Ratio of photos you take and keep

[Susurs]

Just for fun...

What is the approximate ratio of photos you take, and the final number of images you keep?

What is the percentage of photos with missed focus?

When I do macro, especially if object/subject is moving fast, the number of pictures I throw away is huge - I sometimes use continuous drive, and only few % of images stay in my gallery.

Just this morning I took around ~40 image portrait session indoors with not really great light. Around 15 were thrown away - 7-8 of those were not quite sharp/great focus...

 

[mollyc]

That's a good question. I don't think I have a way of answering though, as it sort of depends on the subject.

None of my family lives nearby, so over the years I have tried to share photos with them on a monthly basis (when my kids were tiny it was more weekly or biweekly). I am currently way behind and just went through my November photos from last year and am uploading them to Zenfolio. I have a lot more photos that I am keeping in LR than I am actually sending out. My kids had a big travel swim meet that month, so I took a lot of photos of them that are perfectly usable, but somewhat repetitive for the grandparents to look through (my own mother once complained that I send out too many at once; I actually use Zenfolio as a backup of jpeg, so too bad for her). So from that perspective, of what finished jpegs are getting uploaded, I'd say maybe 20%...but I am actually keeping closer to 85% for my own personal stuff locally.

I will delete a lot more macros because for any one subject, I really only need one distinct version, but especially now that I am manually focusing, I have more misses. But, if I have the same subject and have turned so the light or focus point is different, then I will keep all views. I do tend to way overhsoot macros though so delete a higher percentage (but shoot more to start with).

 

[stillcrazyman]

It varies. I would estimate that 50% of the shots I take on any given event will not be kept. I tend to take many photos of the same scene, so there will usually be a lot of variations of the same shot. Other than the obvious out of focus, poor quality shots that get culled when I do the import before editing.

 

[Alexander.Of.Oz]

It varies a lot for me. Yesterday I took 170 images, about 90 of them were actually bracketed sets of 3 exposures each, so I really took 110 images, and out of them, I kept 41 and will share 28 of those, which is about 31% I will share and 45% that I will keep. Now, that's going to places with no idea of what's there and exploring them pretty thoroughly, because I may never be able to get back into them again. If I am out doing long-exposures I have given serious thought to and already done my reconnaissance for, I only take a couple of each image I want and work with the one with the best light, so that's a 50% keeper rate.

I never have been a spray and pray type, I'm extremely frugal with the amount of images I capture.

 

[anotherscotsman]

I mostly do landscape stuff so there’s no real excuse for oof shots on the whole. Mostly variations on a theme so relatively high keep-rate for me. I’d guess about 60% are kept with about a third of the keepers being shots I’m reasonably happy with.

Like Alexander, I’m relatively frugal with taking shots since the more I have to discard, the poorer I feel as a photographer. Sad I know....

 

[kenoh]

Yeah I think I normally take about 100-150 shots on a day out, typically burn 60% in first cull then only about a dozen or so will see the outside world again.

On holiday there I binned about 6-700 shots from around a thousand i took. Out of focus not normally my issue, nirmally it is just crap composition or it was exposed wrong - i am trying ETTR and I am crap at it right now.... So maybe a higher burn rate than.normal.

 

[mollyc]

i am trying ETTR and I am crap at it right now....

Funny, I am trying to do a bit more underexposing right now to preserve highlights. I find it fasincating the different approaches to exposure. I've spent almost my entire photography career ETTR, and it's hard to switch away from that.

 

[kenoh]

Funny, I am trying to do a bit more underexposing right now to preserve highlights. I find it fasincating the different approaches to exposure. I've spent almost my entire photography career ETTR, and it's hard to switch away from that.

Any tips welcome... It is doing my head in now.

 

[MBAir2010]

I am in the midst for deleting 3,000 photos on my flickr account, from over 4,000
then the iPad, since the MB and Mini were recently erased, i can leave this ealne/

advice,
keep photos the make you smile!

 

[mollyc]

Any tips welcome... It is doing my head in now.

What are you having trouble with? Typically I use the histogram and try to keep is as to the right I can without any blinkies. Sometimes even with small patches of blinkies, depending on where it is.

I am now working on underexposing as my cameras usually preserve the shadow detail fairly well without adding a ton of noise (Nikon - Canons don't work as well here), which allows me to shoot without blowing out the sky, etc. But it requires a lot of brush work in post to balance the overall exposure.

 

[MBAir2010]

the cat photos are the hardest to remove, my past cat Hehki has 75 photos on fly while new cat Kazaara has too many.
today i took 34 photos, I'm undecided what to do with them.

 

[Clix Pix]

I have the tendency to shoot too many photos, although not necessarily all of the same subject in the same position; I try to change perspective and angles, see what happens when I do x instead of y, etc.....but I still wind up with too many shots on the card when I get home. I also have the bad habit of culling through on the first go-around, choosing images to process and taking them into Aperture (or now also Luminar).....but then only editing a few, leaving the rest just sitting there. Sometimes when I review them prior to processing at the point I choose not to edit one or another because something isn't right and it's not worth trying to fix, and at other times I just don't get around to even checking that in the first place.

When using a new camera I often have few keepers, as I'm just experimenting as I get to know the camera and what it will/won't do and what settings I need to adjust for best results. I have a little tradition of when I unbox a new camera, once it's set up with the battery charged and a memory card in it, the first couple of shots I do are the box. Sometimes I'll use another camera to also take photos of the new camera perched on top of its box. I don't usually keep any of those first few shots, but it's just a fun little thing to do....

