How do you prepare for a shot?

[Ian]

Over at our other site, Four Thirds User, there has been a thread that, broadly-speaking, has been warming up the old debate about RAW versus JPEG. But Bob Ross has kind of moved it in a new direction by asking - how do you pre-visualise and prepare before taking a picture. I think his argument is that if you do your homework, you can get everything right in the camera and you will have no need for JPEG.

So - is this realistic? Is there enough time to check everything before you press the shutter release? I'm in two minds - its a great discipline to have everything perfectly set up, but I do get it wrong. This morning I took several shots outside with the white balance set for tungsten light, by accident... no problem for RAW, but very difficult to recover from for JPEG.

On the other hand, if you get everything as close to right for the shot, you will need to do less adjustment even if you use RAW and the IQ should be at its peak.

Ian

[Pops]

Re: How do you prepare for a shot?

Good lord .. if all pics got photographed perfect everytime PS and PSP would be put out of business.

seriously though, it may work for stills, landscapes and portraits but even then a complete and thorough understanding of all relevant circumstances would be required. A seasoned pro might get by that way.
I feel pretty sure however that it would be a complete failure when applied to action shots.......including birds

[Rodbender]

Re: How do you prepare for a shot?

Good lord .. if all pics got photographed perfect everytime PS and PSP would be put out of business.

seriously though, it may work for stills, landscapes and portraits but even then a complete and thorough understanding of all relevant circumstances would be required. A seasoned pro might get by that way.
I feel pretty sure however that it would be a complete failure when applied to action shots.......including birds

I agree with Pops here. The old method was to set your camera at a hyper-focal distance (I wounder how many know what that is) select f8 at 100/sec and be ready to shoot anything. Once you had the first shot in the bag you could consider improvements to exposure composition etc. providing the shot was still available. With auto this and that these days you can do much the same. Also the degree of processing and correcting available to digital helps, but dose encourage you to take less care setting up a shot.

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: How do you prepare for a shot?

I still shoot slide film and have started using the digital in much the same way I used Polaroid in days gone by. This is only for studio, macro and stationary shots.

Only having limited numbers of exposures tends to make you think about the shot a lot more when using film and I find that the dicipline that film imposes helps in all my photography.

I freely admit that I no longer clean up on locations anything like as much as I did in the past, so fagends, crisp bags, cans, etc., get cloned rather than picked up.

As for preparation, my cameras always get reset to my default settings (125, f8, ISO 100, Auto WB and RAW) before they go back in the bag. If I have been experimenting then I do a full reset and then set up my defaults

When it comes to the moment of taking the pictures, I use a tip given to me by an old tog "Always check the corners"

Of course things can and do go wrong, but as someone once said,

1 out of focus image is a mistake

10 out of focus images is a panel

1000 out of focus images is a style

[Cogito]

Re: How do you prepare for a shot?

I'm relatively new to photography, and still very much learning. My methodology at the moment tends to be.....

1) Get a shot on auto-everything, ASAP. Whats the point in setting up for ages only to have lost what I wanted to photograph?

2) Then think about it. Try things...experiment...have fun. Composition, focus, style, exposure, I'll play with the lot. (Remeber, I'm still a learner!)

3) Go home, get the photos onto the screen and realise all the shortcomings in my pictures, and realise things I *could* have done at the time if only I'd thought of it!

For me, using a digital camera is the perfect tool to experiment widely. The ability to keep shooting and keep trying things with hardly any thought about the number of photo's I'm taking is fabulous. The only problem is that when we are out anywhere together, the rest of my family get very fed-up waiting for me to finish!

Regards,

Neil

[Pops]

Re: How do you prepare for a shot?

The only problem is that when we are out anywhere together, the rest of my family get very fed-up waiting for me to finish!

That's easily solved.....go alone

[Bob Ross]

Re: How do you prepare for a shot?

HI Ian,
Part of what I had in mind about previsualizing was do you have an idea of why you are taking the picture and the final use to which it might go? This goes a bit beyound the craft aspects. The term "pre visualizing" come from the Ansel Adams/Minor White/Edward Weston work on the Zone system. The idea then was to have an idea of the final print in mind and the expose and develope to make that print. They, of course, used large format cameras and the set up was strenuous enough to necessitate knowing why and what.
One concept that comes around is that each image seems to have a best print/viewing size. This may come from the focal length, perspective, scope of subject and final normal viewing distance. If you have visited galleries, you have probably viewed large images that should have been smaller and I often find myself pushing my chair back from the monitor with some images that should be bigger. My thought is that previsualizing might help match the image size to the final product. Any thoughts?
Exposure and the print rendition that one had in mind will always be linked and our chimping abilities has lessened the guess work a lot.
I am probably from the same school as Graham, having shot more slides than negatives and lived in the critical exposure zone. Check those corners....!
So, where do you see your image going, before you touch the shutter....on the web, in a camera review, a greeting card, a calendar, a magazine, up on the wall, in a gallery? If you don't, do you think it migh influence your choice of lens, perspective and exposure, if you did?
One way this concept stayed in my techniques, was that I made prints on fixed paper sizes and this made me do some cropping as I took the picture and that implies that I was previsualizing. Projecting slides didn't involve cropping, but since the screen image was big, it did involve perspectives that worked big. If you envisioned a post card image and the projected it, often something wasn't quite right.
Digital has cut across many of those old concepts and for me the result are showing more miss-matches, in a lot of what I see posted on the web.
The raw/jpeg situation works into this in various ways, but jpeg is useful to lock in what you previsualized at the time of exposure and not have to remember it later when PPing. Shoot both, if it is important.
Bob

[Ian]

Re: How do you prepare for a shot?

The only problem is that when we are out anywhere together, the rest of my family get very fed-up waiting for me to finish!

Regards,

Neil

OH yes! That could be me

Ian

[Bob Ross]

Re: How do you prepare for a shot?

OH yes! That could be me

Ian

That is part of the craft not mentioned in the "how to" books...
Bob

[thecoy]

Re: How do you prepare for a shot?

Heh... Great observation you got there. Maybe they were just too assuming.