Walt, I am, in general, no advocate of spraying-and-praying. In this digital age where we have instant feedback and no perceived "cost" to the art I think this adds up to laziness.
On the other hand, however, I recognize the need to make lots and lots of experiments (and failures) in order to learn how to make the images you want to make. I think there is a middle ground somewhere. A balance between the folks who spend all day making one exposure and the folks who come back with a hundred shots of the exact same thing. I have to admit I used to do quite a bit of spraying. But hours spent sitting in front of the computer sifting through hundreds of junk images has cured me of that. My approach now sounds much like yours, I'll take a handful of shots -- 3-4 at the most -- and move on. Unless I'm working to achieve something very specific that hasn't come together yet. But I urge you not to delete those extra shots. ~Nick On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 8:40 PM, Walter Gilbert <[email protected]> wrote: > Interesting. I suffer from nearly the opposite malady. Using an 8 Gig > card, I seem to be overly conscious of taking extra shots. For instance, > even though I keep my camera in fast drive mode , if I accidentally take > more than one exposure, I invariably and reflexively say, "Dammit!" and > immediately delete the second and/or third shot. I never even check to see > how many shots I have left on a card. > > And, while I will spend three or four different shots on a given subject > from varying perspectives, those accidental exposures always feel to me like > a wasted shutter actuation. Don't ask me why. There's obviously no > rational reason for it. > > As for metering, I still have so much to learn about it that I find it > daunting. I've tried spot metering and matrix metering so far, and > generally shoot in aperture priority. And, up until a couple of days ago, > I've always shot with highlight correction on (unknowingly sacrificing the > lower end of my ISO range in the process). So, it seems I'm going to have > to do a good bit of relearning on my camera before I'll ever know which type > of metering I should be using in any given situation. > > -- Walt > > http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/waltergilbert > http://waltgilbert.posterous.com/ <http://polipix.posterous.com/> > Contact Me Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/walt.gilbert>Flickr > <http://www.flickr.com/photos/walt_gilbert/>Twitter > <http://twitter.com/walt_gilbert> > > --- @ WiseStamp Signature > <http://my.wisestamp.com/link?u=ypgdb385pypw7fhb&site=www.wisestamp.com/email-install>. > Get it now > <http://my.wisestamp.com/link?u=ypgdb385pypw7fhb&site=www.wisestamp.com/email-install> > On 11/21/2010 8:10 PM, Jeffery Smith wrote: >> >> That said, spray and pray is becoming more of a norm for me. After all, >> when my high capacity memory card keeps telling me that I have 999 exposures >> left, then what the hell. But I wish that this were not the case. If the >> digital camera would give me a sweet spot ISO from which I had some >> confidence that exposure over the entire frame could be salvaged no matter >> what the camera chose for me, I could spend a lot more time composing and >> moving around, thinking more about the subject. >> >> For now, I have decided never to use spot metering on a dSLR. The area >> being spot measured looks great, but that doesn't mean I can salvage the >> blown highlights. >> >> Jeffery > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. > -- ~Nick David Wright http://www.nickdavidwright.net/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
