Getting the Best Shot: the Burst Mode

Last lesson we talked about changing the complexion of the picture through the white balance. As you may recall, the usual white balance chart is composed of 8 different settings: Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten, White Fluorescent, Flash, Custom, and Auto White Balance.

Each of the different white balance modes has their own characteristics. Primarily, the settings differ in the amount of light they use and the temperature they input in a picture to balance its whites. Meanwhile, you can use the custom white balance to input your own preferences or use the auto white balance to let the camera do the work.

Knowing the different types under the white balance chart is a great step forward in photography because it opens up a new door for you in manual photography. Furthermore, the concepts behind white balance should also help you find your preferences for future decisions that you may make.

As promised, today we will be going back to talking about the camera and will be particularly dwelling with a specific shooting mode: Burst. The burst mode is a type of shooting mode that you can set your camera to do in order for it to take pictures in fast succession.

Set, Aim, Fire

Much like a rifle in burst mode, cameras shoot continuously for a given period of time during burst mode. The burst mode allows photographers to capture a scene instead of just one photo. By knowing about this mode and how to use it, you will be able to capture more photos that you can choose from.

The burst mode is popularly used for sports photography where the subjects are extremely mobile and shooting one shot a time can be very devastating for you. By shooting in burst, you will be able to catch the succession of a scene in milliseconds depending on your burst rate. With this, you can just simply pick from the images you took and find the one with the best composition.

The burst mode is not limited to the use of sports photographers and every photographer should be able to operate with this shooting mode also. Actually, come to think of it, most photographers have their cameras set to burst shooting even during normal photo walks or coverages. The burst mode really allows you to eliminate the struggle of not being able to control your subject because you can just shoot in succession and pick the best one.

The Burst Mode

As you can see in this photo, the photographer was able to use the burst mode to catch a succession of photos of a geyser eruption. In just a span of a few seconds, the photographer recorded 8 photos all with the different stages of the eruption. With this, the photographer captured the start of the eruption up until its peak - that’s the power of burst photography for you.

Burst rate

Logically, the faster each photo is taken, the more options you get, right? Well in the case of burst mode, the same concept applies because the faster your shutter takes a picture, the less likely your image will suffer from motion blurs.

Your firing rate in burst mode is called the burst rate. This element is measured in frames per second or FPS where the higher number, such as 14FPS, the better. Your burst speed will depend on your camera where higher-end cameras possess more superior numbers.

Burst mode options

There are two types of burst modes, with the exception of the single shooting mode, that you may encounter when setting up your camera. One of them is the low-speed continuous mode while the other one is high-speed continuous.

This one is pretty self-explanatory with the high-speed continuous option being the fastest of your options

Shooting in Burst

The power of burst mode is definitely something you wouldn’t want to underestimate. Shooting in this mode really just gives you a wider margin and more opportunities to reel in the best shot you can take.

The burst mode or continuous shooting mode is a setting that enables your camera to shoot in succession. We learned that in order to understand this mode more you would need to familiarize yourself with the burst speed and the burst options - low-speed and high-speed. The burst mode is very easy to use and very easy to set and you can take advantage of it even though you are not shooting a sports event.

This has been a rather short lesson but still an important basic knowledge that can give you a good foundation. The burst mode is something that you can use anytime so be sure to keep on practicing using it to fully incorporate it with your skills.

With that, don’t forget to share this article with your peers who may be in the learning stages of photography also! For the next lesson, we will be studying the usual shooting and scene modes. This lesson is a big part of your fundamentals so it really is something you wouldn’t want to miss.