More shooting, less editing

[Dacaur]

I dunno. I guess I don't understand why some of you take issue with those of us who cull 80-90% of the pictures we take, slyly, or not slyly putting us down "maybe you should re-evaluat..." Etc...
I guess what it comes down to is, I would rather take 500 pictures, and then go home and delete 495 if them and end up with 5 outstanding pictures , than take 20 pictures and and up with one or two outstanding pictures, because you were "watching and waiting" when the other three happened rather than snapping away like I was.... like they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take....
Sure, my "hit percentage" might only be 1% compared to your 5-10%, but in the end, all that really matters is I've got 5 great pictures to show for it, a year later 2 years, etc, the time spent deleting pictures means nothing, but the 5 great pictures hanging on my wall still do....

 

[Derrel]

I learned on film with 12 or 20 or 36 exposures per roll. The 24 exposure roll was invented after I had been shooting photos for about 4 years. Today my largest memory card will let me shoot approximately 1000 photos.

When I was in my twenties I worked for a large portrait studio and we were trained to shoot just five exposures for a single person, 7 pictures for a couple, and 10 frames for a family group.

The idea of machine gunning off 30 frames in hopes of maybe getting one Good frame is not much of an ideal for me. In fact I think it Demands a re-evaluation of one's shooting methodology and goals.

I had been seriously into photography for almost 10 years before I got my first motor driven camera, which fired at the rate of 3 frames per second.

Maybe my early experiences had something to do with how I feel about shooting 90% rejects,with a 9% b-list rate, and perhaps a 1/2 of 1% really good photo rate...

If you have ever shot medium format with 12 shot rolls or large format with two-sheet holders,then you know what I'm talkin' about. Steven W's post above pretty much says where I am coming from.


Back in the 1980s when gas was $0.75 a gallon and buying and processing a sheet of 4 x 5 in Ektachrome cost $3, I learned what selectivity meant. Back when film and proofing for a wedding cost $400 and monthly rent on a small house was $250 I learned the virtue of getting it right in camera and not shooting garbage. Today I could shoot the same wedding on the memory card that had been used for 45 weddings prior ... Back when gas was $1 a gallon and developing was priced at $10.99 for 36 Color Prints, there was a tremendous incentive to shooting as carefully as possible. Do we really need 1400 photos to tell the story of the wedding? Or do we need 125 well-thought-out and perfectly executed shots?

Basically if you view each exposure as costing you 50 cents, either in money or in time, I think you will find that throwing away 90% of your photos is really not that cost effective.

 

[Derrel]

The idea that I might shoot only 5% to 10% good photos is hilarious.

But back to the original question about shooting more and editing less: around 17 years ago or so I shot the Fuji S2ji' Pro mostly in jpeg mode, because at that time Adobe Photoshop could not handle the raw files from Fuji's so-called honeycomb image sensor. When you want to shoot straight out of camera there are a few very important things number one is white balance, the second thing is tone curve oh, and the third thing is exposure. The S2 bro had a remarkable hard button setup on the back of the camera with just four buttons, each with two functions it was less possible to instantly make changes in a clear and logical manner.

If you are going to make good jpeg images you must be prepared to adjust the white balance and the tone curve and the exposure for the scene at hand. For example in low contrast lighting situations you must use a fairly aggressive tone curve come one witch builds contrast oh, and you must be fully aware of your exposure. In high-contrast lighting you must use a tone curve which mitigates the excessive contrast of the on-scene lighting. Many cameras offer white balance bracketing when in jpeg mode, and possibly this might be some of your concern, at least some of the time

 

[Original katomi]

Re post 46
I thought the question was how to edit less, there was never intentional put downs , advice and past experience was offered
If it has seemed to be a put down then appligies Katomi