Everything I needed to know about shooting I learned in the Army

Shake is the bane of all shooters.  Doesn't matter if you are shooting 300mm or 5.56mm.  If you shake, you will miss.  Before I joined the Army I had never shot anything that didn't have film in it.  I was afraid that was going to mean I would be a horrible rifleman.  On the first day at the range, the Drill Sergeants asked who had never shot before.  I reluctantly raised my hand, more afraid of the punishment for lying than the scorn for being less manly.  To my surprise the next words out of the Drill Sergeants mouth was that we non-shooters would be the ones to shoot expert (I missed by 1 shot, shot expert every time after that).  Why?  Because we had no bad habits to unlearn while the kids who knew how to shoot would not listen and fail to qualify.  They got it almost completely right.  Only 2 of the non-shooters failed to qualify the first time (they were just hard headed!) and the rest of the 25 "bolos" (not a good thing!) were all kids who had been shooting for 3 year or more.  Time to unlearn some bad habits.

BRM = BPT

The Army calls it Basic Rifle Marksmanship.  It is a proven method for teaching a serious business.  It is literally life or death.  We can translate that method into BPT - Basic Photographic Technique.  Before we ever put a single round in our rifles, we spent hours on dime and washer drills.  We would put a dime on the muzzle of our rifle and go through the entire shooting sequence.  The goal was to keep the dime/washer on the end.  Try it on your biggest lens with the dime on the lens hood.  Its hard!  We had a sequence beaten (they could still do that back then) into us - Breathe, Relax, Aim, Squeeze.  Take a breath, relax your body letting the breath out, aim as you get to the bottom of your breath, hold your breath momentarily, squeeze the trigger.  Here is a graphic representation of the sequence:

All of this applies to shooting with a long lens or in low light.  Take note of the length of the line for squeeze.  That is to scale.  One of the worst habits shooters, film or rifle, have is pulling the trigger/stabbing the shutter.  For a camera, make sure you have a good grip.  It should be firm but not white knuckle.  Put pad of your finger on the shutter button, not the tip. This will force you to squeeze down, not stab.  Think about and feel the ring around the shutter button.  If you can't feel it, you are using the tip instead of the pad.  When you want to shoot, squeeze down instead of pushing or stabbing.  Don't worry about releasing!!!!  The camera doesnt care how long you squeeze.  You want to hold it for a second.  If you are thinking about releasing, you will stab down so you can let it up immediately.

Burst shooting

I learned to shoot on an M16A1 that had a full auto mode.  One of the first things we were told was to never spray and pray.  If you run out of ammo, you die.  Instead we were taught to shoot controlled 3 round bursts.  Later the M16A2 got rid of the full auto completely and replaced it with an "automatic" burst mode.  Of course all of us oldsters decried the change as an accommodation for lazy shooters.  The skill to shoot a full auto in bursts was one of those dividing lines between good and bad shooters and we liked it.  The Army just wanted live soldiers and told us to STFU.  On your camera, learn to do the same thing.  Most of us shooting on a budget have cameras that can only shoot so many shots before needing a break to dump to the card.  And if you are shooting RAW with anything less than a $5000 monster you have even fewer shots before you need to give it a rest.  For me on the K200D, 3-5 shots are about right.  If I burst shoot 3-5 with a short (1-2 breaths) break, I can shoot for 30 seconds or more before I clog up the buffer.  Here is a graphic:

This shows an every breath shooting zone which is really important when the target is trying to kill you but it works for action subjects like cars or runners too.

By shooting like this, you can eliminate almost all shake.  If you hold your breath too long, you will induce shake as your body gets starved of oxygen and naturally increases your heart rate and breathing.  For me, on a three picture burst I have a very predictable sequence of "perfect" shots - 1/3 or 2.  If I squeeze a little too hard, I get 1 and 3 with the middle being blurry because at the bottom of my squeeze I moved the camera.  If squeezed too light - which is just like a stab - I get the second shot because I was light, didn't get response, stabbed a little to activate the shutter, got steady and then let up jerking the camera again.  On good days I get lots of 1/3 and I have a great control picture to figure which of the steady ones I like best.

