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Drive Mode & Buffer

Lesson 12 from: Fundamentals of Photography

John Greengo

Drive Mode & Buffer

Lesson 12 from: Fundamentals of Photography

John Greengo

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Lesson Info

12. Drive Mode & Buffer

Summary (Generated from Transcript)

The lesson discusses the drive mode and buffer in photography. The drive mode controls the speed at which images can be shot, with options for single shot, continuous shooting, and self-timer. The buffer allows for shooting multiple images quickly, storing them temporarily in the camera's memory before transferring to the memory card. The buffer size is determined by the camera's megapixels and processing speed. It is important to consider buffer limitations when shooting action or sports photography, and the file format (RAW or JPEG) can also impact buffer capacity.

Q&A:

What is the purpose of the drive mode in photography? The drive mode controls the speed at which images can be shot, with options for single shot, continuous shooting, and self-timer.

What are the benefits of using continuous shooting mode? Continuous shooting mode is beneficial when shooting action or sports photography, as it allows you to capture multiple images quickly during the peak period of action and later choose the best moment.

What are the self-timer options typically available on cameras? There are usually 10-second and 2-second self-timer options. The 10-second timer is useful for including yourself in the picture, while the 2-second timer is ideal for triggering the shutter release on a tripod and allowing the camera movements to settle.

What is the purpose of the buffer in a camera? The buffer allows for shooting multiple images quickly, storing them temporarily in the camera's memory before transferring them to the memory card. This is particularly useful when shooting in burst mode or continuously.

How does the buffer size in a camera affect the number of images that can be shot? The buffer size determines the number of images that can be shot before the buffer fills up. The buffer size is influenced by the camera's megapixels and processing speed. Newer cameras tend to have a higher buffer limit.

How does the file format (RAW or JPEG) impact the buffer capacity? The file format can impact the buffer capacity because RAW files are larger in size compared to JPEG files. Shooting in JPEG allows for more images to be stored in the buffer and shot more quickly. This is why sports photographers often shoot in JPEG format.

Lessons

Class Trailer
1

Class Introduction

23:32
2

Photographic Characteristics

06:46
3

Camera Types

03:03
4

Viewing System

22:09
5

Lens System

24:38
6

Shutter System

12:56
7

Shutter Speed Basics

10:16
8

Shutter Speed Effects

31:57
9

Camera & Lens Stabilization

11:06
10

Quiz: Shutter Speeds

07:55
11

Camera Settings Overview

16:12
12

Drive Mode & Buffer

04:24
13

Camera Settings - Details

10:21
14

Sensor Size: Basics

18:26
15

Sensor Sizes: Compared

24:52
16

The Sensor - Pixels

22:49
17

Sensor Size - ISO

26:59
18

Focal Length

11:36
19

Angle of View

31:29
20

Practicing Angle of View

04:59
21

Quiz: Focal Length

08:15
22

Fisheye Lens

12:32
23

Tilt & Shift Lens

20:37
24

Subject Zone

13:16
25

Lens Speed

09:03
26

Aperture

08:25
27

Depth of Field (DOF)

21:46
28

Quiz: Apertures

08:22
29

Lens Quality

07:06
30

Light Meter Basics

09:04
31

Histogram

11:48
32

Quiz: Histogram

09:07
33

Dynamic Range

07:25
34

Exposure Modes

35:15
35

Sunny 16 Rule

04:31
36

Exposure Bracketing

08:08
37

Exposure Values

20:01
38

Quiz: Exposure

20:44
39

Focusing Basics

13:08
40

Auto Focus (AF)

24:39
41

Focus Points

17:18
42

Focus Tracking

19:26
43

Focusing Q&A

06:40
44

Manual Focus

07:14
45

Digital Focus Assistance

07:35
46

Shutter Speeds & Depth of Field (DOF)

