Are you better than 29.5% ?

[KirkM]

I just burned every photo I've kept from my 10D onto a DVD. 2,066 shots in all. So, considering I just took my 7,000th shot, that makes 29.5% I've kept. I'm sure if I went through them all again, I could find a few hundred more to trash :)

So, what's your percentage ??

Kirk

[KennyG]

In excess of 85%

[cactusclay]

Probably around 95%. Digital makes it a bit harder, because I think that maybe someday I will mess with it in PS and create a master piece, but the truth is that I usually forget. I used to just shoot slides, so what you shot is what you got and it made the decision much easier. I still kept a lot of slides that were just mediocr, untill about 10 or 12 years ago when I finally got sic of carting them around with me, at which time I threw out several thousand and only kept a couple hundred. I'm starting to chuck the mediocr digital as well, since it doesn't cost me anything to shoot more.

[pcasciola]

I keep 100%. I just backup to two USB 250Gb hard drives, which are pretty cheap nowadays.

[KirkM]

Storage is cheap, but I thought it would be a good idea to keep a backup copy at work. Anyway, I've got two 160GB FW drives which are pretty full of DV and ripped DVD's :)

[tim]

When I try to shoot as few as possible I keep over 50% of my pics, most of the time I shoot a lot because I know they're digital and I can delete them. I probably delete 50% of what I take, but only 10% or so would be keepers. If I were shooting film i'd be more careful and have a higher hit rate, but I don't have to be so I don't :)

[sdommin]

Funny you should write about this topic, because I recently submitted 2 photos to the "Photo Sharing" section about pictures that I had almost deleted, but kept and eventually reworked into decent pics. The moral of the story: You never know!

Threads & photos here:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=59411

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=59149

[Raj]

I keep a backup, lets say 70% of what I shoot + burn dvd/upload pics to my web/internet ~40%
Recently started shooting in RAW & going forward will be keeping 100% backup unless the pics are really awkward.
Cheers

[Fills]

Funny you should write about this topic, because I recently submitted 2 photos to the "Photo Sharing" section about pictures that I had almost deleted, but kept and eventually reworked into decent pics. The moral of the story: You never know!

Threads & photos here:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=59411

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=59149

Ummm... if those are throw aways, I'd better toss all mine! :lol: I know they are re-worked but man they're still great shots. Btw, I keep only 30%. I hate going back through 1000's of worthless shots. Most are similar to another and I keep the better one, or to that effect. I usually know when I get 'the shot' and if not and I throw them out, I'll never have to think I can re-work it, cause it's gone. IMO.

[Moppie]

100% effectivly.

Im a photo horder :(

[thomascanty]

I'd say I'm probably at about 95% or more. I'll occasionally delete a picture in camera when it's obviously bad, but once they make it to the computer they get burned to DVD. I keep them all at that point.

[pcasciola]

Storage is cheap, but I thought it would be a good idea to keep a backup copy at work. Anyway, I've got two 160GB FW drives which are pretty full of DV and ripped DVD's :)Isn't that the whole purpose for USB/firewire drives? I keep one of mine at work part of the time. Even riding that ZX in to work you could fit one of those drives in your pocket, and then watch some movies when POTN is down, too. ;)

[RJSorensen]

Horder here . . .

[aam1234]

Funny you should write about this topic, because I recently submitted 2 photos to the "Photo Sharing" section about pictures that I had almost deleted, but kept and eventually reworked into decent pics. The moral of the story: You never know!

Threads & photos here:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=59411

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=59149

Scott, you wanted to delete those!! :evil: Boy, if the standard is that high, maybe I should stop taking photos (that's a compliment Scott).

If the question is how many to keep, I'd say 95%. But if the question is about "keepers" then it's something like 0.1% (excluding family & friends pics).

[Volatile]

I don't delete enough. the problem is not storage, but filing. with thousands of pictures, it's getting herd to find the one I remember from menths prior. either that, or they are shots I will never look at again.

[tim]

Scott, those are great shots, keepers if ever I saw one!

[Mills]

I keep everything on DVD. Even the ones that totally suck (and there are plenty!). Not sure why, but it is so easy to save them. Now if you ask what percentage I think are any GOOD? About 25%.

[Persian-Rice]

Unless I have MASSIVE blur or someones bald head getting in the way, I keep it. I process about 70% of them.
Whatever it is, I seem to have quite a high percentage of images worth keeping and printing.
Most of my photos are tests and prepration for a shoot, when it comes down to it I don't actually shoot very much, I dont have a "lead finger", if that makes any sense.

[karusel]

I shoot RAW exclusively, and the images that get deleted are those that are quite obviously bad, either out of focus or some other screwup, from those that are left, I actually develop only those that I feel qualify, and that varies, really, depending on the subject, recently though, I've had a quite low average of about 3% actual keepers, as you call it.

[Claire]

I wouldn't be able to say the percentage I keep. I usually delete the obviously crap ones right away. Then I see how they look on the screen and ditch the ones I don't like (more blurred than I thought, not as interesting as I thought etc). I probably delete quite a lot of pics this way. On the other hand I'm the type who at times takes pics because I can as it's digital.

[TammieO]

I used to keep everything as long as it was in focus and not totally under or over exposed. I've been looking back at some of them and wonder why I kept them. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time and storage is inexpensive.

[Persian-Rice]

I suggest not to delete images you view on LCD as they might look very different on a normal monitor. I even have a hard time judging what is sharp and what isnt on my laptop, let alone the awful LCD screens on a digital camera.

Best bet is to keep the shots until you view them properly.

[theflyingkiwi]

you know I keep about 99% of what I take. Found that even the bad one can make in to print, so why should I throw out mine. I could just find something one day that catchies my eye and it might be that photograph screeming to be let out.

[Avalonthas]

I keep 99.9%. The only ones i dont keep are the extremely blurred, or extremely noised photographs, and after a good 15,000 to 20,000 digital shots, its alot of storage lol. I backup all my shoots onto DVD's, one DVD for each shoot or each day, to keep it organized, and right now my archived collection is 96 DVD's, so thats about 208 shots per DVD. Since DVD's only cost 35 cents each (I bought a 200 pack, at 8x) and DVD cases only cost 22 cents each (I bought a 200 pack also), it only costs me under 75 cents per backup, so in total it has costed me 72 bucks to backup all my years work since i went digital, which is an extremely small amount if were talking under 75cents for each shoot which usually brings in atleast 1000 bucks a shoot.

[Bruce Hamilton]

Probably about 50%, I trash a lot of shots for various reasons.

[Andy_T]

Same here as most ... keep 99% (throw out the ones blurred or misexposed beyond salvation) ... with only very few 'keepers'.

But ... you know what ... I can always delete bad shots later.
I can't restore them again, however.

Best regards,
Andy

[Longwatcher]

I figure with over 36,000 images in the past 3 years I have tossed maybe 360-500 so about 98-99% keep rate.

However, I only use about 1 in 4-6 taken for any purpose so about 15-20% count and I am running less then 2% to make it to print.

Just me though and I am getting better and worse at the same time. As in better overall, but taking even more pictures and having higher selection criteria, so the rate of pictures used is staying the same overall.