Pops Quick Tip – Take More Shots

With a digital camera, you can take as many pictures as your camera’s memory card can hold. That’s the beauty of digital photography. Once you own the equipment, it doesn’t cost anymore to take a dozen pictures than it does to take one. So, take advantage of the creative equity stored in your camera and take a lot of shots.

Another great advantage of digital photography is the instant feedback of an LCD screen. With traditional film, you wouldn’t know what you had until you used up the roll, sent it to be developed and picked up your packet of prints – a process that could take weeks or months. Now, with the click of a shutter, you can see the image you shot…kinda.  That 2 or 3 inch screen can be deceptive.  What looks pretty good on your camera’s screen, might be a mess on your computer screen. Another shot or two of the same subject increases the likelihood of capturing the image you really want.

When I can, I try to take several shots (and sometimes a great deal more) of each photo I’m after. Taking more pictures gives me the opportunity to vary settings and try different techniques. With people, eyes blink and the nuance of expression morphs continually. The more pictures I take, the more I have to select from and the greater my chances of getting an extraordinary final product.

Honestly, I’m not as good a photographer as some people might think.  A great photographer could take a few shots and most of them would impress you.  On the other hand, I can take a couple of hundred and only produce a few I feel are worth keeping. As I become more familiar with my camera and develop my knowledge and skill, my ratio of keepers will increase.

I’m not suggesting you simply fire off hundreds of shots like a 9-year-old with a submachine gun, thinking the spray of bullets is bound to hit something…eventually. Be a thinking photographer.  Think of a different approach, a unique angle, experiment with depth of field, play with the fill flash, vary exposure, fiddle with filters, etc.

One of my favorite quotes, attibuted to a number of people – from Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Goldwin – is, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

We can apply that same concept to the art of digital photography: The more photos we take, the more masterpieces we’ll find.