How many photos do you keep from a batch of say....

[Gervais Montacute]

100.

 

Or less specifically. Almost impossible to quantify I know and a bit like asking how long we take to keyword (although that proved to be very useful and interesting).

 

I'm not actually sure, but I would guess that if I take 100 shots for example, I probably wind up with about 20 to 30 plus or minus.

[Borniet]

Depends on the type of shoot, the subject, what I'm shooting for...  It can be 1 out of 100, and it can be much more to even up to 80 if it's something very much in my comfort zone.

[Borniet]

When I started as a complete newbie, I kept all of my beloved babies.

When I became more interested in photography and got better at it, I kept 50%

When I became more serious about photography and started selling, I got me a much bigger wastepaperbasket, reviewed what I had in stock and threw away another 50% (That was in the prehistoric times when we, cavemen, went hunting with slidefilm)

Now - while I think I have enough experience to know when NOT to take a picture -   I keep more than 80%.

 

Cheers,

Philippe

Well, that's more or less what I meant, but said way better than I did :-)

[Imagery by Charly]

With external hard drives so cheap for the amount that can be stored on them, I keep all but those really bad images; very blurry, too dark, etc., which I delete. I use Lr, so those images that "I" like/love yet know they'll never sell due to quality, I just remove from the catalog. But they remain on the EXHDD for me to look at whenever I like, as I don't remove them from disk. Of particular shoots now that I'm a bit better at this, I may find 1 to 5 of a shoot that I think will be good stock or Fine Art images. Though I'm still quite new at all this and haven't quite got the hang of what will sell, whether I personally like them or not. Perfect example is those I've sold on other sites I didn't think they'd sell but did, whereas those I thought would, haven't.

[Ed Endicott]

I shot a roll of 120 film on Saturday.  I came away with 14 images on the roll.  I presented 3 images to the model I shot.

 

I processed a shoot from two years ago last Thursday (using digital camera).  I shot 73 images.  I submitted 7 to Alamy.

 

As you mention it's a tough question and it's more of an individualized question.  Personally I use the "shoot to print" mentality as much as possible and moreso with a digital camera.  With digital, I have no problem reviewing images and deleting them on the camera so I don't have to deal with them in Lightroom when I get to editing them.

 

It depends on the photographer and his individual style.  I don't believe it has anything to do with experience.  Take into account how many images Garry Winogrand left behind after shooting every day and what his "hit ratio" was.  Then take into account the images found of Vivian Maeir's collection and her "hit ratio" (which was about 100%).

[John Morrison]

When the conditions are good, I shoot a lot. When they're not, I don't shoot any pix at all. I bracket a lot: typically one shot either side... maybe more if the lighting is complex. So 2/3 of my exposures are ditched on first edit. Out of 100 pix I'd expect to have 20-30 keepers. I'm not very sentimental; if the pix don't have earning potential, they get deleted...

[Gervais Montacute]

Then take into account the images found of Vivian Maeir's collection and her "hit ratio" (which was about 100%).

 

Vivian Maier was using a Rolleiflex and they take a roll of 12? Something like that, Her hit rate was insane and she should have been a Magnum photographer or any photographer for that matter.

 

Charly, I gave up trying to figure out what sells or not. I'm certainly not the best at second guessing on that score.

[Paul Thompson]

I keep them all, you never know! But upload about 50-60% to Alamy dependant on subjects

[Guest dlmphotog]

As an example I spent one week in Sydney last march. I shot a total of 4,000 images, 500 were deleted (out of focus, bad exposure) and from the remaining 3,500 I submitted 700 to Alamy. I don’t bracket.

 

[David Kilpatrick]

Around half and up as finals. I don't shot pointlessly. However, it is rarely a matter of 50/50 split throughout a shoot. I may discard an entire set from one subject but use 100% of the shots from another. And, for general daily occasional snaps, the rate is close to 100% as I don't photograph anything which is not a possibility. These days I doubt if technical problems result in more than 10% rejection - nearly all the shots I take are sharp and correctly exposed (I use cameras or lenses with stabilisation, which have excellent high ISO performance, and shoot raw unless there's a special reason to use a JPEG-only mode like a sweep panorama or a multishot night handheld).

