Shots vs. keepers

[GrumpyOne]

I was wondering what others were finding as they went through their shots. While I've only had the K10D for a few days, I'm finding that out of about 50 pictures, I'll really like 1 and toss about 15-20 because of defects with the rest hovering somewhere in between.

 

[YEKCIM]

With me, it kinda depends on the venue and the shooting conditions. At WDW last summer, for example, I shot over 2K pix, and of that number, would guess somewhere around 400 were "keepers", and a handful being potential candidates for enlargement to 8X10 or so. I had a lot of duplicates of nightime shots, as I would typically shoot multiples to try and insure at least one keeper. I did a lot of "grab" shooting, as I ran franically, trying to keep up with Mrs. YEKCIM, so some of those were culls, too.

On a trip to the Blue Ridge mountains last fall, I'd say that the averages were about the same, maybe a little less, due to duplicates and some which were taken in less than ideal lighting.

On some of my recent zoo trips, I would say that I got less keepers, due to lighting and lack of cooperation by the subjects (the animals on Jungle Cruise seem to be more cooperative, somehow).

My theory is to just shoot everything in sight and keep the keepers. After all, it doesn't cost any more to shoot a few extra.

How are you liking the K10D? It was on my short list for a while, before I joined Team Nikon.

~YEKCIM

 

[Master Mason]

I would say currently about 2-5% of my pictures really wow me, 10-15% are compleate losses and are culled immediately and probably the top 50% are pictures that the average person would find decent. I have gotten way more picky as I have gone along as well.

Ansel Adams said if he got one good shot a month, it was a very good month, so based on that I think I am doing ok.

 

[Furgus]

I keep about 5% of my pics. I think that is pretty standard anyways. I think the reason people who shoot film get more keepers is that they take their time more to compose the shot cause it costs a lot more to process film then it does digital files. I really should start to that, but I have to burn it into my head.

 

[nbodyhome]

It depends on a lot of things. But overall, for the photos I actually put on my website - I probably keep and display half or so. I delete some photos as I go along if I don't like them. There are times I use most of what I have, like with the Flower and Garden photos. I didn't have to delete a lot of them. But with concerts at the American Gardens theater, the lighting is such that there were photos I didn't care for (or the performer moved, etc.). Flowers don't move so much.

And for photos that I may print - just a handful for my personal purposes.

 

[GrumpyOne]

How are you liking the K10D? It was on my short list.

I'm mostly enjoying it so far. I can identify areas where I'm sure I'll get better and the camera is doing exactly what I told it to. There is one area though that's occasionally frustrating, the camera occasionally hunts for focus in areas I wouldn't expect it to. That too could be user error, perhaps it will appear to get better as I better understand its limitations. For the most part though, it's a nice camera.

 

[PoohJen]

I keep way too many! I shoot baseball most weekends, about 100 - 300 shots depending on conditions, pesky fences, etc. I'm glad if I can get one with a "wow" factor; the rest are mostly just "fine", a few get tossed. I think I keep them all filed away just for posterity - I shoot all the kids on the team, and it's neat to have this "history" of the boys as they grow and improve. It also came in handy when I was asked to put together a last minute slideshow of thte team for a fundraiser this winter.

I do find I am becoming more free with the "delete" key! Also, I print hardly any, but I view pics on my 'putr every day!

 

[jann1033]

i keep most of them in the sense of downloading them to my computer because i can't see them well enough on the lcd and once they are in the organizer i can't figure out how to get rid of them without messing up the catalog...

i process from raw probably 20% since i have the film habit of taking one "just in case" where as i could really just check the histogram probably. hopfully if i get an upgraded body i'll do that more.

i like probably 1% as i am extremely critical of myself. it's gotta be fairly perfect for me to be really happy...something i should work on probably but i can either afford therapy or lenses and so far it's been lenses so far i might have a handful i really like so guess that isn't even 1%

 

[deletedpenguin]

I usually end up keeping 60% of my shots, but only truly enjoy and are happy with around 10-15%

 

[photo_chick]

About half my shots are acceptable, about half of those I think are worth printing. I have only had maybe 5 shots the entire time I have had a camera in my hands (film or digital) that I really am proud of myself on. Not that I don't like my work, I just always see where it could have been better.

Example... we went to Six Flags for a couple of hours today. I took maybe 100 shots. I sorted out the obviously bad (out of focus, something wonky, just plain awful) and had about 45 left. Of those everyone is printable but I will probably only print 2 sheets so that is only 18 (I do 9 4x6's on a 13x19 sheet). Of those ten will probably get scrapbooked, one or two in frames maybe and the rest in my overflow album. One will probaly end up an 11x14 (he was a very cute goose)

Also I never delete a single file. Not even the really horrid makes me embarrassed I was holding the camera ones. I am a pack rat and that applies to my files as well I guess.

 

[0bli0]

ever since i started shooting a lot of film again, my keeper ratio has gone way up. i think because i'm taking way more time to compose the shots, and not just shooting because i can.

 

[cpbjgc]

The more I have learned, the more time I am taking to think about my shots before taking them. I believe my keepers are now around 50-60% and my "WOW! Did I really take that!?" are 1-3%. I am also far more selective on what I print, since I can burn a disk ando look at pics on our TV instead.

