fps for some motosport events. going machine gun for longs bursts allways seems pointless to me,

i would rather pull out my video cam and capture it properly.

Guest

just a thought from a complete novice amateur ... i have of heard people using the burst/continuous mode to capture that ever elusive blinky strobe shot...

Location : Surrey

I'll fire off a burst when trying to capture a cross-over, flares etc. Other than that I'll usually shoot singles as I've found that most of the time the first shot in a set is usually the best or they are all exactly the same; I've wasted lots of time in the past trying to decide which one in a set is the keeper. At a big show like RIAT I'll only take about 400 shots in day, of which which maybe 100 will be deleted and 100 will be fully processed from the RAW file.

Location : zuhause Spotter Watch Member : Non

Frankly what does it matter? There are many ways to achieve the result you are after with the aid of all those new fangled conveniences available on modern SLRs and DSLRs; be that auto-focus, auto-exposure or even a burst of frames. There is no one right way, any more than there is any one right brand of camera... Do whatever works for you!

There are many reasons to take burst of frames. With particluar regard rotory subjects two reasons I would use a burst are; a favourable rotor position; varying shutter speed to get a favourable rotor blur effect.

P.

Location : lincolnshire Spotter Watch Member : no

It really depends whats in front of me, i took more photos of the Vulcans return to CBY than i did at the whole of Waddos airshow the year before

My camera didnt stop from the time it came into view right up until it taxied and shut down

Maybe that Chinook was close to the chap, probably something personal

:)

Location : worcestershire Spotter Watch Member : Yes !!!!

I don't know if it's the same for all camera's when using I/S, but I find shooting two or three shots on continuouse (that does'nt look right), the second and third shots just about always come out sharper than the first one, especially if using a low shutter speed. The only reason I can think of for this, is, the camera does'nt get jogged by the deppresion of the release button on the second and third and so on shots...
Kindest..Jim.. Smile

....

Subject: Re: Continuous / burst shooting 2009-05-19, 02:09

Many different factors come into the equation for me like location, type, speed, light and weather. Low level at high speed, I find shooting a burst is best and it always amazes me how different each one looks, i'm not talking about sharpness, i'm talking about the backdrop. At a show for example, I will shoot more for a fast jet than an airliner because the margin of error is greater at higher speed. All static shots I photograph in single shot mode and in manual. Has anyone ever tried shooting fast jets on full burners in darkness? Only one way for me, thats in the highest burst mode possible and prey lol. If the weather is bad, just the occassional picture because it is difficult (not impossible) to get an image you are happy with when it's pouring with rain.

Good question though and interesting to see what others do.

Location : Henlow, Beds

Very interesting discussion. In general on my 40D I always have it set on a continuous mode. Normally that the 3 fps but for low level or something "interesting" I go for the full 6 fps. In general I tend to trigger 3 frames but I have been known to go for the full "machine gun" for instance in the mach loop until I get the bufferfull error (approx 18 raw shots) on the basis of why not? your only going to get a few passes in a day so you might as well go for it (and sod a few electrons getting a headache cos thats all your basically using).

The comments about the 2nd/3rd shots being better focused is also interesting. I assume that people are using AI-Serv (or the Nikon equ.) in that case I think the longer it tracks a subject the better it gets (I certainly read something in a Canon paper that suggests that you track for at least a second to get the best focusing results).

Location : Colchester

I have a 40D, which has a battery grip fitted, containing 2 batteries.

Sometimes it is treated as a 40D, sometimes like a belt fed machine gun, depends on whats flying, and how it has been flown, id rather fire off a burst of shots, and take one from that burst, than try and be cleverer than my abilities will let me and miss what is (to me) a good shot.

And I too have a mountain of pics to trawl through, and rename, edit and sort.