How do you get the shot in 4 frames or less?

[B-9]

How do you get “The Shot” in 4 frames or less?

Bracket?

Meter your batteries dead?

Trust your gut?

We are addicted to these threads. Fall in your place.

 

[B-9]

Watching Svengoolie, Buck Rogers. Tune in with me!

Drop your Reddit let’s real time chat.

Rare I have this kind of free time.

Devin@RFCo @ Reddit

 

[Richard G]

First is the film. I just exposed most of a roll of Tri-X at 100 ISO, in error. It gave me some lovely very useable dense negatives, and some shadow detail I would otherwise not have had. With colour negative it’s even better for overexposure. We’re warned how bad underexposure is, but I like Fuji Superia under-exposed by one stop for dense blue skies and strong colours. I don’t risk that with Ektar. Slides, like digital, I don’t risk over exposure. I meter in changing light and indoors but often I trust my experience with each film. I was a great fan of the Kodak box-end exposure guide. I shot slide film for a month with only that. Hardly one was bad.

 

[B-9]

Thanks Richard! Solid Insight.

 

[farlymac]

Practice. If I take two photos of the same scene, it's because I'll do one in portrait, and the other in landscape. Most b&w films have plenty of latitude, so that always helps. Got to be spot on with Ektar though.


PF

 

[madNbad]

When you start using the Mamiya and have ten exposures from a 6x7 back, you’ll figure it out.

 

[Pál_K]

I've been making photos for 56 years - most of it all manual, no meter.

With the films I use (no transparencies), I already know what my shutter speed and aperture is going to be for the situation. I can either pre-focus or focus quickly with a rangefinder or SLR microprism. All I really need to think about is composition. That's all you need to deal with: shutter speed, aperture, focus, composition. That's all of it.

I'm also cheap - I shoot one frame and don't waste film. Usually I get what I intended.

 

[robert blu]

Feel an emotion , look around, think a little bit but not too much, than shoot: done!

 

[lynnb]

Kodachrome 25 was expensive. I always only took one frame.

 

[Richard G]

I love digital for taking many many more than 4 when exploring something interesting and new. Conversely, when out with my wife any delay is very very unpopular so I have to get one shot, in a hurry. Interesting how often that works well for me, the pressure to do it quickly without too much unhelpful thinking.

 

[Pherdinand]

Oh i always get my exposures right.
And then i screw up at development 🙂)

 

[B-9]

When you start using the Mamiya and have ten exposures from a 6x7 back, you’ll figure it out.

You caught me!

To play into my own pandering,

I’ve always used a combination of meter your batteries dead and trust your gut.

Killer shot Lynnb!

 

[CharlesDAMorgan]

This reminds me I have a four shot panoramic of the mountains near Girona, and I have yet to learn to stitch them together in Lightroom...

 

[Larry Cloetta]

Kodachrome 25 was expensive. I always only took one frame.

^^^^^^Nice shot, Lynn.

 

[lynnb]

Devin and Larry, thanks. OM1 with OM Zuiko 200mm f/4 wide open, so it must've been about 1/125 metering for Cheryl, who'd fallen asleep (not while waiting for me to take the shot lol).

 

[jsrockit]

Why 4 shots? What am I missing? The Magnum Contact sheets book shows some people used a whole roll to get a shot and some one frame. Neither is the wrong way to do it.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Only a pro must get the shot.
Us amateurs need only try our best.

FWIW I usually lose interest after a couple frames.
If on reflection I feel I missed something important
I can go back another day.

Chris

 

[B-9]

Nothing really significant about 4 frames. So nothing missed JSRockit!

I use all three of the methods in my OP as I am sure most of us do.

Chris... but I soo badly want to get the shot lol 😀

 

[Richard G]

Only a pro must get the shot.
Us amateurs need only try our best.

FWIW I usually lose interest after a couple frames.
If on reflection I feel I missed something important
I can go back another day.

Chris

I often find that if I haven’t tried hard enough with the framing or point of view, when I go back it’s not the same time of day and the shadows are different or it’s a month later and the light no longer hits that face of the building or there’s scaffolding or they’ve repainted or a tree has more foliage. Or it seems in every way the same, but now totally uninspiring and I go through the motions and try a few more shots but I know the magic is gone.

 

[Prest_400]

When you start using the Mamiya and have ten exposures from a 6x7 back, you’ll figure it out.

Or go 6x9 with a Texas Leica and bring that number to 8 frames/roll!


I am very mindful when using medium format and try to make each frame shot count as good. Not always happens. I find myself rarely taking portraits and what I think is the best I took of the year was a quick last frame.
My friend on the beach against a background of darker forest shortly before we boarded our canoe back to town again. HP5 guesstimated worked wonders. Perhaps a slightly thing negative but it has printed great in the many prints with time/contrast variations I've made.



Lynn's Kodachrome shot reminds me of my mini project last decade (so long already?). I had only 4 rolls of Kodachrome, was a teen, so I tried to bring the best out of all those 36 exposure rolls.


I'm much more trigger happy with digital, and 35mm allows room with the length of film. Digital is a blessing for telephoto and fast photography.


But no meter or camera at all if batteries are dead then. 😀