Throw away photos - general curiosity

11/20/2004 09:51:16 AM · #1

just curious - roughly the percentage of photos others immediately toss away after uploading.

lately i have been trying to hone my skills a bit more, to try to lessen the number of 'garbage' photos. and hopefully extend the life of the camera a bit in the process.

i would say i KEEP roughly 70% of my shots now, with about 30%-50% of those being printable quality images. ( not necessarily overly interesting just good overall quality )

peecee

Canon EOS-5D

11/20/2004 09:53:09 AM · #2

I keep all mine, media is dirt cheap now, and with dvd getting cheaper all the time I would spend more time just weeding the chaff out.

11/20/2004 09:56:32 AM · #3

right, but that's not really my question. you can't say all the shots are really usable photos. if you WERE to toss some - what percentage would it be.

i toss them in about a 5 minute span right after uploading to PC.
doesn't eat up much time, and cleans up the folders to make the better images easier to locate.

i look at all of them, then go back through again, and delete the poorest ones as they are displayed.

you can think about the extra burning time as the opposite of your argument.

just-married

Canon EOS-10D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

11/20/2004 10:00:11 AM · #4

Well, I shoot a lot because unlike with film, I'm wasting nothing to keep shooting. I'd rather shoot 3-5x and be sure to have the shot than loose the shot by only clicking once. I use continuous mode a lot. So I would say I throw away probably 50% of what I shoot. Not because 50% is crap, but because about 25% is crap and 25% is duplicate.

peecee

Canon EOS-5D

Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC for Canon

11/20/2004 10:03:18 AM · #5

Point taken, but I don't get that many, since upgrading I probably toss maybe 10% but I expect that will drop as I get more decentish pics.
The worst scenario is when I have been bracketing, ie 3 shot for each pic,I just keep the lot then, too much hassle to inspect every single one over and again. And who knows when I may go back as I develop my skills more in photoshop.

moswyn

Canon EOS-7D

11/20/2004 10:09:30 AM · #6

If it's for a job I'm doing, I set up three folders: unedited used, not used, and edited. Just about everything gets kept - never know when you might need to replace someone's blinking eyes. I might throw out about 5% - if they're really blurry or too dark to work with (like if the strobes didn't fire).

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

11/20/2004 10:10:21 AM · #7

I keep telling myself that I need to be brutal in initial assessment, because history tells me that I only really make use of, like, 10% of what I shoot. But I still keep >70% of what I shoot, and just archive it, heck knows what for.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

11/20/2004 10:28:19 AM · #8

I toss about 80 to 90 percent. I don't feel that my kept ratio has anything to do with whether I'm good or not. Sometimes I just want to have every angle covered and sometimes I don't know what I want, so I keep shooting till the card is full. I do know I want to keep the clutter down so I toss out a lot after I look at them.
Like just-married said, I'd rather toss some than not get the shot because I didn't click.

Konador

Canon EOS-500D Rebel T1i

11/20/2004 10:33:14 AM · #9

I never delete any shots, even though I only ever use about 1 in 20 or 30. I keep everything else 'just in case' it matures with age :P I even keep over exposed white frames or underexposed black frames, lol. What a waste of space!

wewillexplore

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

11/20/2004 11:34:14 AM · #10

I keep about 40% and use about 15%. I backup often with my Image Captures folder and don't really care how much I store for CD/DVD. I think I keep a lot for use as backgrounds/filler in projects.

M

TechnoShroom

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

11/20/2004 11:43:10 AM · #11

Immediately Toss: 60%
Toss Eventually: 25%
Keepers: 14%
Printers: 1%

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

11/20/2004 11:50:52 AM · #12

Originally posted by Konador:

I'm with you ... space is cheap, and that frame you "accidentally" deleted is priceless. I don't burn OOF or poorly exposed negatives either, I just leave them in the envelope with the rest of the roll. Then the problem becomes how to find the envelope or CD : (

Like mavrik, I've used a piece of an uninteresting photo, or what might be an otherwise horrible OOF shot as an "abstract" background for a completely unrelated project.

wkmen

Olympus SP-570 UZ

11/20/2004 11:55:15 AM · #13

Immediately Toss: 30% +/-
Toss Eventually: 10% more +/-
Keepers (files on CD/DVD): 60% (100-30-10)
To be published on-line or printed: 2.5%
Actually Printed: 1%

(Thanx TechnoShroom for the category framework)

11/20/2004 11:58:18 AM · #14

it's intresting to read the way people think differently about what to, and not to save. i'm not saying i don't experiment with angles, and exposures, but am trying to do so in a more structured manner, where i know beforehand what the results will be.

i guess it's somewhat a matter of mastering the camera's eye, and eliminating some of the test shots.

of the photos i took in portsmouth - which were unstructured on the fly shots, about 35% or so came out how i had hoped, and needed minimal editing afterwards.