A lot depends upon the situation I'm shooting, the lighting conditions and so on, too, as to how many keepers I have and how much gets deleted after scrutiny in the computer. I never delete anything while the memory card is still in the camera, even when it's an obvious goofy shot such as a misfire if a finger touched the shutter button by mistake.

Shooting macros definitely results in a high percentage of throwaways, especially if I'm trying to capture an insect or butterfly.....squatting in a flower bed, camera lens close to the subject, trying to reach in closer and closer....well, sometimes this process just isn't successful. Manual focus is definitely more challenging for me the older I am getting, and that does not help matters!

One thing I've never quite gotten comfortable doing is using the histogram and examining it while chimping and checking an image after I've shot it..... While I understand the concept of ETTR (exposing to the right) I have never quite made a habit of consciously ensuring that I do this while shooting. Probably if I did pay more attention to this I'd have better results at times!

 

[mollyc]

I admit I'm a big chimper, so I do often have some out of whack exposures to get rid of right away.

 

[Clix Pix]

I'm definitely big on chimping -- can't resist checking after myself to see what the composition and exposure looks like straight away! It does help, too, especially with regard to composition, so that I can see that OK, that particular angle just doesn't work, need to try something different, or worse, oops, why didn't I notice that trash bin off to the left side? Need to shift my position and recompose here!

 

[Susurs]

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Seems that macros tend to have the highest ‘missed’/unusable photo rate which is logical due to specification of this type of work.

What about focus/sharpness issues specifically when taking portraits, photographing some pets, moving ’normal size (no macro) subjects’, etc.? I lately find myself deleting quite a lot of images of this kind (especially indoors)...Maybe my hand just has became more ‘shaky’ or it is just relatively low light/slower shutter speed issue...or my pure imagination that I am deleting more photos.

 

[mollyc]

I would say in general I delete more from exposure issues than focus issues.

 

[MBAir2010]

2 weeks ago I had 4325 Flickr photos, today:1942 from 2457 from this morning
[doublepost=1532463575][/doublepost]

Thank you for sharing your experience!

Seems that macros tend to have the highest ‘missed’/unusable photo rate which is logical due to specification of this type of work.

What about focus/sharpness issues specifically when taking portraits, photographing some pets, moving ’normal size subjects’, etc.? I lately find myself deleting quite a lot of images of this kind (especially indoors)...Maybe my hand just has became more ‘shaky’ or it is just relatively low light/slower shutter speed issue...or my pure imagination that I am deleting more photos.

Cats are difficult to photograph. My Turkish angora is black with orange eyes and ¼ are deleted n first export, half are stored in the photo app and HD while few get to Flickr, with few views.

 

[Susurs]

I would say in general I delete more from exposure issues than focus issues.

What is the shutter speed at which handheld camera with IBIS does not produce an appropriate result for you anymore?

 

[mollyc]

What is IBIS? Some sort of stabilization? My macro lens and my 70-200 I think are the only ones with IS.

I try really hard not to shoot slower than 1/125. I prefer 1/250, but can sometimes shoot as slow as 1/80 if I'm super careful.

 

[Susurs]

2 weeks ago I had 4325 Flickr photos, today:1942 from 2457 from this morning
[doublepost=1532463575][/doublepost]
Cats are difficult to photograph. My Turkish angora is black with orange eyes and ¼ are deleted n first export, half are stored in the photo app and HD while few get to Flickr, with few views.

I’m still waiting for a moment to catch my cat yawnig and when my camera is on with the right settings ... No luck so far
[doublepost=1532464435][/doublepost]

What is IBIS? Some sort of stabilization? My macro lens and my 70-200 I think are the only ones with IS.

I try really hard not to shoot slower than 1/125. I prefer 1/250, but can sometimes shoot as slow as 1/80 if I'm super careful.

Thanks!
Sony sort of stabilization system ... ‘moving sensor’.
P.S. I often go as low as 1/80 1/60 - that might be an ‘issue.

 

[kenoh]

What are you having trouble with? Typically I use the histogram and try to keep is as to the right I can without any blinkies. Sometimes even with small patches of blinkies, depending on where it is.

I am now working on underexposing as my cameras usually preserve the shadow detail fairly well without adding a ton of noise (Nikon - Canons don't work as well here), which allows me to shoot without blowing out the sky, etc. But it requires a lot of brush work in post to balance the overall exposure.

I just keep getting clipped highlights. I seem to get a lot of images with detail to the left then a big long slope to some data way over on the right... Like a big wide u

 

[MBAir2010]

I’m still waiting for a moment to catch my cat yawnig and when my camera is on with the right settings ... No luck so far

It’s chance, Take at my avitar that was pure luck and timing

 

[mollyc]

I just keep getting clipped highlights. I seem to get a lot of images with detail to the left then a big long slope to some data way over on the right... Like a big wide u

Can you post a sample image? Maybe it's just the natural dynamic range in your image.

 

[Apple fanboy]

On a day out I might shoot 70-100 images (depends on the subject).
Delete maybe 30-40% due to something not quite right (focus point, exposure etc.)
Probably edit about 5-10.
Share maybe 5.
I should just delete the rest but never do.

 

[kenoh]

Can you post a sample image? Maybe it's just the natural dynamic range in your image.

Probably is... Lol will create a thread when i get 2mins.