Percentage of shots you keep?

Captain IK

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Here's a quick question before I head out the door for the morning. Hopefully I'll see lots of posts when I return...
What percentage of the shots you capture do you actually keep?
Back in the days of film I suspect it was higher than in today's digital world.
On film I probably kept (or at least considered good) about 30%
When it comes to digital that percentage is much lower (presumably because you take more shots)
As an example, yesterday I went for a walk by the river and took 96 exposures. After reviewing them last night I ended up keeping 12.
I suspect that studio percentages are much higher as well, since you are working with a more controlled environment.

I suppose that the percentage would also vary depending on how picky you are about what you save or discard.
Your thoughts?
 
i probably keep about 1 in 10..but i usually take multiple exposures of the same subject, jut so i don't have to come back, due to an error.
 
All of them. I dont usually delete much of anything to be honest. I keep most of them. The reason being is that I will look back through from time to time and see how much I have grown as a photographer and I also review my shots to see what I did and what I should have done.
 
^^ at the moment pretty much what Mgw189 does.
Whilst I have the storage space on the computer I just keep all the shots - though I edit and show very few (those are the true Keepers). Also sometimes I find that an older shot - or some shots taken on a bad (often dull lighting) day can, after a period of time, be edited to a respectable quality - normally not at fullsize, but for internet sizes acceptable.

I suspect that when I get near the limits of my storage space that I will have to start properly culling shots from my computer - though that is not to say that I have not managed to learn from those shots
 
I too, while not using them, keep all (or most) of my photos at least saved on my computer. That being said, I only ever put my 'best' on flickr. This turns out to be around 1-2/10, mostly because I take 3-4 photos of a subject, then choose the best angle or two from those. I like to look back over the ones I didnt use and sometimes I see potential where before I saw none, and its also a learning experience.

Edit: Just to make it easy I keep about 90%, only show about 8%.
 
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I think I keep roughly 80 to 90% of those I take, and of those I keep most, probably more than 90% I only keep for my future reference, and would never show them to anybody. So the percent of my photos that I actually like, is less than 10%, probably like 6 or 7%.
 
When I shot film I kept all the photos, perhaps because I had to pay for the fim and processing..... Bad shots went into a box, the best went into an album, and the so so shots went into file boxes divided into categories. With digital if I shoot 75 photos, i usally keep about 30, the truly awful are deleted forever. The best are put into a "best" file which I burn to a CD. The so so shots go into a folder on the PC \and on a CD, and I use them later to just play\practice with in photo shop. Sometimes I get something really good, most of the time though I make them into photo art. [drawings etc.]
 
I keep everything. Those that make it out of RAW into something processed and something I'd be willing to put my name on can be around 10% on a bad day up to about 80% in more controlled situations. (Far more often around the 10%.) What I have noticed is that my average 'keeper' rate hasn't fluctuated much over the past year where I thought it might because I'm definitely learning a lot. Turns out, I'm just way the hell more picky than I was 12 months ago.
 
I tend to keep all of my shots as well. I may look back on them and think of something else that may enhance the picture, like a cropping, or making it B&W. I have about 3200 pictures since the end of August.
 
Since I shoot pictures of mostly my family and friends, I end up deleting quite a few. I'd say 50-75% depending on the situation. No sense keeping a picture with half closed eyes, etc. I do, however, make a book at the end of each year with my favorite pictures to display on my bookshelf in my living room. At least then the best pictures can be appreciated over and over again instead of being locked away in my computer forever. It's fun, too, to look back at my books and see how much my pictures have improved.
 
With film I kept everything because the throw-aways were usually physically attached to the keepers. Dealing with a single frame of film smaller than 4x5in in the darkroom is a pain in the butt. The bad frames effectively become handles. I did toss 4x5 sheets that were goofs or just plain lousy shots. If a bad frame on a roll ended up where I could trim it I would (still leaving enough frames on a strip to fit the neg file sheets I was using).

With digital I keep anything that has potential use, but I'm not afraid of the delete button.

My percentage of keepers (photos I keep for any reason) is much higher than my percentage of significant photos (photos really worth keeping) no matter whether I'm using film or digital. :)
 
Yep I keep all of them. Got myself a 1tb drive not to long ago so I have all the space I need. Also when I'm bored I edit the old bad shots making them better.
 
I keep all of them. About 10% are good enough for printing, posting to a web album, or showing to others.
 
i also keep all my raws, but only process maybe 20-30%
 
Same here. When I take several shots of the same thing, I reject the worse ones but don't delete them. About 5% are real keepers, but I also shoot lots of portraits which I don't publish online.
 

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