My main problem is I take multiple shots ("just in case"). I am, however, getting better at deleting stuff (which being a packrat, is very hard), especially now that I shoot almost entirely in RAW and don't want to spend too much storage space on stuff I know I'll never look at again.

 

[nbodyhome]

What surprises me sometimes is when people put photos on a website - lets say they are Davy Jones (which I have). They put ALL their photos up. I'd rather look at a handful of decent ones instead of every shot they took (in some cases hundreds - which would look better culled down to 50 decent photos). With concerts like Davy Jones and Peter Noone, I may have put up 20% of what I took.

I print very little of what I shoot. I am more apt to look at pictures on the computer than in an album.

 

[handicap18]

I will delete in camera as needed after taking a number of shots. Then after that I'll download them to the computer. Of the ones that get downloaded I'll probably add about 15-30% of them to the screen saver that runs all day on the computer in the living room. Then even less than that gets downloaded to my picture gallerery online. I don't print any out anymore unless I want some for a little photo album to carry around or a wallet size of the kids.

Last year at Disney I took about 1500 in 4 days. Deleted around 140 or so in camera that were obviously not worth looking at. Of the remaining I printed out 110 for a small photo album, though I probably could have printed out closer to 200. Also of those taken I have 10 5x7's and 6 8x12's that are displayed on the walls around the house.

In general I would say my keepers are in reality a very small amount. Its easy to take 10 pictures of one subject and only get 1, especially if you bracket and try slightly different compositions.

 

[nbodyhome]

In general I would say my keepers are in reality a very small amount. Its easy to take 10 pictures of one subject and only get 1, especially if you bracket and try slightly different compositions.

My favorite thing is when I take a photo and - even if I'm taking a couple of hundred pics, you know it's something special. Something I'd print, something that others would go "wow" at.

That said - I almost deleted a photo in my camera last week that I didn't think was any good. I hit the delete button, then I looked and was like "eh, we'll see". It was this one:

I have to be more careful on the delete button. Not that this was the best photo I took, but I hadn't realized she was looking at me until I uploaded it. But I probably do delete 10% of my photos as I go along.

 

[mabas9395]

For me, it really depends on what my purpose in shooting was. My shots are classified as either "hobby" or "family". I am much more picky for my hobby shots where I am trying to develop my technique/skill and have a pretty low number of keepers. For my family shots, I keep just about everything. My wife's parents didn't do a great job taking photos of her (she was the youngest of 6 kids, guess they ran out of film) so now, we would love to have any pictures of her as a baby, even the ones we that you wouldn't consider "keepers".

 

[Anewman]

My main problem is I take multiple shots ("just in case"). I am, however, getting better at deleting stuff (which being a packrat, is very hard), especially now that I shoot almost entirely in RAW and don't want to spend too much storage space on stuff I know I'll never look at again.

This sounds pretty much like me...

I always try to take about 3 snaps of each composed shot, "just in case." During an at bat I try to get several shots of each player, and then try to pick the better ones for printing but that does not that the unprinted ones would be unacceptable.


I do delete off of my hard drives shots that I think I wont ever need, but ALL shots are backed up onto DVD-r. Man I cant wait till the HD/blu-ray media and burners are consumer friendly.

 

[Ratpack]

I delete test shots and the ones that are totally bad, but other than that I keep all my shots. Just download them to the PC. I never know when one might actually fit the situation I need a photo for and as long as I have hard drive space, I am keeping them all.

 

[Lizziejane]

I have only been shooting with a dslr for about 6 months. For the first 3 months, 50% at least were absolute, instant throw-aways - so blurred or blown there was no hope for them.

I keep everything else, even though the majority of them are only ok at best, very rarely "wow" quality. But having said that, I can see a difference from 3 months ago. If I'd thrown them all out, I'd have nothing to compare to, and wouldn't be able to easily see any improvement. So for me, keeping the "just ok" ones is important to mark my progress.

Of course, my idea of acceptable then and now has also shifted! Some of the shots I'm taking now and thinking are "ok" would have been "great" 3 months ago! I doubt I'll ever take a shot that's wow quality!

 

[PoohJen]

What surprises me sometimes is when people put photos on a website - lets say they are Davy Jones (which I have). They put ALL their photos up. I'd rather look at a handful of decent ones instead of every shot they took (in some cases hundreds - which would look better culled down to 50 decent photos)...I print very little of what I shoot. I am more apt to look at pictures on the computer than in an album.

I agree with your observation. I was surprised recently when checking a pro's website for pics he took of a recent baseball tournament here. I couldn't believe he wasn't more selective about what he was putting up on his site for sale. I know he thinks maybe Johnny's mom will buy every pic he took of Johnny, but I thought his work looked rather amateur as a result of not being more selective.

I keep so many weak shots just for my own purposes, but I try to choose only the best ones to share - of course, not including my posts on "The Image Below Me" ... Of the hundreds of shots I'll take on a weekend, on Monday morning I email only 2 or 3 to family.

and, I agree too re: computer viewing v. album! I really have to get better at backing these up!