Professional photographers take a large number of photos. They know that by doing so they will most likely find that perfect one they were aiming for. Digital cameras make such a technique available to all of us.
It should be pretty intuitive that the more photos you take the more likely you are to take that perfect one – the perfect angle, lighting and composition. During the film camera era it was an expensive proposition that was used by professionals only. Digital cameras however make it affordable and reachable to all of us.
Forget the slogan “save on film”. Photos taken with film cameras are expensive. Each photo consumes a frame in a roll of film. Film rolls capacity is relatively low usually 24 or 36 photos. Every photo also needs to be developed and printed. For these reasons when using film cameras we got used to saving film. You only take a photo when the moment is right and you are pretty sure that the results will be good. There is not much room for mistakes and experiments. On the other hand photos taken with digital cameras cost literally nothing. They are stored on erasable memory and thus can always be discarded at no cost. Moreover the photos can be viewed on digital screens and archived on digital media. When taking photos the digital camera uses digital memory to store the photos. Memory prices get lower and lower and capacity higher – it is very common today for digital cameras to have enough storage space for hundreds or even thousands of photos.
You should forget the habit of saving film when using digital cameras. It is still a good idea to follow good photography rules for composition and lighting but you should be free to take as many photos as you like, experiment with different settings and scenes and don’t think twice before taking a photo. It is better to take one extra photo and delete it later on rather than regret not taking it. You will be surprised of the great quality of some of the photos that you thought would not be that good and that if using a film camera you would have never taken. And you will be surprised finding new angles and compositions that otherwise you would have never tried.
Digital cameras allow you to experiment with new angles and to take photos that were very hard to take with film cameras. For example taking overhead photos in an event or taking a photo from a floor angle were hard or even impossible for amateur photographers with limited resources. It is almost impossible to look through the viewfinder in such scenarios and check the composition. Moreover many times you do not have much time to take the photo before the opportunity is gone. With digital cameras you can easily take such photos. Just aim the camera and press the shutter. Move the camera a bit to the left or to the right, up and down and take more photos in different angles and zooms. Later on you can go over and choose a few photos that are good. Most of the photos will be bad – wrong angle, bad composition, objects not in the frame. These photos can be simply deleted at no additional cost. There was no harm in taking them and there was great value in finding the one good photo among all those bad ones.
In conclusion digital cameras are not just a digital replacement of old film cameras. They provide new features and new capabilities that can change the way you take photos. One of those is the ability to take a large number of photos. Take advantage of the high photo capacity and the practically free price tag of taking photos. You should always follow good composition and photography rules but also remember to experiment with new settings and angles. Take many photos and then choose the ones that you like the best.
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