Just curious to know what people's ratios of keeper's (something worthy of printing) vs going to file 13 (trash) would be. All the pro's on this site make everything look so easy, I would be curious how many bad shots it took to produce a good one.
Keepers
Just curious to know what people's ratios of keeper's (something worthy of printing) vs going to file 13 (trash) would be. All the pro's on this site make everything look so easy, I would be curious how many bad shots it took to produce a good one.
That really depends on the subject matter and the light at hand.
When it comes to wildlife its anywhere from 25:1 to as bad as 100:1 depending on the light and the subject. Sunny days with horned or antlered animals means I want just the perfect head angle to avoid shadows on the face. I would say my average is around 50:1, but I shot wildlife at 8 fps, and I'm really really picky on getting the right head angle and background.
Landscapes, once the light is right keepers are around 10:1 to 5:1. Of course with landscapes its more about the light.
Macros of plants and flowers its around 10:1 generally fine tuning DOF is the issue there, when insects or small animals come into play it goes way up again, maybe 50:1. Handholding insects with "so so" light, it could go way up to 200:1.
A friend of mine, a former pro photog for Chevrolet told me something profound. He said in his opinion the basic difference between a pro photographer, and an amateur, is that a professional only shows you the good ones.
Last winter I had 3 keepers out of 580, but I'm not a pro, and I'm getting better...
Jared, for insects @ 50:1 - 200:1 is low. Hand holding always would be around 10:1 and at higher ratios. Auto nothing and set for the conditions before we shoot. Insects move, so you might not get another chance. With 200:1 and if you were shooting film, I wouldn't want to pay the bill :)
If we treat digital as we did with film, maybe we would all have a higher success rate.
All the best and just IMO.
Danny.
Hey Jackie, when I go out I usually shoot maybe twenty or thirty different subjects in a few hours. My goal is to come home with one image that will sell well. Most the time that doesn't happen and sometimes I've had five, but that's like hitting a grand slam to win the world series, pretty rare. To have a portfolio of really good stuff you have to be brutal and trash the average shots. I think Jared's quote is perfect the pros only show the good stuff.
With time I have become WAY more picky in what I keep. I trash alot of images that I would have kept a few years ago. I've also become much more methodical in how many times the shutter is pressed. I can be standing next to someone who is machine gunning a perched bird for 30-40 frames in a few seconds while I'll have taken just a few images. Factor-in light quality/angle, head angle, BG and/or FG distractions, beauty (or not) of a perch and various other factors...what I consider "keepers" is considerably low. I may come home with 200 images on a card - then narrow that down to 10-20 that I really like. Out of those I "keep" and fully post-process 4-5, sometimes less and if I'm lucky sometimes a few more :-)
it all depends on what type of photography i am doing. some are more and some less. i can tell you that i have sat beside one of the more prominent people on this site and watched him download and go through his images after a morning shoot and i dont remember seeing him throw away any. to my eye they all looked like keepers. it's definitely a goal to strive for.
I remember an "older" saying from the slide days; "The difference between a pro and amatuer is that the pro has a larger garbage can!"
Extremely picky now and like Mike says.....satisfaction doesn't come as easily!
Mike Moats said it all. I have a large trash can. My eye has gotten much pickier and the need to keep everything has grown cold. I now go out for the sheer pleasure of taking the image. Keepers come as a bonus. Jareds stats are right on. Only show your best.
My keeper ratio to images shot has gone up as my skill and knowledge has grown but I still only manage 1-3 images an outing I just have a better understanding of when to press the shutter now, True portfolio images are even harder to come by.
Don Lacy
You don't take a photograph, you make it - Ansel Adams
There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs - Ansel Adams
http://www.witnessnature.net/
https://500px.com/lacy
This thread is making me feel much better! Not sure what my actual keeper rate is, but it's REALLY low, esp when photographing birds.
I am currently going through all my old photos trashing the no good photos and organizing the rest, which has given me some idea of my keeper rate. I would estimate out of every 200-300 photos I take only about 10-20 are keepers, ones that I would actually show.
Out of 500 I may keep 25 in RAW folder and 5 in final
Some 2 - 3 year ago I bought a portable bird hide (Ameristep) but used it for the first time last week.
Out of the 800 or so shots taken there's 30 keepers!
Normaly walking around on foot would yield about 6 for the same total ammount.
Richard
Thanks for the responses, I am like Grace, now I don't feel so bad. It would seem like the ratio of shots to keepers is quite low. (As are mine). Hopefully as I improve. so will the keeper rate. Glad to here that the blind has increased the your success rate Richard.
Jackie,
Good question. It's interesting to see others responses. Showing my age here. When shooting wildlife with slide film I would say my keeper rate was usually around one or two shots per roll of thirty six. With digital I would say it is even less as I attempt more images that I probably wouldn't have risked with slide film. That's because I have fallen prey to the belief "I can always fix it later in PS." Which in the long run costs me more time at the screen instead of being out shooting. Getting the shot the first time in camera makes things a whole lot easier. Then again there is the flip side of the coin to that. Sometimes some of those riskier images with a little post processing end up being my best images. I think also my keeper rate has gone up as my PS skills have slowly improved.
God's light and love to all,
chris
I'll give my rate, but don't want to sound arrogant, as my keeper rate is pretty high in some cases. My background is I started with 35mm film but moved to 4x5 and view cameras. Years of view camera landscape photography taught me to slow down and make the images count. I would hike with a 50+ pound pack of 4x5 gear and have only about 12 to 16 sheets of film for the day. I would usually return with unexposed film. These days I'll often go out and return with zero images. My view is get it right in cameras as much as possible. If I don't like the image, I don't take it. I don't believe you can fix it in photoshop (but you can dodge and burn and make a great image better.)
My keeper rate for landscape is on the order of 1/3, 33%.
Wildlife is another story, because one does not know what the animal will do next. My keeper rate from my last Africa trip, for example is: 4500 images obtained, about 600 I would like to process and post on my web site, so 600/4500 = 13% (I don't have time to do this at present). BIF is lower, especially on the faster birds. I think again my background in large format work has helped. I am sometimes alongside other photographers who are snapping away at 10 frames per second and I don't like the light and take few if any images.
I think learning when not to take the shot is just as important as knowing when to take it.
Roger
Depending what I'm shooting, a really great day may give me a dozen keeper images. Out of 100-300 frames a more likely result is 1-6 of something that's really worth keeping.
Not sure what my keeper rate is. But when you shoot burst for wildlife and do a lot of bracketing for landscapes, it changes the math a lot. I may need 3 images to get one good blended landscapes for example. For birds, I might have 10 nearly equal images but one best pose, so is that 1 in 10?
I just rebuilt my gallery when switching from Pbase to SmugMug. I found every old image to reevaluate, over 2500. I only put back 700. So my idea of what a keeper is has changed, and I am sure some would only have put back 10% of what I did. But I am also improving my post processing and found some so-so shots that were actually pretty good.
I also have mediocre stuff I keep for records, like when to visit, best light and compostion. Stuff I hope to revisit and improve on.
It is a complex question.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
