How many pictures do you generate in a shooting session?

[lordfly]

I ask because I have several gigs worth of RAWs sitting here on my hard drive. They sounded great at the time, but opening them up later makes me feel... blah. I dont' spend a whole lot of time framing multiple shots of the same subjects (of course I've mostly been wandering around abandoned buildings or an entire downtown). I'm just wondering how many pictures you guys generally take in a shoot, and of those how many are good enough to share? I hesitate to barf all the stuff I have on my HDD.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I would never really expect someone to search for this, nor would I be able to figure out the correct search terms to find it, LOL. This thread is pretty recent, take a look through it, you'll probably find your answers.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...-shoot-how-many-pictures-should-one-take.html

 

[Natural_Disaster]

I went to a small damn today to take some pics. I took 96 and got 4 good ones....
:x
I tend to over do it most of the time...

 

[Overread]

One often can get the impression that all the "great photographers" had to do was turn, point, shoot and the resulting image would be a world class result - that even their mistakes and poor shots are still highclass photography.

The truth is that the experts also took more shots than they ever needed - even in the film days they would bracket shots (even more so then since they didin't have live previews of the results instantly availible). Some would come back and find a whole roll of film might be a load of duds.
The only limit then was cost - it cost them dearly to make mistakes so they quickly learnt not to make the common ones and I'm sure many would walk by some shots because they could not garantee that they would get the shot to work. These days that is not a limitation in the least - memory cards are dirt cheap and that is a freedom - a freedom to shoot, experiment and be diverse. Sure you still have to learn not to make the common mistakes otherwise you will never progress, but never be afraid to make mistakes.

Also as one gets better you overall level of photography will get higher - whereas once you might have considered any correct exposure to be a good shot you might start to look at smaller imperfections - that whisker missing - that finger just clipped - that angle of focus not perfect etc.... So even though you might be upping you game your keeper rate might still not be much higher


Myself I try to compose, focus, expose and get the shot to work first time every time, but I still make mistakes and I still take lots of shots in the hope that I will nail that perfect shot in the series. Sure it can be disheartening when you come back and only a few shots are really worth keeping but you just have to keep trying. Also bare in mind that somedays you just won't get the right light to shoot what you want to shoot - good light to shoot in makes a whole world of difference to you results - just look at serious landscape shooters who will come back to the same spot over and over just waiting to get that perfect, correct light for a single shot.

Finally remember that online you only ever see people good shots - and never that massive mountain of mistakes

 

[kkamin]

During a portrait session with a model I might take 300 shots and be happy with alot, but only about 6 will potentially be portfolio material. There is some type of gestalt thing (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts) that occurs when everything in an image lines up; the image sings.

I often hear this number for pros: about 3 out of 100 shots they define as keepers. Same in the film days. 1 good shot per roll of 35mm film. Ansel Adams was happy to get 12 great shots in a year.

 

[robertwsimpson]

The simple answer is "as many as it takes."

I try to shoot about 3-4 of every subject I am shooting with the exact same settings. Then I change settings and shoot 3-4 again. I do this because it avoids losing out on shots due to things beyond my control, like missing the focus on a shot. I don't have to worry about running out of space because I have a 32G card, and I don't have to worry about running out of storage, because I have a 500G hard drive.

When I get home, I usually delete 20% or so of my raw files. I only delete files that have blatant flaws in them like missed focus or motion blur or the like. The rest I keep, because I've gone back looking for photos that I remember taking only to remember that I deleted them because I thought the exposure wasn't perfect or something that could have been fixed in post.

 

[gsgary]

If i'm shooting an event and printing on site i will get as many good ones as i can and about 75% will be good enough to print and sell

 

[tdiprincess]

I always take tons. When I first load them on the computer, I do a slide show and delete the ones that I just don't like. I keep going through and going through. Eventually I get my set that I like completely.
I like Robert's idea of taking a few of each setting and changing a bit and taking a few more.. I don't have a huge hard drive, but DH has a 500gb and We have an external 300gb, but I think we'll be getting a bigger external, or upgrade my size...