The vibratory patterns of a circular plate were studied systematically by means of real‐time holography and also by time‐averaged holography. The present real‐time method, an extension of the original method of Stetson and Powell (1965), allows one to view reconstructions of vibratory patterns directly and observe their changes as the frequency and/or amplitude of the signal are being varied. The contrast obtained is much poorer than that given by the time‐averaged method. Nevertheless, the real‐time method permits one to pinpoint specific mode patterns for later recording by time‐averaged holography. In a given situation, time‐averaged holography records approximately twice as many alternate bright and dark fringes as the real‐time method.