Lots of camera reviews praise large buffer/high ISO cameras and complain about low buffer/low ISO cameras.  I dont have the $2000+ laying around for a Nikon D700so its ISO magic doesn't do anything for me.  Like the angry old Army guys, I think large buffers are for lazy photographers.  More than that, I think they teach bad habits and cause more bad pictures than they produce.  Controlled shooting will beat spray and pray every time.  How many times have you missed a shot because you filled the buffer?  Internalize these techniques and you will not miss those shots.  By learning the basics of being a steady shooter, you can get more great pictures in less light and with less chaff and more wheat.  This saves you time in Photoshop and time is money.  And by getting steady, you can push that ISO down, aperture up and still get the shot, just like the D700 guys.

Great pictures don't care what you shoot with.  If someone else is paying the bill, go for the best equipment possible.  But if its your dime, learn a little and save a lot.  Let the trust fund babies buy the expensive stuff (and drive down prices!) and watch them still get crappy pictures while you smile and  thank the Army for not only protecting your right to take pictures, but making those pictures better.

Go Shopping without spending a dime.....

A few years ago Cynthia Rowley published a book called Swell: A Girl's Guide to the Good Life.I didnt read it, not a girl, but I heard her interviewed on the Today Show one morning and something she said stuck with me - “Go shopping in your closet.”  The idea is that most women have a ton of clothes they dont wear and before you go out to buy something new, do some “shopping” with what you have.  Well, before you go to the camera store or hit Amazon, go shopping in your bag.  

What is in that thing?

I have four lenses, a flash, a tripod, remote, polarizers, warming filters, neutral density filters, macro filters, diffusers and backdrops all crammed into my bag.  I have never used all of it on a single shoot and I rarely use more than half of the lenses on a given day.  And lets not even talk about my camera.  Six regular modes (Auto everything, Program AE, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, ISO priority and Manual), Bulb, “no Flash,” and 14 scene and picture modes.  I dont even know all the scene modes let alone what they do.  And then there is the in camera processing (sepia, B&W, etc), metering modes, auto bracketing, white balance adjustments, exposure compensation, and on and on.  How much of THOSE do I use?  Way less than half.  You get the picture. Now the plan.

Shop in your bag

What is your favorite lens?  If you have more than one, you have a favorite.  You can deny it just like you do for your kids but its true.  One of the things I like about having my pictures picked up by Pixel Peeper is that it makes me see what I am shooting the most.  So here is the first assignment of shopping in your bag - put ONE lens on your camera and go shoot for a day.  If it is a zoom, force yourself to use the ENTIRE range, not the limits at each end.  Rinse and repeat for each lens in your bag.  When you are done each day, pick out your best pictures and put them in a separate folder.  At the end of the week (if you have more than 7 lenses you have no right to claim to be on a BUDGET!!!) look at all of them together.  Start taking note of what works well in what situations for what result.  I promise you will start using the lenses in your bag more.

Next step

If you carry a tripod all the time, make yourself do a “tripod only day.”  Every shot.  Then do a “handheld only day” and push the limits of your image stabilization and personal stabilization.  After three straight days of hand held only, I got to where I could shoot at 1/10th of a second and get better than 50-50 clear results.  Prior to that I maxed out at 1/30th.  Think about that, I gained 2 stops for nothing.  That is like getting the f/2.4-3.6 zoom instead of the f/4.3-5.6.  How much does THAT save?