Sony E 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS

11/20/2004 12:16:40 PM · #15

Most of mine come out well exposed and non-blurry. The truth is I have very little use for pictures so there is no reason to keep them. I once had to move 4 times in one year and since then I have been very careful about what I want to keep. Storage isn't the problem. For me it comes down to why I feel I have to keep everything. What purpose does it serve?
I'm not counting family snapshots and vacations into this mix. Those can be kept for personal reasons. But to tell you the truth, in that situation, I make cds and give them to someone else, then delete,delete, delete.
But to address what you are really saying. Is it better to frame the picture and know what you are doing before you trip the shutter. Yes. I do believe that is good. But then again, why do professional photographers expose 100 rolls of film for one fashion layout?
But I can see how it would be easy to want to keep everything. Some of you might become famous someday and will need all those pictures to sell, or at least to show your progress.

Message edited by author 2004-11-20 12:29:26.

riotspyne

Nikon D80

11/20/2004 12:18:26 PM · #16

Originally posted by TechnoShroom:

Immediately Toss: 60%
Toss Eventually: 25%
Keepers: 14%
Printers: 1%

this is pretty much what i do

willem

Sony Alpha a6700

11/20/2004 12:41:46 PM · #17

toss : 5%, keep : 95%
print : 10%
publish : 1%

moodville

Nikon D100

11/20/2004 12:49:02 PM · #18

The number of images I toss have increased with the time I've been shooting. I would probably toss 99% of last year's photographs. Likewise I'm sure next year I would want to toss a lot of this year's and so on.

I typically toss about 80% of my images these days. 10% I keep as something I may want to play with in the future (I have a habit of liking things I dont immediately like after a month or so), 9% I'll upload to the web, and 1% I'll print.

Which boils down to 'I suck!' :)

11/20/2004 01:34:42 PM · #19

Ok - so now - why is the percentage that most seem to toss out so high compared to what is kept?
I know in general that's how it is. with a low percentage being keepers, but how come? if you know how to use the camera, meter, DOF, focus, and composistion - why so many trash photos?
actions shots being an exception.

I mean what is causing the sub-par results?

this is what i am trying to work on - take less photos - increase the quality of them, and throw out less. this seems a logical goal to me.
and so far seems to be panning out. i've also noticed much less need in the way of post processing as a result as well.

riotspyne

Nikon D80

11/20/2004 01:49:42 PM · #20

for me i mostly take shots of my kids and they move alot so most of the shots end up with motion blur but also i like to take alot of angles and usually throw what doesnt work to save space and keep things organized and easy to find

moodville

Nikon D100

11/20/2004 02:16:33 PM · #21

I trash any shot that is blurry, wrong exposure, distracting elements, bad composition, duplicates, and anything that I think just wouldnt be useable.

I trash a lot because I find going through 500+ poor images at a later date to find one good image to be totally frustrating. I would rather search through 100 good images and have a varied choice to pick from.

What is the point of keeping the shot of someone's out of focus, over-exposed ear that you got while accidentally pushing the buton at the wrong time? Of course that is an extreme, but an out of focus shot today is going to be an out of focus shot tomorrow. As my opinions of what selection of my work is acceptable gets more picky then the chances of exposing my sub-par work to people decreases.

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

11/20/2004 02:19:06 PM · #22

You are using some mathmatical formula to say if you are successful or not. That might not be the same goal that everybody else is trying for. There is no such thing as sub-par on a personal basis. Some people shoot to have something to do. Some want to sell stock photos, some just want snapshots for the album.
There was an article either in op or digital photo pro about this very issue. What it comes down to is if you enjoy photography, what should any ratio like this matter. I personally could care less if the one photo someone shows me, that I really love, took them 300 attempts or one. It's the one I see that matters.
I hope I'm not seeming to be hostile. I'm not.

LindaLee

Canon EOS-40D

11/20/2004 02:57:26 PM · #23

Originally posted by TechnoShroom:

Immediately Toss: 60%
Toss Eventually: 25%
Keepers: 14%
Printers: 1%

This is pretty much my way of doing it also. I used to keep everything, but have become fairly brutal with my intial downloads.

11/20/2004 05:01:53 PM · #24

no, it's just a thought that came to mind this morning and i was bored at work. i am just curious how others think about the issue is all.

i am trying to get the 1 in 300 photo in more like 1 in 10 is my point.
i see nothing wrong with trying to master both the camera, and the scene. not that i have - but it's an ongoing effort.

Originally posted by pcody: