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Using Your Digital Camera in Burst Mode
As promised, here’s my article on burst mode. As mentioned in the preceding post, this was inspired by some reader reactions to my recent post on taking photos under pressure.
Once again, I sincerely apologize to those two readers for not covering the basics first.
What is Burst Mode
Do you ever watch celebrities arrive on the red carpet at the Oscars? You know that constant insane clicking you hear when Jessica Alba’s top falls of? That’s dozens of paparazzi taking photos in burst mode… very frantically.
Burst mode, also known as continuous shooting mode, is where you take multiple photos in quick succession with the same settings. You line up your camera as if you were going to take a single photo, but by being in burst mode and holding down the shutter button, you can take multiple shots.
Does Your Digital Camera have it?
The short answer is “Probably.” Most consumer digital cameras
Why You Should use Burst Mode
- More Shots to Choose From - Everyone’s taken a shot where it would’ve been better if it was just a quarter-second later. That distracting child would have run out of the frame or the famous cyclist wouldn’t have a fencepost sticking out of his head.
- Better Action Shots - When you shoot in burst mode, you have more frames to choose from. I often find that with camera shake, one of my three shots in burst is noticeably sharper.
- Composite Motion Shots - You can use these bursts of a complicated action being performed to make a great composite shot. That’s where you layer a bunch of photos together, so that you can see the skater perform the beginning, middle, and end of their trick.
Why You Shouldn’t Use Burst Mode
- It’s a Waste of Space - You burn through the space on your CompactFlash card incredibly fast. I’ve got a two gig card that holds about 200 photos in RAW mode. If I’m taking 3-5 shots of each setup, that cuts my total number of potential different setups down to 40. That’s a massive jump. You’ll need bigger digital memory cards
- Your Batteries Don’t Last - Just the same as you burn through space on your CF card, you’ll burn through your battery life noticeable faster. It’s not as dramatic a difference as with the memory cards, but it’s still noticeable and you should take it into account.
- You’re More Likely to “Shoot & Pray” - People who shoot in burst mode have a marked tendency towards frantically snapping shots and hoping one of them comes out. There is less planning or waiting involved. While this can sometimes result in a stunning photo, more often than not you just get a lot of mediocrity. If you can’t control that desire, this can be a big drawback.
My Personal Preferences
- Always Shoot in Burst Mode - It’s my default setting! I never set my camera to single-frame. My camera gets set to use the timer every once in a while for night shooting, but otherwise its burst all the way!
- Use Military Bursts - “Whoa whoa whoa, when you said ’shooting’ I thought you meant photography!” No, I haven’t snapped; I am still talking about photography. Most semi-auto rifles have a “burst mode” that will fire in 2, 3, or 4 shot bursts. A 3 shot burst is the most common and is usually the most efficient. I shoot in bursts of 3 frames before refocusing/reframing and firing off another burst. It works great!
That sums up what I do with regards to burst mode and why I do it. If you’re looking for another opinion on the subject, blogging legend Darren Rowse has something to say on using continuous shooting mode over at Digital Photography School.
At the end of the day though, everybody has their own preferred method. I’d really encourage anyone who hasn’t yet to give burst mode a try; you might surprise yourself.
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Brian Auer Said,
June 14, 2007 @ 6:07 pm
Great stuff — it’s MY default setting too! I’m a real fan of the military bursts. I’ve had to train myself to let go of the button after a few rounds, otherwise I end up with way too many photos to sort through. When I was experimenting with people photography in Mexico, I was shooting nothing but bursts. It comes in handy when people are on the move and they’re not posing for you!
latoga Said,
June 17, 2007 @ 9:08 pm
Lots of useful information. Burst mode is my default method as well, which always freaks out those who use my camera…but your right that you have to not forget your photographic training and lean on burst mode too much.
A couple of additional items I would add to your list.
Positives: 1) when shooting stock, burst mode allows you to have multiple images that lare almost identical should someone want to buy exclusive rights to an image (a friend had this happen, and he was able to replace the exclusive purchased image with one taken 1/10 of a second later that was almost identical) 2) when taking photos of large groups (especially children) burst is the only way to get an image with everyone’s eyes open and looking (mostly) in the same direction.
Negatives: 1) When shooting with a flash, you tyipcally need to turn burst off. Unless you use an external battery pack, the cycle time for the flash will mean that the flash will only fire on one of your 3-4 shots. 2) when shooting in a studio with studio lighting, you’ll want to turn off burst again because of the flashes. Studio strobes might recharge faster, but this can lead them to overheat…
Negatives
Andrew Ferguson Said,
June 18, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
@latoga:
Wow! That’s a wealth of information you’ve given me in two short paragraphs there. Your second tip in the positives category didn’t occur to me, thanks for including.
For the first one, about stock photography, can you really do that? I would assume that an exclusive stock license would forbid nearly-identical shots from being sold as well. I thought of this when writing the article, but it seemed a tad shady or maybe even against the terms of the contract. I didn’t want to delve too deep there.
I completely forgot about the strobe issues, thanks for clearing things up :)
Aperture Studios » Blog Archive » Friday Five: July 20th, 2007 Said,
July 23, 2007 @ 1:49 pm
[…] Shoot, Shoot, Burst!: A great piece about shooting in burst […]
Bob Said,
December 22, 2007 @ 8:06 pm
Regarding this quote: “Most semi-auto rifles have a “burst mode” that will fire in 2, 3, or 4 shot bursts. “, no semi-auto rifle has a burst. They only fire once with each pull of the trigger. When referring to “burst” what you are referring to are fully automatic weapons such as a machine gun being allowed to only fire several rounds before the trigger is released. I just wanted to clear that up in case you use that analogy again. Thanks.
Melissa Said,
February 12, 2008 @ 11:13 am
I have a question and i really hope someone can answer it, for christmas i got a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H7, I’m messing around with the burst mode and trying different things out but I can never get it to go fast.The time between each picture seems so long and they mostly come out blury. What do i do?
Melissa Said,
February 12, 2008 @ 11:14 am
My email is skerchik@hotmail.com, if someone could send me an email with the answer that would be great.thank you!