ISO day

This one is a little more structured and can be done in a number of ways.  The idea is to learn what ISO you can live with in different situations.  On my K200D I normally have the ISO fixed at 100.  If I am doing hand held in variable conditions I will change to Auto ISO but limit it to 100-400 (very cool feature on the K200.  No idea if other brands have it).  If I am desperate for light I will go to 800 but it had better be something I cant shoot with a tripod.  1600 is to grainy for anything I really care about but if it is the only way, I will do it for documenting something (school play) or those once in a lifetime shots that would you would otherwise never get (alien encounter).  I suggest setting up near sunrise or sunset and rapidly shoot through every ISO setting with the camera on a tripod.  When you get home, decide where your sweet spot is and what you are willing to give up to get a shot.

Flashes and diffusers

This one is a little harder to do in a controlled way but the gist of it is to use your flash(s) and learn when to add light and when to go with what you have by shooting with and without.  I am still not good at this and I really struggle with adding or subtracting from the flash strength.  I use to ALWAYS use a diffuser.  Now I am starting to learn when NOT to use it.  This is my weakest area.

By the way, I suggest doing this last in your progression to this point.  The lessons of lens, tripod and ISO will all assist in determining when NOT to use a flash.

Modes

The first two weeks I had my K200D I was welded to Autopic.  Then I moved to shutter priority followed by Program AE.  Recently I have used Aperture Priority to shot an f/8 day.  But my new love is Manual mode!  Go figure!  When I was shooting a K1000 I lusted after the ME/MX/LX guys with automatic modes.  Now I have more and more better auto modes than they could ever dream of and I am shooting manual again!!  Take a week and shoot ONLY in one mode each day, just like lens day.  Again, I promise you that mode dial will start to get a workout.  After you have done that, learn to use the exposure compensation to give you “fake” manual.  Take a picture manually and than try to replicate it with an auto mode (Aperture or Shutter priority) plus the EV button.  Its faster than switching to manual and can often get the same result.  F/8 day was a real eye opener to me because it showed me what everything below that was costing me in sharpness.  I have significantly improved the quality of my pictures simply by getting away from the low end of the f-stop range.

White balance is a filter!

On the K200D, you can use the white balance to see what the different modes will look like on the last picture.  Taking a tip from The Strobist, I have used the Tungsten mode to create some beautiful effects.  Shade acts much the same as a 82 warming filter.  Didnt cost me a dime of time (Photoshop time) or money.

Get off Spray and Pray!

One of the joys of digital is that every picture is free.  Well, not quite since hard drives cost money but pretty darn close.  A lot of us have gotten in the habit of pointing and holding knowing that one of the last ten will be good.  This is a HARD habit to break.  Take a week and leave your camera on single shot for the entire week.  Make yourself think through each shot.  Frame it, straighten it (my weakness!) and then shoot.  Get in the habit of seeing the picture before you even raise the camera to your eye.  After doing this I realized that often I was just pointing and shooting because I didn't know exactly what I wanted but when I got home I could find something I liked.  Force yourself to make every shot count and you will be a better photographer for it.  If you want to get REALLY EXTREME, Shoot um Like You Bought um!  Limit yourself to 36 (or 24!) pictures a day for a week. Pretend that each one cost $5 (about the right conversion for mid 90’s processing - otherwise known as the stone age).  Subtract the cost of crap shots from your beer (or in my wife's case, yarn) budget.  Yikes!

Get a “Prime” for nothing

Most of us have zooms.  Some of us have only zooms.  Yet inside every zoom is a prime wanting to get out.  Take a day and shoot a lens with it “fixed” at one focal length.  I REALLY want a Pentax DA 35mm Macro Limited. But I also have an 18-55 zoom meaning I have a “free” 35mm prime.  Put that zoom on 35mm and shoot.  You might find out that 35mm (or what every length you choose) is not the right size.  Better to find out BEFORE you buy!  Additionally, every lens haas a sweet spot.  If your 70-300 zoom falls off a lot after 250mm, learn to shoot 250mm really well.  Like ISO, learn what it cost in terms of picture quality for that last 50mm.

