How good are you, really?

[Josh66]

Be honest.

I estimate that 10% of the pictures I take are "good", and 10% of those are the ones I really like. So out of all of the pictures I've taken, maybe 1% (10% of 10%) meet my standards to sell or hang on my wall.
I think I've progressed enough to know that most of what I do just kind of sucks, lol.

That seems about right to me. What about you? Does that figure sound too high or too low? Why?

 

[sscarmack]

I think that's high. Extremely high.

I'm lucky to get 1 photo that absolutely blows me away and I've never seen anywhere else before.

But my goal is to get 2-3 keepers out of every 100. So 2% I'm guessing for me lol

And I'm talking a photo that sets itself apart from the rest.

Very rarely am I super 'impressed' with my own work


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[tecboy]

I dunno. I rather let people judge my works.

 

[Josh66]

I dunno. I rather let people judge my works.

You have to do at least "a little" self editing though.

Yes, let people judge your works, but you get to choose which works they see.

 

[Josh66]

I think that's high. Extremely high.

I'm lucky to get 1 photo that absolutely blows me away and I've never seen anywhere else before.

But my goal is to get 2-3 keepers out of every 100. So 2% I'm guessing for me lol

And I'm talking a photo that sets itself apart from the rest.

Very rarely am I super 'impressed' with my own work


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For me, personally, a half of a percent might be closer to the truth - just going off of what I have on Flickr. A little over 6000 photos - 60 "really good ones", out of that 6000 does start to sound a little on the high side.

 

[jsecordphoto]

The more I shoot the more particular I am of my work. A year....6 months ago, I'd say 25% of the things I shot I thought were good. Now I'm happy with about 10% of the photos I take. I'd say each month I'll get 2-3 photos I'm REALLY happy with, and maybe 10 I like enough to share. It also depends on what I'm shooting...if I'm doing stuff for clients like interior photos of their business, 75% of the photos I shoot I am happy with- and so are my clients. If I'm doing landscapes for myself I'm way more picky

 

[astroNikon]

I can take a photo of a white wall and blow it out E-V-E-R-Y . . S-I-N-G-L-E . . T-I-M-E


But seriously. I'm enjoying what I'm doing. When I do my kids soccer I have a good percentage that are keepers. When I start doing things with flash and more product stuff then the number goes down dramatically. Waterfalls .. 50%

When I went on my photo vacation I was surprised by how few photos I took, but they were mostly good .. as long as you exclude the escapade of attempting to shoot fluttering butterflies.

I think it's down to when I get into situations that I've built up some knowledge I can think in my head of what and how I want to do it.
When I do stuff where I don't have much experience, then it's more hunting and pecking to figure out something good.

 

[Derrel]

It depends on what the subject matter is, and how target-rich the environment is! I mean, seriously, on a good day in a target-rich environment like say, Silver Falls State Park, where there's a glorious waterfall every 3/4 of a mile or so, or the central Oregon Coast on a beautiful summer day, it's pretty easy to walk around with two or three lenses in a fanny pack, and score a lot of "good shots". Same with the Columbia Gorge National Scenic area...people come from all over the USA to shoot both the coast and the gorge...shooting there, I'd say that a full 20% of my images are at least "interesting". Out of my typical 700-frame day (two, 8-gig cards shooting 12-bit compressed RAWS) I can make 150 good pictures if the conditions are even remotely decent.

I shot a portrait set on Monday...704 frames on the D3x, 70 on the Fuji S5 Pro, still testing it out...i got 204 frames I really liked, and 25 A-list shots.

I suck at math, and I seldom compute percentages for anything except restaurant tips...but I realize that how good *I* am is highly dependent on how interesting my subject matter is, and how good the lighting is. And, also, how diligently I am applying myself. Some days I just want to shoot snaps of what I have seen. Other days I am shooting for keeps. I tell myself I am a LOT better than many people, and also that there are a LOT of people who are way better shooters than I am.

 

[Josh66]

I just meant that people like to brag that "they're all keepers, man!" I'm sure I've said it before, lol.

When I say "10%", I don't mean "exactly" 10%, obviously - I'm just talking ball-park figures.

BUT ... I do have a little more than 6000 photos on Flickr, and of those - I'm pretty sure there are only 10 or 20 that I consider good enough to sell.

I do post a lot of "crap" on Flickr though - my family mostly lives far away, so it's an easy way to keep them up to date on what's going on.

 

[Derrel]

A guy who brags, "They're all keepers man!" = a guy with low standards!

I dunno...it's not like there's any certification examination to pass, any cup to pee in, any breathalizer to blow into...it's not being judged by anybody except by individual shooters.

