What percentage of your shots are worth keeping?
What percentage of your shots are worth keeping?
Author
Discussion

Kermit power

Original Poster:

29,622 posts

243 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
I'm sure I'm not alone in frequently getting frustrated about the amount of shots I end up binning vs those I'm happy to keep, but reading the latest edition of Practical Photography, there was an interview with a wildlife pro who, almost as a throwaway comment, reckoned he'd usually get something like (iirc) 4 or 5 real top rate shots per trip!

Doubtless, he has much higher standards than I do, and doubtless needs them to be making a living out of his shots, but what do people on here find is a reasonable ration of keep to bin?

Scott328i

18,296 posts

231 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
I aim for 16 non throwers

16 fills a nice gallery of 4x4 thumbnails

I went to brands at the weekend and took 510 shots - 100 were technically good photos.

Maybe 20 I thought were high rate. IMO 1 in 5 but that was motorsport with a pretty captivating subject.

Out in the field - 1 in 100

curtisl

1,406 posts

236 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
I keep too many of my bad shots 'just in case' but i would say that about 1 in 10 - 15 i would hope that someone else apart from me would find interest in viewing.

GetCarter

31,288 posts

309 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
1 in 1000 ish

(I'm rubbish)

LukeBird

17,170 posts

239 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
Haven't done enough motorsport to make meaningful comment on that specifically.
But overall, probably 25%ish are acceptable... maybe 5-10% are good.
Although my 'good' is probably in most on here's bin! hehe

RobDickinson

31,343 posts

284 months

mikechandler

1,998 posts

232 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
GetCarter said:
1 in 1000 ish

(I'm rubbish)
God help the rest of us then!

Funk Odyssey

1,983 posts

259 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
15 - 25 % I guess

I tend to take far too many of a subject, perhaps from slightly different angles or slightly different exposures

take as many as you want though - that's the beauty of digital photography

I take a lot of pics of old abandoned lorries / machinery across Herefordshire and Wales - the weather is frequently grey so when I do take pics I want to make sure I have the right one!

Maxf

8,444 posts

271 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
10% are 'keepers' but only maybe 0.5% I actually bother to print out and frame. Bare in mind though I don't tend to do any PS work..

I'm seriously thinking of buying a secondhand film camera and going old school to force me into being more thoughtful with my 'snapping'.

Dogsey

4,301 posts

260 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
Maxf said:
10% are 'keepers' but only maybe 0.5% I actually bother to print out and frame. Bare in mind though I don't tend to do any PS work..

I'm seriously thinking of buying a secondhand film camera and going old school to force me into being more thoughtful with my 'snapping'.
Do it!

My hit rate went up dramatically last year after I spent some time using an old Yashica TLR. The number of photo's I'd take at any given event went down dramatically but actual the number of keepers went up. I think shooting film (particularly medium format) really forces you to stop and think about every shot, rather than the carpet bombing "pick one good one out of a thousand" style that I had picked up using digital.

Funk Odyssey

1,983 posts

259 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
Dogsey said:
Maxf said:
10% are 'keepers' but only maybe 0.5% I actually bother to print out and frame. Bare in mind though I don't tend to do any PS work..

I'm seriously thinking of buying a secondhand film camera and going old school to force me into being more thoughtful with my 'snapping'.
Do it!

My hit rate went up dramatically last year after I spent some time using an old Yashica TLR. The number of photo's I'd take at any given event went down dramatically but actual the number of keepers went up. I think shooting film (particularly medium format) really forces you to stop and think about every shot, rather than the carpet bombing "pick one good one out of a thousand" style that I had picked up using digital.
my hit rate massively increased after starting to use a DSLR with a relatively small LCD, thereby stopping me checking every shot

jas xjr

11,309 posts

269 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
Funk Odyssey said:
Dogsey said:
Maxf said:
10% are 'keepers' but only maybe 0.5% I actually bother to print out and frame. Bare in mind though I don't tend to do any PS work..

I'm seriously thinking of buying a secondhand film camera and going old school to force me into being more thoughtful with my 'snapping'.
Do it!

My hit rate went up dramatically last year after I spent some time using an old Yashica TLR. The number of photo's I'd take at any given event went down dramatically but actual the number of keepers went up. I think shooting film (particularly medium format) really forces you to stop and think about every shot, rather than the carpet bombing "pick one good one out of a thousand" style that I had picked up using digital.
my hit rate massively increased after starting to use a DSLR with a relatively small LCD, thereby stopping me checking every shot
my hit rate went up when i got somebody else to take the pictures

CVP

2,799 posts

305 months

Thursday 12th March 2009
quotequote all
Interesting question

Just had 6 rolls of Xpan panoramas developed. 19 shots to the roll so a total of 114 shots. looking through that there are 28 that I want to have a preliminary scan at to see how they look when I can see them larger, so only about 25% even worth a further look. Of those I reckon 5-10 or so are really going to be good, so a range between 4% to 8%.

On the flip side I've just got 1200 ish images to edit from the dSLR and if there are 40-50 good ones I'll be a happy chappy, so again about a 5% hit rate.

I do find I bracket a lot more in digital whereas with the Xpan I try and be a lot more careful before pressing the shutter.

Chris

Andy M

3,755 posts

289 months

Friday 13th March 2009
quotequote all
On our last holiday I shot around 1,000 photos, and came away with 30 I was happy with - 5 of which I'd hang on my wall.