Of all the photographs you take, how many do you like?

[arend-jan]

Out of every shoot I take, there are usually 'some' keepers. However, photographs that I

really like - few. But every now and then, there's that photograph that got that little extra bit.

That keeps me going!

[fullmetalphotograper]

I have shot a lot of things daily, but there is only a handful of images through the years, that

mean anything to me.<div></div>

[brucecahn]

Very interesting question. When I shot rolls of 35mm it was usually 2-3 on a bad roll, 6-8 on a good one. Yes, I have had rolls with nothing worth printing on them too. Now that I shoot only sheets, it's 1/4 to 1/2 of the pictures, a big improvement. Conclusion: a large format camera slows you down and makes you think more carefully.

[bstinshoff]

I find it really hard to press the shutter unless I'm really happy with what I see in the viewfinder. As a result, I get a high percentage of keepers, but it also takes me a long time to shoot a roll of film. I also tend to shoot a lot of architecture and still life, so there's really no excuse for the finished product not to turn out the way I imagined it. That old building isn't suddenly going to move out of the frame. Now when I decide I need some new pictures of the dog or cat out playing in the yard, I'm going to get a lot of toss out pictures. I think it all depends on what you shoot and ones style of shooting.

[cj_bas]

Probably somewhere between 5 and 10%. I mainly shoot 120, using a fully manual camera, so that slows me down and has me thinking more carefully about what I'm doing. Often I'll shoot a negative knowing that's not what I really want, in hopes of getting what I really want later but having that second best in hand just in case. I do not consider anything I've shot to be wasted however.

 

I do my best editing when some time has elapsed between me and the shooting of the negative. Then I can approach it as if it wasn't me who shot it and I can look at it more objectively.

 

If I can come away with averaging 1 or 2 shots on a roll of 15 exposures that I like, then I think I'm doing pretty good, especially considering how many that mounts up to over the years.

[david j.lee]

i developed 11 rolls yesterday. they are dry now and waiting to be contact printed. no

magnum material as far as i can see. i am in my normal post-processing depresion.

[larose]

Marius Rusis: I am intrigued. I would really like to see some of your work.

 

I've been shooting seriously for only a couple of years now, but I've got 22,000 (twenty-two thousand) photos backed up on harddrives. Many of them are multiples of the same subject taken at different angles, exposures, apertures, lighting, etc. I'm working my way into finding out who I am as a photographer -- my "style", I guess.

 

How many of those 22k do I like? On a good day, I'd say maybe 100. When I'm in my "post-processing depression" (and that includes downloading, thumbing through, and cataloguing my digital photos), they all suck.

 

At the end of the day, though, the finding out my style part of it, I think, is becoming set. But in the meantime, I'm having a great time, I see things in the world that I never paid much attention to before and finding the beauty in it even if it's just for the moment, and it's costing me only digital media storage.

[chris_waller]

On average, 8.33 percent. Overall I get three shots I like out of a roll of 36. Sometimes I get 6-8 good shots, sometimes only one.

[mg]

1% or so...

[DickArnold]

Very, very few when I did weddings and shot for a newspaper. The wedding pictures were seven years of continuous repetition. I have a couple that I have saved that I really loved because I think, just for the day, I fell in love with the bride. A smiling, cooperative, friendly bride got my best in a usually an eight photographic ordeal followed by hours, before PS, of sorting proofs trying to deliver on time. Most of the time I got fed at a wedding, anyway. Most of my newspaper work was time perishable and about as good a yesterday's news. I have a couple I did in the studio where I really captured something unusual amongst commercially acceptable pictures. I have done a little better after I retired because I get to determine the work agenda. I have recently done a very nice swimming picture that I and everyone has seen it likes. Especially the swimmer. But, I really do this for my satisfaction. It did me no good to see one of my mundane photos in the paper. I would like to post some people pictures in my gallery but I owe a trust to my former clients not to display their pictures without permission so I post birds. I have saved a few pictures over the years that satisfy me when I look at them but there are several thousand that I could care less about. The satisfaction used to be in the darkroom. It is now in front of my new 22 inch monitor which thanks to some good software I have done the best job ever of calibrating the monitor to PS CS3 (thanks also to a couple of things I learned in Digital Darkroom). I take great pleasure in producing high technical quality in fairly large digital prints. The pictures I like the best are those of people I have photographed that I can look at and say to myself, "damn, I really captured some of his or her personality". I have done that, IMO, somewhat rarely in weddings, a few times in studio, once or twice with my cat, and a few times after innumerable photographs in my family. As a former longtime pilot I get some satisfying airplanes in flight but that is also rare. I put hundreds of hours in the darkroom trying with a great deal of frustration to do so, however. It is certainly less frustrating, now, in front of a computer(although I recently posted my struggle to set up my new computer in Cas. Con.). I will keep trying. It's in my nature. I said a lot that Ellis said in a phrase. My answer: a few, not many.

