dont wanna spray and pray

[Fred Berg]

I've been going through a bit of a purple patch recently (hope it lasts, but probably it won't) and am getting between 5 and 7 photos that I'm very happy with per roll of 36 exposures.

I strive for 9 or 10 from 36 as my personal goal, so my recent rate has been pretty close to this. I am a happy bunny just at the moment.

 

[chuasam]

I keep 30 to 40%. i post about 5 to 10% to facebook or flickr.
Once i shot 1300 pictures to get about 13 shots. Over 500 of the shots were viable. But the client wanted options. Why shoot so many? Cuz the cheapest variable in the whole shoot was clicks.

 

[davisphotos]

For a wedding, I deliver about 1/3 of the shots I take. A lot of my images are duplicates-I will take several shots of a scene and look for just the right moment, or group shots I will fire off several to make sure everybody's eyes are open. For the commercial still life work I do, it's closer to 90%, I'll take a few test shots, but for the most part I keep every shot I take.

 

[12sndsgood]

I average around the 10% range. but its just an estimate and as said depends on what your shooting. shot a wedding on saturady and i probalby went thru 40-50 pics just playing around with shutterspeed and zoom as people were dancing and i'll likely throw that entire batch out, but shooting posed shots of groom with groomsmen for example where everything was setup and more static most of those will be fine. There really is no one certain percent you should strive for. You should just strive on getting better.

 

[imagemaker46]

As has been mentioned already, depends on what is being shot. I always look for 75-90% on every shoot, typically it's around 80% when shooting most sports. Of the 80% I would say that 25% are the ones that my clients use. But again it all depends on the assignment.

 

[unpopular]

professionals like Imagemaker also have more motivation to please, and less motivation to experiment, after all, they'll be experimenting with their client's money and their own livelihoods. I think it depends a lot on why you're photographing, and for whom.

 

[gsgary]

This is the biggest problem with digital, try shooting film and you will want 75%

 

[unpopular]

75% won't cut it when you're shooting 4x5 chome at $2.00/sheet before processing. 90% won't cut it when shooting 8x10!

 

[gsgary]

I average around the 10% range. but its just an estimate and as said depends on what your shooting. shot a wedding on saturady and i probalby went thru 40-50 pics just playing around with shutterspeed and zoom as people were dancing and i'll likely throw that entire batch out, but shooting posed shots of groom with groomsmen for example where everything was setup and more static most of those will be fine. There really is no one certain percent you should strive for. You should just strive on getting better.

So by the time your shutter is ****ed you will only have about 1000 shots

 

[tirediron]

75% won't cut it when you're shooting 4x5 chome at $2.00/sheet before processing. 90% won't cut it when shooting 8x10!

Yeah, but that's really apples and oranges. Shooting LF you're almost always either in a studio or similar static situation where you have much greater, if not total control. When was the last wedding you were at shot with 4x5?

 

[unpopular]

What's amazing are the press photographers who used to shoot 3x4 and larger, granted film was much less expensive then, and they were shooting b/w, but you got to hand it to them, being able to juggle sheet film and flash bulbs while still documenting important historical events.

In some ways it was more important then to get the right shot, if you misjudged something you'll have to change the bulb, pull the film, replace the film, pull the dark slide, cock the shutter...

 

[12sndsgood]

I average around the 10% range. but its just an estimate and as said depends on what your shooting. shot a wedding on saturady and i probalby went thru 40-50 pics just playing around with shutterspeed and zoom as people were dancing and i'll likely throw that entire batch out, but shooting posed shots of groom with groomsmen for example where everything was setup and more static most of those will be fine. There really is no one certain percent you should strive for. You should just strive on getting better.

So by the time your shutter is ****ed you will only have about 1000 shots

Hopefully it will get more then 10k shots out of it.

 

[The_Pearl_Poet]

I may print 1-5% of my shots.

 

[imagemaker46]

professionals like Imagemaker also have more motivation to please, and less motivation to experiment, after all, they'll be experimenting with their client's money and their own livelihoods. I think it depends a lot on why you're photographing, and for whom.

Thanks, that is as accurate as it gets. I do play around with some things, even on my clients coin, and occationally end up with a few that really work for them, but the percentage of "play time" photos is probably about 2%. When the money is on the line, the percentage of keepers has to be pretty high.

 

[The_Duke]

I agree with TCampbell.

I do a lot of sports and wildlife where I may not like it simply because of a facial expression or an animals legs or ears look funny while running. As long as the exposure and focus are correct every shot has the potential to be a keeper.