I would set my camera to either CL or CH to get continuous shooting (The few times I wanted to try continuous shooting, I usually use CL). If the model isn’t moving, then I’d just leaving it at single-servo focus.

Stephen … I’m going to let you figure this one out yourself.
Which settings would make the most sense? :)

Neil vN

I also machine gun when I am photographing unpredictable action, as in this photograph I posted in the article on taking photographs in bright sunlight:

But then there are times when you need to observe and time your shot to get the peak of the action, such as this image I recently posted of someone jumping on a trampoline at a festival:

If I had simply machine-gunned it at this time, I might’ve only gotten some in-between moments, instead of that surreal moment. That’s what I meant that there is a risk of missing the key moment.

You need to apply whatever technique you are using, as it applies at the time. There is rarely one specific method or technique that will cover every potential scenario you might encounter.

Neil vN

you must have noticed my odd little questions here and there by now.
One of those sentence which kept my brain turning around bedtime.
‘there is the risk of missing a key moment when you rely entirely on the camera’s frames-per-second rate .. ‘
une petite explication pour moi s’il te plait?

thank you in advance.

I shoot indoors with a prime at f2 or as wide as 1.4, so I can fire them off fast.

Now this next part has a touch of irony to it, considering the title of this blog posting. Someone (who wanted to remain anonymous), told me about this technique he learned in sniper school. He thinks this technique may be of use for photographers who shoot in low light and need to steady themselves

Neil vN

Reading your post on gunning and running made me think about something and I thought I would share it with you and let you test it out !

This comes from sniper school but works well for long lens shooting.

Get yourself a length of rope / string / wire / chain and a 3/8 camera type bolt (I actually use a hot shoe release plate)

Tie one of the string to the bold and make a big-ish loop in the other end but what you need to do is measure it so it’s about ½ short of your eye when you pull it taught.

Then pull it till it’s at eye level and putting just a little extra upwards strain on it – this will create a rock steady monopod that will help you shoot at MUCH slower shutter speeds and it can fit in your pocket !!!!!! – I have mine in match box in my camera bag – it sounds dumb but give it a shot.

It works best if you make the loop pretty big so you can stand in the loop with both feet at shoulder width apart creating a triangle with the string coming out of the top to the bottom of your lens.

Anyway just thought I would share, seems right up your street.

I’ve found this little trick to be of immense benefit in the past especially when the aperture is set to f2. As posted before this aperture having a very shallow dof is quite difficult to nail a really sharp and in focus image if you are on the go. I’ve found that sometimes when having locked my focus on someone’s eyes and then recomposing the shot and then firing away, in the moment of the recomposition of the shot, without me knowing it, I’ve just managed to move the camera enough to get the focus just slightly off as in your example above of the images. What a bummer when you check your images in Bridge and zoom in to 100% view and you see that the nicely composed shot is just a few degrees off pin sharp. Just so good to know that with a continuous machine gun burst of shutter speed going off, that in those few seconds, one or two of the images will have the sharp focus that we want.

Nice little technique there Neil… thanks….

Jose .. shooting at f2 with such a long lens does leave minimal room for error. And that is exactly when machine-gunning the camera works. But as you said, it does leave the chance that the exact perfect moment slips by you .. but, it might slip by you anyway because the image is out of focus. It’s a bit of a gamble imho to just take one image then with such small depth-of-field.

Neil vN