Fact: there is no magic or skill in capturing every moment as a photographer. If that’s the case, we might as well replace the photographer with a camera and an AI computer. Cameras these days are ridiculous. We can capture the moment quickly, write them on cards, and go through the images later. It gives you much more than you need and is synonymous with the panda bear, who eats bamboo all day to get a few nutrients. Perhaps that’s why they always look so sad. With this thought process, photographers who overshoot intending to edit it all in post-production with no in-camera skills are the shutterbug equivalent of sad pandas.
Modern Cameras Capture the Moment Too Easily
Autofocus these days is too good. It’s not always great, but it’s more than usable if needed with manual input from the photographer. Of course, scene detection, AI, and other factors play a role; but it’s all sensical. You don’t really need skill these days to capture a moment. And instead, you need to be in tune with the moment and know how to work with it using what you’ve got in hand.
I’ve often thought this when shooting with film, medium format cameras, and manual focus lenses. Photography students and those still wet behind the ears could benefit a lot from a project where they use a single lens, camera, and stick with it for a whole year shooting compelling photographs every day.
Please understand: there is inherently nothing wrong with shooting 30 frames a second once a budding photographer knows how to shoot precisely what they want. The ultimate point is to shoot with the intention of capturing a specific moment, and not catching everything.
Here’s a great example: did you know many YouTubers shoot portraits at something like 20 frames a second? It’s evident on press trips, and it’s even visible in ads you see on social media. This behavior is the same as the paparazzi who blast celebrities with 20 frames and flashes a second.
And if we hate paparazzi so much, who are shooting subjects in public, then why do we so heavily laud content creators?
Shoot One Frame at a Time
To capture the moment, here are some great tips on how to shoot one frame at a time:
- Set the camera to AF-S instead of AF-C.
- Shoot a single frame a second
- Start by using the center focus point or one of the intersecting points of the rule of thirds. These are the most effective five focusing points.
- Compose your entire scene based on these alone
- If your subject is moving, then try panning and moving with the subject. Keep that focusing point on your subject.
- Keep hammering the shutter button
- Keep your elbows tucked in
- Shoot in manual mode to get the most from the scene. Shoot in aperture or shutter priority to put greater emphasis on ensuring you capture the moment.
What any photographer will see once they understand and practice these tips is that they come home with fewer photos to upload to their computer. This means that less time is spent editing and more time is spent shooting. Photography is the act of using a camera to create or capture a moment as it’s happening. It’s also the only one that can really do it.
To hit home even harder, here’s a wonderful quote from the United Nations of Photography:
He does comment on his own photographic practice making images on the street, “I prowled the streets all day, feeling very strung-up and ready to pounce, determined to “trap” life — to preserve life in the act of living. Above all, I craved to seize, in the confines of one single photograph, the whole essence of some situation that was in the process of unrolling itself before my eyes.” But are we to believe that his sense of importance in a photograph was then dismissed when he created a portrait, or an image of a celebrity or someone of note? Something he did often. I think not.
The entire article is very much worth the read. So please check it out.
Medium Format and Manual Focus
The entire mentality being discussed here is how medium format photographers and those who shoot manual focus tend to work. Manual focus photographers these days often shoot in continuous shooting mode with zone focusing. But the difference here is that they know exactly what they’re going for because they think about the moment beforehand.
On the other hand, manual focus photographers know that they’re not going to be able to focus accurately to get every single moment in focus. So instead, they’re far more selective. Oftentimes, they work on getting photos completely differently. What’s more, the images are always outstanding because the photographer is working harder to actively be a part of the story-telling process.
Modern photographers truly need to learn how to capture the moment the old-school way by relying on their own ideas and emotions rather than on technology. This is how we can continue to evolve as photographers that think and make images that AI can’t always do. Specifically, we should all learn to create the moment in-camera with good set design and production than creating in-camera later on. The ultimate goal, of course, is to use both if needed. But it should rarely be needed.