The Continuous Shooting Trick That’ll Get You The Shot

There’s a way to capture the perfect photo, a way which will allow you to never miss the moment, … And it’s simple to do on any camera!

* This article isn’t about “spray and pray” techniques, but about using the tools at your disposal when you need to. If you don’t miss the shots you need, you are at a level that doesn’t need this help or you’re doing a style of photography that doesn’t require it.

Most people, most of the time line up their composition, wait for the perfect moment and then press the shutter button. Their camera will click, and an image will be captured. This is all very good, and in days of film, it was the only way in which you really could take a photograph, however there is a little dial or switch on your camera that allows you to change your shooting habits forever!

Look at your camera and you will find markings stating C, CH or CL (and maybe something else depending on camera). These stand for Continuous, Continuous High and Continuous Low. This works really simply, the longer your finger is on the shutter release button, the more shots it will take!

Different cameras have different amount of frames per second that they can take, anywhere between 3 and 30+ per second. Ideally, for everyday use you need to set your Continuous Low (a bit slower than CH) to a shutter speed of between 3-5 shots, but this can be adjusted to your needs.

Now, when your camera is in your hand and you are taking photos of family of friends, hold the shutter and you’ll capture a few shots in quick succession, meaning at least one of your shots will be perfect with everyone’s eyes open, smiles and no blur! This works for other things such as flowers or insects, instead of one attempt, you’re firing off a few shots so the flower will be in the right spot if windy and the insect will be in focus if you’re up close!

Once you get into the habit of being in a continuous shooting mode, it’s hard to to rely on it as you’ll have way more usable shots. The downside of course is that you’ll have more shots to go through of you’re editing, but the chance of getting that perfect shot far outweighs the negative.

Give this feature a try! You’ll be surprised that you never used it before!