Here's an example of a shoot that made me feel pretty good about my camera handling abilities. I got a FB message one day. A peripheral friend (the pretty blonde lady whose in a few shots) had her dad, and her nephew from a California college, coming up to Oregon to play in a triple-header small college baseball game. She called me in the third inning of the first game. By the time I drove the 45 miles there on Interstate 5 and got into the stadium, the second game had already started. I had not shot a baseball or softball game since 2006, and this was in 2013, so seven years since I had shot even one click worth of baseball. I had not shot my 300/2.8 in seven years either! So, on literally like no notice,totally unexpectedly out of the blue, I was asked to come down and ,"Get some good pictures," so, I tried. I spent some time sitting in the stands and conversing with my FB friend Dawn, and her dad, and shooting off a mopopod down near the first base area, but then in the second game, I moved around a bit and tried to actually ,"Get some good shots" of her nephew, as well as the other parts of the game. Even though I do not understand baseball all that well, and was rusty, I thought I did pretty well with one lens and a camera on a monopod after a seven-year layoff.

Corban vs Antelope Valley Photo Gallery by Derrel at pbase.com

 

[jaomul]

My hit rate is lowish but my percentage is going up. This might be slightly due to improvement but is as likely to do with me being less shutter happy. On a recent trip to the Saltee islands in Wexfird, Ireland I took about 200 shots in a 5 hour period. Some colleagues had 1000 +. It is a lovely spot with gorgeous birds everywhere. Of my 200 photos I got about 70 keepers by my standards. This was a once off and as mentioned above was to do with location and my probably low standards.

On another day I may take 50 shots and not be happy with any.

 

[Pejacre]

I find the more I learn, the higher my standards get so the number of shots I actually think are great gets lower, then I learn from them and improve so I get more selective when I shoot and the aggregate level of keepers improves. Then I have a bad day and it all goes to pot!

 

[keyseddie]

I've been a full time photographer for over 35 years. On commercial or editorial assignments, almost everything was good. It had to be and you just kept going till it was. Your skill set had to be beyond reproach. You edited and bracketed of course. There was no "chimping", so you didn't see your work till the transparencies came back. A half a stop either way you were f**ked. Same with wedding photography except the film had more latitude and the pressure was still there, but for me, less intense. Since the late 90's i've simply become an artist with a camera. An occasional assignment, usually food or something with writing involved. So I only shoot for the final product based on my own judgment. It's all "personal" work, just like an amateur. Mostly Europe, some US and tropical. Last autumn I had a 9 day photo safari to Florence and Tuscany followed by 5 days on the Cinque Terre. I also get there a week before the troops to get most of my images before they arrive. I don't shoot a lot. I think a lot and wait for the light or come back. I returned from about 3 weeks with exactly 1000 raw files, the most I ever shot. My initial goal was to get three images to sell and at least one from each trip. That doesn't count the images that go in the attendees slide show, about 50. So far I have 2 from Tuscany and nothing passes my criteria from Cinque Terre. Perhaps I'll develop one. So 2 out of a thousand. For my use, I'm good with that.

 

[manaheim]

75% or higher of what I take is composed and exposed well and is technically good. 50% of those are what I would consider viable as good representation that I would be comfortable handing to a customer or selling. If I'm extremely lucky, I'll get 1-2 of those where I go "Oh wow, Holy Crap, that needs to be framed NOW."

These are odd numbers for most photographers, I think. Much of my work is to purpose... I'm shooting for something... soccer game, wedding, corporate event. Very rarely these days do I just roam with my camera. AND since I've been doing this a while I burn far less "film" just trying things. I know what I want, I know what I like, and generally I can get it in a shot or two. When I used to roam, I'd shoot like 100-200 pictures in a few hours. These days... I'd be impressed if I shot 15-20. It's usually closer to 5-10.

 

[sm4him]

I don't think there is any way I could even begin to accurately estimate a "percentage" of keepers for my overall body of work. It varies so wildly from outing to outing, and depending on what type of photography I'm doing. For instance, when I'm shooting for work I tend to have a much higher "keep" rate, because I know what I need to shoot and I go out and get those pictures and I'm done. But when I'm trying to shoot abstracts--well, the whole outing could be a blazing success or a dismal failure.

So I have no numbers or percentage to put to my "keep" rate, and certainly none for my "wow, this is wall worthy!" rate.
But I do know this: Most other people, other photographers included, seem to think I'm far, far better than *I* think I am.
I appreciate that, because those positive comments from others encourages me and makes me believe that I'm doing alright; on the other hand, my secret knowledge that I'm really just a tiny step above a DOAMWAC (Drunken one-armed monkey with a camera) keeps me motivated to continue trying to get better.