Question on Professionalism in Photography
May 7, 2017 22:31:03 #
robertjerl wrote:
... checking to see if the framing was right, if the little kid had his tongue out, who blinked etc to see if it needs to be redone. I mean what if Aunt Bertha bobbed up to take an iPhone snap? Had the shutter already gone off or did she photobomb the shot. Esp if it was a slow shutter speed. And at an event where friends and relatives were also taking pictures, what if 4 or 5 flashes had all gone off at the same time, washed out shot with weird shadows, redo it now.
Only verifying the shutter speed is valid, the rest of that list is time wasted trying to critique the shot and or composition. Those are not the point of chimping! That particular "Decisive Moment" is gone forever and judging it at that point is a waste of time. Verifying that Auto this or Auto that is likely to produce good results on the next shot, or if some mode needs to be changed, is the purpose of checking the LCD screen.
May 7, 2017 22:35:45 #
mas24
Loc: Southern CA
JohnSwanda wrote:
So now that I can check my people shots to make sure everybody has a decent expression and open eyes, I shouldn't do it because I couldn't do it back in the film days? Chimping isn't the sign of a amateur.
Perhaps I should have said there were no LCD screens to view during the SLR film era.
May 7, 2017 22:50:34 #
Apaflo wrote:
Only verifying the shutter speed is valid, the rest of that list is time wasted trying to critique the shot and or composition. Those are not the point of chimping! That particular "Decisive Moment" is gone forever and judging it at that point is a waste of time. Verifying that Auto this or Auto that is likely to produce good results on the next shot, or if some mode needs to be changed, is the purpose of checking the LCD screen.
If I want to check to see if the group of people I just shot all have their eyes open, or decent expressions, while they are still standing there, that is certainly a good purpose for chimping. Who are you to decide for others what the point of chimping should be? I would love to have had that advantage back in the film days.
May 7, 2017 22:54:19 #
I would say it is not a questions of pro vs amateur, it has just become the norm. I shot weddings on film for over 25 years and had no way of knowing if I was getting anything. With film, after awhile, you just know all is good, things will be fine. You became sure of what you were doing, and trust your gear. As a side note, all my weddings and portraits in those 25 years turned out. Only time it did not was the UPS building in my town burned down with my work from the weekend inside.
Randy
Randy
May 7, 2017 23:09:38 #
JohnSwanda wrote:
If I want to check to see if the group of people I just shot all have their eyes open, or decent expressions, while they are still standing there, that is certainly a good purpose for chimping. Who are you to decide for others what the point of chimping should be? I would love to have had that advantage back in the film days.
Learn to use the technology! A 3 or 4 shot burst in high speed continuous mode guarantees the ability to produce a photograph with no blinkers etc., chimping does not! Trying to review each member of even small groups is a waste of time, and not easy anyway. It is an exceedingly unprofessional use of chimping!
Granted that this is actually a professional technique though, because it really needs lighting that can fire at the same intensity and color multiple times in one second. Multiple high power studio strobes make it easy, and anything less is a potential failure or excessive work.
May 7, 2017 23:22:36 #
I think that in some situations, excessive, habitual chimping can be looked upon as a rather inefficient approach to photography. Especially if this behavior results in missed opportunities of capturing important moments.
May 7, 2017 23:27:48 #
Apaflo wrote:
Learn to use the technology! A 3 or 4 shot burst i... (show quote)
I dont understand how several exposures in one second guarantees anything. If you want a perfect group shot you can always shoot one image for each person in the group, plus one more. And then in photoshop create a composite using the best shot of each person.
If you have ever shot a group of kids like at a VBS program, you need to check to make sure you got a good shot.
May 7, 2017 23:30:24 #
rook2c4 wrote:
I think that in some situations, excessive, habitual chimping can be looked upon as a rather inefficient approach to photography. Especially if this behavior results in missed opportunities of capturing important moments.
Do you know that anyone ever actually is habitually excessive? How can you tell? What indicates they are missing opportunities? You are assuming things you can't verify.
Or is it just that they can do it faster than you?
May 7, 2017 23:32:38 #
Apaflo wrote:
Learn to use the technology! A 3 or 4 shot burst i... (show quote)
The OP was specifically asking about a wedding photographer, presumedly indoors with a flash which is probably not capable of high speed burst shooting. If I were shooting an outdoor event without a flash, I would certainly shoot in bursts. But I don't think it is all that difficult or time consuming to check shots of small groups for eyes and expressions.
May 7, 2017 23:37:14 #
Perhaps people can worry more about the quality of their own work and less about what other photographers do. Chimp, no chimp. Not my problem or concern. I chimp when needed but when on the run, or I am certain that I have the right exposure, I do not. People really need to focus on the craft and ignore the rest.
May 7, 2017 23:39:26 #
jim quist wrote:
I dont understand how several exposures in one second guarantees anything. If you want a perfect group shot you can always shoot one image for each person in the group, plus one more. And then in photoshop create a composite using the best shot of each person.
If you have ever shot a group of kids like at a VBS program, you need to check to make sure you got a good shot.
If you have ever shot a group of kids like at a VBS program, you need to check to make sure you got a good shot.
The easy way is a rapid fire sequence, fast enough to catch everyone in essentially the same place with the same pose. All that changes are facial expressions etc. Often that means one of the multiple shots will be fine. But if not the one with the fewest problems is used and those problems are corrected by cloning parts from the other images. To be absolutely sure a pair of 4 shot sequences taken 1 second apart virtually guarantees success. It requires no review of the composition at the time.
May 7, 2017 23:49:54 #
JohnSwanda wrote:
The OP was specifically asking about a wedding photographer, presumedly indoors with a flash which is probably not capable of high speed burst shooting. If I were shooting an outdoor event without a flash, I would certainly shoot in bursts. But I don't think it is all that difficult or time consuming to check shots of small groups for eyes and expressions.
Group shots inside at a wedding are not the place for a speedlight. I use 4 each Paul C. Buff E640 Einstein strobes. Same intensity and the same color for each flash.
I detest weddings, but do get roped into one now and then. The last one I virtually did everything in 3 shot bursts. Because today I have cameras and flash units that are better than what existed 20 years ago. Never mind with film...
BTW a good examination takes seconds per individual at a minimum. If it takes longer than one second to review the LCD screen it is wasting your time.
May 8, 2017 00:23:29 #
Apaflo wrote:
Group shots inside at a wedding are not the place ... (show quote)
It sure takes a lot of arrogance to presume to tell others the way they work is wrong. I can tell in a second whether I need to take another shot. Maybe you just lack that skill.
May 8, 2017 00:33:01 #
c49smith wrote:
I read an article on another site that talked abou... (show quote)
You cannot take seriously everything you read from sanctimonious idiots! If someone wants to look at the back of their camera, so what! Sometimes I look to check the overall composition and sometimes just to check the histogram or blinkies. But it should not matter anyway and it is no disgrace. When taking a break I'll thumb through the images just to see if anything turned out really great or if there is something I really like. And, yes, it is referred to as chimping. I don't let that bother me.
May 8, 2017 00:52:09 #
JohnSwanda wrote:
It sure takes a lot of arrogance to presume to tell others the way they work is wrong. I can tell in a second whether I need to take another shot. Maybe you just lack that skill.
Maybe some are just not as critical, nor as experienced as others, John. I call bullshit of the one second analysis! Even back at the computer, on maybe the third time through while culling, things get noticed that are an "Oh Crap, that won't work!"
Stop being stubborn and consider the options presented (from the perspective of a professional wedding shoot, not a friend taking a few shots).
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