[John Mitchell]

From a batch of 100, I would probably keep about 80. Storage is cheap, as someone else mentioned. However, out of the keepers, only about 40-50 -- depending on the tech quality subject matter -- would go to stock portals/agencies (e.g. Alamy). Some of the"artier" shots I would put on my print website. Just about everything decent (IMO) eventually ends up on my PhotoShelter site as well.

[dov makabaw]

How long is a piece of string. In the film days I needed to be very careful with each shot due to cost and capacity. With digital the tendency is to take a few extra angles and perspectives to ensure that the image is optimised. If I am shooting for stock I will firstly delete any images which are below par quality wise. I will then make a triage and process the ones that I deem to work. I scrap the rejects.Once passed by QC I do my key wording. Part of this process is to split my images between my main pseudos and my below par pseudo.

 

If the subject is static, travel, flowers, statues etc I would have far less rejects (say 10%) than at an event where one needs to also catch the action, movement ( 50 - 70%).

 

dov

[Peter Jordan]

I am of the "storage is cheap" school of thought so I tend to only delete the (few) obvious failures.

 

In May and June this year, number added to LR catalogue = 1157.   Number uploaded to Alamy = 208, so hit rate = 18%.

 

This is yet another thread giving me cause for thought.   The hit rate should be higher.  I need to be more selective about what I shoot and delete more.

[Richard Coombs]

Out of 100, I would guess about 10 to 20 would end up binned through bad exposure, blurred etc. It can on occasions be a lot higher wastage as I do tend to rush things sometimes.

 

I keep all remaining pictures and typically upload between 10 and 25 to Alamy.

 

Lot of factors involved, so difficult to answer, but I reckon the above is pretty typical for me

[Richard Baker]

As a broad rule, I discard 60% of personal RAW files immediately on import into Lightroom and export perhaps only 40-50% of those to tiff>jpeg for Alamy and other sites. 

 

But in the days of assignments, those percentages were much higher although I regret keeping all those hopeless/similar frames that the client wanted to see anyway, but which are now taking up valuable space on external hard drives. 

 

Rgds,

Richard.

[Borniet]

As a broad rule, I discard 60% of personal RAW files immediately on import into Lightroom and export perhaps only 40-50% of those to tiff>jpeg for Alamy and other sites. 

 

But in the days of assignments, those percentages were much higher although I regret keeping all those hopeless/similar frames that the client wanted to see anyway, but which are now taking up valuable space on external hard drives. 

 

Rgds,

Richard.

 

Ah, sounds familiar :-) Shooting 500 images, to sell 10 to the client, but not being able to delete the other 490, because you just know that now and then, they come back x months later for something else from that shoot :-)

[Richard Tadman]

As I 'shoot' a high proportion of wildlife I tend to use a high burst rate (fps) and consequently discard a lot of images which are very similar or where the subject's position is unnatural. I would estimate at least 60% + are deleted almost immediately. Less so for landscapes and portraits of course.

[JohnB]

I keep nearly all of them. I use probably less than 10%. - rather high wastage but isn't that the pont of digital?   

[Richard Baker]

..  rather high wastage but isn't that the point of digital?

 

Well there's the nub of it: With film one edited in one's head and camera so wastage was lower (I used a hand meter rather as well as TTL but bracketing and rubbish exposures was still a factor). With digital one tends to press the button more often and edit on screen so there is in theory more to delete. 

 

I'm not of the opinion that 'that is the point' with digital, rather a byproduct of coping with hundreds of files on a card, rather than 36 x 35mm frames on a roll or with one project, 10 frames of 120 roll film in a 6x7cm rangefinder. I like think of this in terms of bullets in a revolver (carefully aimed pot shots that count) versus a magazine in an Uzzi (spraying the field, hoping for the best and still missing the best moment) .. but maybe those analogies are best, ahem - aimed at a gun-owners forum. 

 

Richard.  

[John Morrison]

 I like think of this in terms of bullets in a revolver (carefully aimed pot shots that count) versus a magazine in an Uzzi (spraying the field, hoping for the best and still missing the best moment)

 

I shoot more heavily with digital than I ever did with film, though my aim is to increase my 'success rate' rather than hope for the best with a 'scatter-gun' technique. What I hope to have, after a day of picture taking, is a bigger pool of useable pix to choose from. I'm happy to throw away perfectly serviceable pix... but only because I have better pix to keep...