How do you loose shots?

[FlyingPete]

I have just had some fun with a piece of gear that was contributing to me loosing shots, it got me wondering what other people have issues with, so two questions:

1. What piece of gear do you have that most contributes to lost shots?
2. What mistake do you make that most often contributes to lost shots?

My number one would be my 75-300IS, focus hunting, focuses in close when the moving object that you are trying to shoot is far away, a really big issue shooting aircraft, lost many shots to this. One answer is manual focus, the second is new lens (one with that focus distance switch).

The issue which some would blame on their camera, but I think is the photographers issue is correct exposure, wierd lighting causing under/over exposed images and back lighting. Need to watch out for these and learn to spot the warning signs more often, and how much to correct for, the only way to do that seems to be practice!

[tim]

Flash cycling times probably lost me the most shots during the wedding I did yesterday. The #1 problem is me, not the equipment.

[FlyingPete]

Flash cycling times probably lost me the most shots during the wedding I did yesterday. The #1 problem is me, not the equipment.

Yep, the majority of my missed shots are my own fault :( Sometimes just too much to take in and consider in a short amount of time. Practice practice and more practice...

How did the Wedding go? I avoid them, stress city for the photographer!

[tim]

How did the Wedding go? I avoid them, stress city for the photographer!

I really enjoyed it! I posted about it here (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=74991).

[markubig]

Yep, the majority of my missed shots are my own fault :( Sometimes just too much to take in and consider in a short amount of time. Practice practice and more practice... yep! At the wedding reception that I photographed last week, i missed a lot of the bridal party introductions because my flash was taking forever to recycle . . . thought it was a bad set of batteries, so i changed them real quick, but unfortunately i got the same results. After the B&G came in, i realized that my aperture (i was in M mode) was set to something like F/16 http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_mad.gif . . . I always forget to check my settings when I turn my camera on to make sure everything is in order . . . another big one was ISO . . . i had just come from the church where I did high ISO shots, so my flash was set to 1600 for the 1st hour of the reception http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_mad.gif. good thing the 20D has low noise at high ISO.

[tim]

I only make the ISO mistake yesterday once when I switched between natural light and flash, so only a few shots. I usually use ISO 400 for flash work, the quality's still great and the flash cycle times are much better. Using the lightsphere really sucks the batteries! I stopped using it for some shots, the extra power it needs was draining my batteries too quickly.

[Rob612]

Several reasons, almost all my own fault. Still not used to the digital capability of changing ISO on the need, it happens to me to leave the camera i.e. @1600 and get an horrible shoot. Lost. Sometimes, focus hunting can be a problem, especially with the Tamron 90 macro. Again, my fault in most cases just because a forgot to change the distance switch and maybe it won't focus at all. Time I realize, the shoot is gone. Sometimes its just a matter of distraction, especially in wildlife. I turn to see something else and when I get back in position I notice that what I wanted is happening. Too late, the shoot is gone again.

Sometimes - more often than I like - I lost a shoot because of the wrong lens mounted. I am kinda of "wild" photographer, I rarely have in mind what I want to do when I'm out in a pic walk. Time for the second body, I guess. One with the 10-22 and theother with the Bigma as soon as I get my hands on it. Oh, Jesus, I forgot... I do not have another body yet ! :(

[Longwatcher]

For me,
#1 piece of equipment that causes the most lost shots is the photographer (darn piece of equipment keeps malfunctioning and missing the best shots, usually through memory errors)

#2 is my flash not recycling fast enough
#3 is card/camera errors

then lens/camera mis-focusing or spending too much time hunting.
everything else after this is timing.

Just my experience,

[PhotosGuy]

Most of my lost shots are due to "brain fade"! ;-)

[robertwgross]

Flash cycling times probably lost me the most shots during the wedding I did yesterday. The #1 problem is me, not the equipment.

I understand that one.

The problem is that I keep my eyeball at the viewfinder, and I hate to keep looking up at the flash unit to see if the red indicator is on. Wouldn't it be neat if Canon put a little beeper on the flash unit so that it beeped when the red light turned on?

Tim, you better start a petition to Canon.

No, on second thought, don't. Canon would just tell us to buy the external power pack.

---Bob Gross---

[nat869]

Most recently I lost some great shots by not having my gear with me!!! Seriously, flash recycle time and filling the buffer on the 10D have contributed the most. Both of those are from USER error. If I were more patient and tried to take better pictures instead of more pictures, I would be ok.

[kjonnnn]

ME.

For example Sunday. I had my 20D with me and thought I'd drive the long way home through downtown chicago to the northside and just take candid pics of the buildings and people, and call the whole session "My Ride Home." Got home and THEN realized I had the lens on Manual Focus. Will have to rename it "My Blind Ride Home."

[Merle]

Yep ! I once heard that the most importnt part of a camera was the first 6 inches behind the eye piece (view finder), I must admit that piece of equipment is always letting me down.;) :) :D

Good shooting to Ya !!
Merle

[BlueTit]

97% of my lost shots are down to me, usually very stupid things - that figures.
1% down to the daft design of the AF/MF switch on the 70-200/2.8 IS
1% not changing the ISO setting back down - really wish that was displayed in the view finder
1% not having the correct lens with me when the perfect photo oppurtunity presents itself.

All solveable problems, so I keep trying.

[Wazza]

Don't get me started on focus hunting!

It's honestly my worst part, I shoot centre point focus on aircraft, and sometimes, it will lose focus when I'm starting to pan, and it will ALWAYS focus to the closest first, yet when shooting aircraft, it's just off infinity. Wish there was a control to focus outwards rather than the whole way in. I lose about 3 seconds when I'm using the slow 70-300Sigma.

[tim]

Wazza, sounds like you're a good candidate for manual focus.

[Curtis N]

Wouldn't it be neat if Canon put a little beeper on the flash unit so that it beeped when the red light turned on?
With the Digital Rebel, the little lightning bolt icon in the viewfinder indicates the flash is ready.

Not sure about other models.

[Bamamike]

Yep,
I agree, the most significant error the the "headphone-error", the mistake is between the ears of the photographer. How many time I had this "duh", wrong color temperature setting, or wrong ISO. Those two would be on my wish-list for the next 20D generation - to see it in the viewfinder.

[Tom W]

Haste makes waste. I am the primary piece of equipment that causes missed shots. I'm getting better at planning shots and thinking ahead, but I still have plenty of those "oh yeah, should have used ....." moments right after I push the shutter.

[dewmuw]

I'm never at fault - any focus problems are due to the subject moving (including mountains and hills) or the world just generally being blurry. :)

[theflyingkiwi]

for me it would be hunting. the only time that I would have it really bad is on the 90-300. But then it is only a cheap lens, and that is the reason I am looking at replacing it with the 70-200 f2.8

The things that I have learned is (by mistakes) having the camera set on manual and totaly over exposing shots :) which means that I was dumb enough not to check the settings before shooting. Which now means that these days I check everything before shooting and during shooting. This is why I chimp, finding out on the fly if I am doing anything wrong, rather than find out hours after the event. ;)

On the plus side everything is digital :)