Someone once told me to always take two photos of a subject. It was good advice. You can’t always be sure you have captured ‘the moment’ taking just one photo. You may not have lined up the shot as you would have liked; your hands may have been shaking; or your subject may have been blinking. The differences between the two photos can be quite noticeable.
Digital cameras give you immediate results, but it’s wise to remember that the back-screen view on a camera is rather small compared to the actual image size and it can be difficult to determine if a photo is a winner until it has been downloaded to a computer (sometimes the photos that appear unsuccessful on a camera screen turn out to be the great ones ones, so don’t go deleting until you have downloaded!)
You can still follow the ‘two shot rule’ with your digital camera, but did you know you can go one step further and take more than two shots with just one click of the button?
Multiple photos with one click of a button?
Yep, that’s right. There is a setting on your camera which will take multiple photos. My camera calls it Continuous Shooting Mode and will shoot photos for as long as I hold down the shutter release button or until it uses up all the space on the memory card.
I’m always curious to see the results of the continuous shooting mode, especially if the subject was moving during the shoot. Do you remember drawing (or seeing) pictures on every page of a notepad and then flicking through to get a little moving cartoon? Well, it’s just the same when you take these multiple shots. And if you’re putting together a digital slide-show of your photos then the results of the CSM can really enhance the presentation with an impressive movie-type effect.
How does it work?
Find the setting on your camera – you might need to check your manual. The setting on my camera is near the timer settings. You’ll know it’s selected because your screen will display a small rectangle with with double/triple lines on a couple of sides so it looks like a rectangle on top of a rectangle etc. All you have to do now is pick a subject and simply point and shoot. You may feel a small delay between shots. It doesn’t matter if some of the photos are blurry as it will give you the impression of motion (Note: you will probably not be able to set your flash in this mode).
If you are after the perfect shot then this multiple technique may give you better odds than the ‘two shot rule’. And it doesn’t cost you anything, you can always delete the ones you don’t want, after downloading of course.
Example of the continuous shooting mode
One of my cats generously agreed to model for this CSM example. This is a fairly quick Photoshop mock-up of the result. I numbered the individual images 1-6 so you can imagine the effect of viewing them in quick succession (I hope to add in the movie-effect at some stage). The image link takes you to Flickr.
Give it a try yourself, I’d love to see the end product.
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