05:18
47

Quiz: Depth of Field

15:54
48

DOF Preview & Focusing Screens

04:55
49

Lens Sharpness

11:08
50

Camera Movement

11:29
51

Advanced Techniques

15:15
52

Quiz: Hyperfocal Distance

07:14
53

Auto Focus Calibration

05:15
54

Focus Stacking

07:58
55

Quiz: Focus Problems

18:54
56

Camera Accessories

32:41
57

Lens Accessories

29:24
58

Lens Adaptors & Cleaning

13:14
59

Macro

13:02
60

Flash & Lighting

04:47
61

Tripods

14:13
62

Cases

06:07
63

Being a Photographer

11:29
64

Natural Light: Direct Sunlight

28:37
65

Natural Light: Indirect Sunlight

15:57
66

Natural Light: Mixed

04:20
67

Twilight: Sunrise & Sunset Light

22:21
68

Cloud & Color Pop: Sunrise & Sunset Light

06:40
69

Silhouette & Starburst: Sunrise & Sunset Light

07:28
70

Golden Hour: Sunrise & Sunset Light

07:52
71

Quiz: Lighting

05:42
72

Light Management

10:46
73

Flash Fundamentals

12:06
74

Speedlights

04:12
75

Built-In & Add-On Flash

10:47
76

Off-Camera Flash

25:48
77

Off-Camera Flash For Portraits

15:36
78

Advanced Flash Techniques

08:22
79

Editing Assessments & Goals

08:57
80

Editing Set-Up

06:59
81

Importing Images

03:59
82

Organizing Your Images

32:41
83

Culling Images

13:57
84

Categories of Development

30:59
85

Adjusting Exposure

08:03
86

Remove Distractions

04:02
87

Cropping Your Images

09:53
88

Composition Basics

26:36
89

Point of View

28:56
90

Angle of View

14:35
91

Subject Placement

23:22
92

Framing Your Shot

07:27
93

Foreground & Background & Scale

03:51
94

Rule of Odds

05:00
95

Bad Composition

07:31
96

Multi-Shot Techniques

19:08
97

Pixel Shift, Time Lapse, Selective Cloning & Noise Reduction

12:24
98

Human Vision vs The Camera

23:32
99

Visual Perception

10:43
100

Quiz: Visual Balance

14:05
101

Visual Drama

16:45
102

Elements of Design

09:24
103

Texture & Negative Space

03:57
104

Black & White & Color

10:33
105

The Photographic Process

09:08
106

Working the Shot

25:29
107

What Makes a Great Photograph?

07:01

Lesson Info

Drive Mode & Buffer

The drive mode is a pretty simple mode, it used to control the drive of our film through the cameras, we still keep the same name for the most part, some companies call it the sequence or the, what does Nikon call it? They have a slightly different name for it. The shutter release mode, the release mode is what they use. But it's how fast you can shoot images from one to the next. There are three basic options here. Single, sometimes they'll include a quiet option, which slows down the movements in the camera to make it a little bit quieter, and there's also options where you can get a remote to trigger the camera as well. There's gonna be a continuous shooting mode, and if you are shooting action, it's often good to put your camera into the continuous shooting mode, because you don't know when the best moment's gonna be, you're gonna capture a whole bunch of images during the peak period of time, and then you'll figure out later what was the best moment. And then finally there's gonna...