[DickArnold]

second sentence should read "eight hour ordeal".

[don_e]

Looks like 20%. I'm surprised.

[galina stepanova]

With couple in a hundred taken I, usually, OK with, but I really like a very few... well, keep shooting.

[tripanfal]

Of the 30,000 or so digital files I have, maybe a dozen, although most are very important (only to my wife and myself) as the bulk of them are my family

 

Of the 100+ or so rolls of film I've developed, I'm happy with about a half dozen frames.

 

I've printed dozens in the darkroom and hung 4.

[janet cull]

Probably 2 or 2 1/2 dozen and I don't have all those anymore. I can only think of 2 images

there's really nothing wrong with. No, 3. That's not bad, huh? I can almost always find

something wrong. Sometimes, working in the darkroom, I think I've found a gem, then

after working on it so long I look again and think, "it's only *almost* an alright image - not

so special afterall".

 

I toss lots!

 

Trouble is, I've lost the negatives for 3 of my all time favorites. I hate that!

[katia_nix]

Hey,

 

I found a big collection of free photos for the public:<br>

<a href='http://www.bigedu.org'>www.bigedu.org</a><br><br>

in the section of "photobank".

[thomas_sullivan]

the percentage is small...couldn't figure it out right now, because like some of you, I have my moments when it's all crap......and other's when I surprise myself how good I did.

 

but what really amazes me to no end is the stuff I think is not good, that some people who's opinion I trust actually like it.

[antoniobassiphotography]

I usually only take a photo when I really "feel" it right and rarely the result disappoints me.

When I take a shot that didn't work the way I expected I can feel it and often delete it without

looking at it in the viewfinder. I don't look at the viewfinder right after the shot because I

already know if the result is good or not. In a way, I use the DSLR just like a 35mm (the

exposure meter helps of course). I can say that I like all my photographs but only a few I

consider worth of saving from a fire and those captured the most "unexpected" and

unplanned moments. This is one of those.<div></div>

[antoniobassiphotography]

...Sorry, not the "viewfinder", I mean the screen...

[Troll]

In my first 20 years of photography, I only took one great picture. In the 35 years since then (that's when I switched from Leica to SLRs) I have accunulated at least 100 images I can view with satisfaction. But since I've passed 70 years old it gets harder and harder to not repeat myself and still get something meaningful.<div></div>

[sergey-afanasyev]

It really depends on the way i feel when taking photos. Sometimes i erase all works from my flash card, cuz i know it could be better. Once travelling i took about 400 photos, generally for myself and for the family album. However i left for my gallery no more than 15 i like. Certainly they are not great, cuz this is another question (I haven't taken a great photo yet). But all these were taken in one day when i felt particularly good.

[jeff bishop]

I think I've taken about 10-15 "very good" shots over the last 30 years (most of these over the last 10 years).

 

On average, I take about 1-3 shots that I consider good enough for printing from every 36exp roll of film.

[kristina_kraft]

A few has touched me only. I'm working with a slide films and I'm very selective in finding a scene at exterior. But I have only hang on the wall of my room one bigger framed photo of a "dramatic" coast. Maybe if I count, it would be some 30% of my over all work.

From one slide I can pick up to 4 photos.

[john_webb4]

None! I will always find a fault and likely throw more money at trying to eliminate it! :)))))

[moseley]

This is as great question, and providing a lot of honesty in its posts!

I have been Photographing for over 20 years and virtually every time you do a professional shoot it is imperitive you have something you are happy with.However if were talking shots we are proud of then and which we believe are as good as they could possibly be then I probably have an average of a few a year, which isnt much of a turn round I suppose.