How many keepers do you get out of all the photos you take

[ilkka_nissila]

<p>The large amount of photos made for a National Geographic article is probably simply so that there is an abundance of great pics to choose from when putting the article together. So that the images fit with the article text and visually together. Without doubt any one project would yield dozens or hundreds of equally good pics, but as always when making a whole, one needs to find the images that fit together and support the content of the article rather than the single most beautiful captures.</p>

[maris_rusis]

<p>Now that I shoot for myself on 8x10 film I get 99% keepers.</p>

<p>When I shot professionally for others I would try to use a full roll for every subject and, if the budget stretched that far, for every set up. There is no other reliable way of delivering pictures to people who know exactly what they want; but only when they see it. Keepers? Maybe 1%!</p>

[john_a5]

<p>Something like National Geographic will probably look to use the "outtakes" in future articles as well. The assignments are pretty encompassing. When I shoot editorial, the assignments are sometimes fairly broad in that there was no "required" shot unless they are spot portraits like I did a lot for business (.com) magazines and Teen People. But those more broad articles were were still related to one particular article, very specific as to the subject. Spot portraits were probably only 3-5 rolls of 16(645 format) while feature articles I might have shot 30-50 rolls for maybe the use of 8-10 images (one job for the Atlantic was shot 50% Holga). For my commercial work, like the train work, I shot around 12-14000 (4x5 and MF film) images from which maybe 250 were chosen--but that was a unique job to be sure. They still purchase an image here and there from that work now even 5 years later from that first assignment. Most commercial assignments, advertising, were about getting a particular shot. So each set up got the number of rolls I felt were necessary to get the shot when people were involved--generally 3-5 rolls for most things, but up to 10 rolls or so for more complicated or action shots. With stills or landscape, where 4x5 was used. it was more about how many sheets I felt were necessary to get the bracket and back ups(stills) or the changing light for landscape/architecture work. Commercial work is just approached in a different way than you do personal work. Saying that, I shot over 8000 exposures last September working on a personal project, but many were candid/environmental portraits and I also tend to shoot whatever catches my fancy when shooting smaller format--was all DSLR work. I also have little confidence in DSLR focus and lenses as compared to my MF cameras, so I shoot more back ups than with the other cameras. So, the first edit was down to about 1800 frames.</p>

[mikael_karlsson]

<p>For me it really depends on what I shoot. If I'm shooting high-risk warrants being served my keeper rate is probably around 10%. Mainly because things happen very fast and I have to concentrate on other things as well aside from the shooting. When I was shooting film it wasn't rare to come home from shooting warrants for a week (3 to 5 a day) with 80 to 150 rolls of trannies.<br /><br />If I'm shooting in a more relaxed setting such as training, documenting a procedure in the crime lab or similar the keeper rate jumps to 90%.<br /><br />I'm pretty tough on myself when editing and toss anything I'm not at least 99% happy with.</p>