be some self-timer options. There's usually a 10-second and a 2-second self-timer, 10-seconds is for you getting around in the picture, 2-seconds is if the camera's on a tripod and you want to trigger the shutter release but you want the movements to settle out while you take your hand off the shutter. And so that's really good for working with a tripod. And then sometimes they'll have a delay and continuous shooting. And this is fantastic for doing group shots that you want to be a part of. Because I found that people always blink on the first shot, and so what you want to do is, I usually set it up to take at least four shots so that everybody's looking at the camera, and they're not blinking. And so give yourself four shots, two or three seconds between shots, just let everyone know, and one of those four will probably be good. Set it to as many as you need to, but that's a system that I use. The buffer in the camera is something that allows you to shoot lots of pictures very, very quickly. Faster than the memory card can record them. The original digital cameras recorded images on the sensor, sent them through the image processor and recorded them on the memory cards. And if anyone remembers the early digital cameras, they were very slow about recording data. And so what they did to speed the process up, is that they put on all the cameras on board RAM, or buffer. So that now when you shoot photos what happens is it goes to the image processor very quickly these days, but the images will be stored temporarily in the RAM memory of your camera. They will then be loaded onto your memory card and as soon, as quickly as they can. But it allows you to shoot through a burst of images right away, faster than your memory card can handle, as far as recording them in speed. And so Nikon and Canon will list this in the viewfinder on the right hand side. Don't ask me why the other manufacturers don't. But it is part of the specs and you can look it up, but all cameras will have a limit to how many images you can shoot. The newer most modern cameras will tend to have a higher buffer limit. Meaning you can shoot through 10 or 20 shots or maybe 100 shots before things fill up. Now what determines the buffer size is the megapixels of your camera, and how fast it can process the information. And so we're kind of in a unusual race, where we're getting more megapixels which makes things more difficult, but we're also having faster computers, so they're able to get through things a little bit more quickly now. And so things tend to be growing on the buffer side. I remember early on in digital, you could shoot three pictures continuously, and then you'd have to wait 10 seconds. And so you'd have to be very careful about when you shoot your photos. It's gotten quite good at this point, it's not a big deal, so for sports photographers, you want to be aware of how many you can shoot at one time. If somebody just hit a home run, don't shoot all your photos as they're rounding second base, because you might not have anything by the time they come home, and the whole team swamps home plate. You've gotta be careful about issuing those out in short bursts. And so the other thing that will affect it is the overall file size, whether you should be RAW or JPEG. Which is why those sports photographers were shooting JPEG, is that they could get more images in their buffer and they could shoot through more images more quickly. So it depends on what your needs are as to how to set up your camera.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Fundamentals of Photography Class Outline
Learning Projects Workbook
Camera Keynote PDF
Sensor Keynote PDF
Lens Keynote PDF
Exposure Keynote PDF
Focus Keynote PDF
Gadgets Keynote PDF
Lighting Keynote PDF
Editing Keynote PDF
Composition Keynote PDF
Photographic Vision Keynote PDF

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Love love all John Greengo classes! Wish to have had him decades ago with this info, but no internet then!! John is the greatest photography teacher I have seen out there, and I watch a lot of Creative Live classes and folks on YouTube too. John is so detailed and there are a ton of ah ha moments for me and I know lots of others. I think I own 4 John Greengo classes so far and want to add this one and Travel Photography!! I just drop everything to watch John on Creative Live. I wish sometime soon he would teach a Lightroom class and his knowledge on photography post editing.!!! That would probably take a LOT OF TIME but I know John would explain it soooooo good, like he does all his Photography classes!! Thank you Creative Live for having such a wonderful instructor with John Greengo!! Make more classes John, for just love them and soak it up! There is soooo much to learn and sometimes just so overwhelming. Is there anyway you might do a Motivation class!!?? Like do this button for this day, and try this technique for a week, or post this subject for this week, etc. Motivation and inspiration, and playing around with what you teach, needed so much and would be so fun.!! Just saying??? Awaiting gadgets class now, while waiting for lunch break to be over. All the filters and gadgets, oh my. Thank you thank you for all you teach John, You are truly a wonderful wonderful instructor and I would highly recommend folks listening and buying your classes.

Eve
 

I don't think that adjectives like beautiful, fantastic or excellent can describe the course and classes with John Greengo well enough. I've just bought my first camera and I am a total amateur but I fell in love with photography while watching the classes with John. It is fun, clear, understandable, entertaining, informative and and and. He is not only a fabulous photographer but a great teacher as well. Easy to follow, clear explanations and fantastic visuals. The only disadvantage I can list here that he is sooooo good that keeps me from going out to shoot as I am just glued to the screen. :-) Don't miss it and well worth the money invested! Thank you John!

JUAN SOL
 

Dear John, thanks for this outstanding classes. You are not only a great photographer and instructor, but your classes are pleasant, they are not boring, with a good sense of humor, they go straight to the point and have a good time listening to you. Please, keep teaching what you like most, and I will continue to look for your classes. And thanks for using a plain English, that it's important for people who has another language as native language. Thanks again, Juan

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