Do You Really Need 10 Pics of The Same Scene
I can recall my first rolls of film I ever captured with a
35mm Rangefinder Type camera in 1974. Long gone were the days of shooting with the family
620 Brownie, then I moved up to a
126 cartridge that was hard to open and spool the film onto a reel to develop the film. Then the day came when my parents were gonna buy me a 35mm camera for my birthday.
Even with rolls of 36 exposures, I rarely shot the very same scene twice in a row or made a lot of different compositions of the same subject. You were limited on how many shots you could make on the roll. There would be special images I would make multiple exposure differences in sometimes but mainly one shot per subject or scene.
When I first switched to digital around the year 2001, I still had that same mindset of one image per subject or scene It really bothers me the most when I look through archives of early digital captures, and rarely see more than just the one photo of a scene. And now years later as I look through the image archives I have, I see usually just one exposure of a scene.
Around the end of my film shooting days, it does appear I had started shooting a second exposure on some subjects. But still many scenes with only one exposure,and I shot a lot of 24 exposure rolls than 36 due to the ease of finishing a roll quickly since I would also process it when finished. When I did make multiple exposures it also seemed to be for Depth of Field and not for Exposure Values.
I am sure it all stems from the beginnings when at 12 years old, a roll of film and chemistry could cost a few dollars. Luckily I was a newspaper delivery kid and had about 8 dollars a week profit which I would spend every Saturday at the Camera Store.
I guess to maximize each roll I was very selective about the scene I would capture and how many frames I would use up. Hopefully just one exposure per scene. But I'm sure that I wasn't the only photographer that had the same shooting habit of one exposure per scene trying to get the most out of a roll of 24 or 36 exposures.
The biggest reason I even shot multiple frames in the last of my film days was for publishing another photo on-line magazine called "Photographicage" that I produced for a couple years before selling in 2006 after moving to Tennessee. Several projects required various exposures so I began making multiple shots of some scenes. And as camera phones continued to develop later on, I still didn't take multiple images of the same scene. But that was primarily due to the fact I still preferred photography with a camera instead of the phone.
Somewhere around the year 2001 I traded all my film gear for a Nikon D100 and a zoom lens to dive into capturing digitally. It definitely would speed up production of the website since I wouldn't need to develop the rolls of film I shot for the project articles. But my capturing methods stayed the same as film. It took some work to make myself remember that the cost per frame is no longer an issue. But at first I was still shooting only one exposure per scene.
After some disappointing shoots due to an out of focus part of a scene or exposure wasn't quite what I wanted I did manage to start pressing the shutter more than once per scene I framed up in the camera.
But it wasn't until I got back from a month long trip to Europe that I realized my bad habit of not shooting enough reared up and bit me in the booty. As I would look through the archives of images I could see so many instances where another angle or exposure would have been such an asset to the shoot.
Fast forward to today... I will end up shooting a half dozen exposures of a scene, and sometimes even a multiple image of regular family or documentary photo event. Either altering the Depth of Field or the Exposure Values to make sure I've captured all the aspects I want to get for that scene. Of course if its a family vacation or birthday party or some situation I don't really need a half dozen exposures, then in those times I am still just capturing the one exposure per scene.
Back to the original question... How many photos is enough?
I don't think there is a definitive answer, and for me it is dependent on the scene I'm shooting. If its a people even or family stuff, I find myself still making only the one essential image to document those moments. But if its an image or even pieces of images I will use for a composite later, I will shoot as many as I think will give me all the options I can get. Maybe I'm not sure of exactly what depth of field I want or the level of shadow or highlight details I'm wanting in the scene.
Sadly this topic will haunt me forever I think. As I look back the the image archives from my month in the Mediterranean, I really get sad at the fact I took so few images even though it was several thousand. A lot of it may have been I was so overwhelmed by just being there that I neglected to make multiple exposures of most the scenes I did capture.
I would personally say there is never a limit on how many you take... It's how many of the same scene you present, either in person, in a photo album or slideshow. By taking a lot more than you will use as final images, then I guess the more the better. That way you can choose which one has all the attributes you were looking for.
Like so many other facets of photography... it's the presentation that makes the difference. If you took 10 shots of your child blowing ou their birthday candles, just pick the best one when you show those photos off to friends and family. Go ahead and take multiple shots, but save the final viewing to just one pic of each scene as a general rule of thumb.
Then... Theres the purpose driven shoot
Such as last weekend when I sat outback and had my camera on a tripod focused on the hummingbird feeder we have that gets very frequent visits. I was determined to try and get some of the best hummingbird photos I ever have. But that wouldnt be very hard since I have not gotten any hummingbird shots that I ould be happy with so far.
But things are different this time around. I set my camera on the tripod with it zoomed in on one of the perches on the feeder. Afert an hour or so of shooting on continuos every time a hummer came near the perch, I had captured 75 images, In the end to have only 3 that I was quite pleased with.
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