Another benefit of fixing your focal length is that it gets you to move more.  Zooming in is not changing perspective.  Zooming is no different that cropping.  To get a different picture you have to move left/right/up down.  Moving closer or further is not really changing perspective either.  It is just manual zoom.  Force yourself to make a different picture instead of a more detailed/closer picture.

*** Yes I know there is a VAST difference between a zoom fixed at 35mm and a 35mm prime.  Think of it as "try before you buy" if you are looking for a prime.  More importantly, you will get an insight into what having a fixed focal length will mean.  Most post-film photographers have never known anything but zoom and while primes certainly have a place in the photographic world, if your personal shooting style doesnt agree with primes, that 50mm f/1.4 is just going to gather dust and weigh down your bag.

Learn your buttons!

Ill confess, I still dont know what the “green button” does on my Pentax.  It must be important because every Pentax DSLR has one.  And I have never checked my histogram.  I was very frustrated until I realized that half press on the shutter only locked the focus and exposure look required me to to press...the exposure lock button!  Most of the time the designers put the buttons on there for a reason.  Figure them out and you will be happier with your camera.

The Point

The point of all of this is that most of us have WAY more camera than we know we do.  We have lenses that are not used or not used to their fullest extent.  We dont know that by going with ISO 400, f/8 and 1/120 of a second we can get that shot we didnt think was possible because the automatic modes dont know that your 50-200 is super clear at 135mm and will make up for the 400 ISO.  Or when with a little bracing and breathing control (breathe, relax, aim, squeeze) we can get that low light shot without having to go to ISO 1600.  Pros can afford to have an “ISO Camera” and a collection of f/1.4 primes tended by a legion of assistants.  The rest of us normally have to squeeze every bit out of one body and a few lenses.  If you dont know the full capabilities and limitations of your equipment, you are leaving money on the table.  Do I really NEED that DA Limited 35mm?  Probably not but certainly not when my 18-55mm zoom rarely ends up on 35mm.  On the other hand, that 135mm prime is looking like a good buy.  So go shopping in your bag.  You might be surprised at how much free stuff is in there.

Limited Posting till Saturday

My son is taking me on a surprise mini vacation as a Fathers Day present so I will be very limited until Saturday.

Got to Love Passwird!

I know this will probably be expired before anyone reads this but I cant help putting up an example of what goes up on Passwird and why I check it out every day:

Three (3) SanDisk 16GB Ultra II SDHC Cards $32.47 shipped AR at Ritz Camera!

Pickup three (3) SanDisk 16GB Ultra II SDHC Cards for $32.47 after rebate at Ritz Camera. Features: Fast read/write speeds of up to 15MB/second. RITZ CAMERA

1. Add qty 3 SanDisk 16GB Ultra II SDHC Cards to cart @ $49.99 each.
2. Enter coupon code ETRC01 at checkout for $7.50 off.
3. Automatic $20 off $100 when PayPal is used as method of payment.
4. Send for the $90 rebate

Sure its a convoluted process and you have to mess around with rebates but if you are willing to spend a tiny bit of time and effort you get THREE fast 16GB cards for $32.  I dont care if you are shooting RAW at 20MP you will have a hard time filling 48GB before your batteries or your arms give out.

I hate lens cleaning cloths that are sold in camera stores.  Maybe I am just a klutz but I always seem to add as many smudges as I remove trying to use one on a lens.  And on a filter, they are never big enough to clean both sides at once and they force you to hold the filter by the edges and try to keep a grip while getting it clean.  I long ago gave up on the tiny things and now use the iKlear.  I originally bought it to clean my laptop screen and discovered that it is just as effective at cleaning lenses.  The "microfiber chamois" and "microfiber terry cloth" towels are a little larger than a standard washcloth.  I use the chamois on my lenses and filters and the terry cloth on everything else.  At $15, it is roughly twice what you would pay for one of the tiny cleaning cloths.  If you need a last minute fathers day gift, you cant go wrong with the iKlear.