OK shooters

Whats your keep rate?

Whats the situation?

Ok... Sports section... Talking about keepers.

I'll play.

Out of a Branded Pro Game, probably 800-1200 frames, 4 Published the next day, and about 30-40 keepers for portfolio, etc. (5-8 that I really like)

Out of a College or High Level School game, the rate is much different. I can throw some 400-500 frames, and end up with 2-4 published photos (depending on the game and its results often just one pic) and then I keep 5 for portfolio etc.

This though has a lot to depend with my preparation for it, expectations, and ultimately with performance. I have gone through a tennis game, and in 20 mins snap 40 frames with 1 or 20 keepers. Same the other way around, shamefully spending 1200-1500 frames, and 2 keepers if any (I call it a bad day).

At any rate, I do like to limit myself to the lowest amount of frames as possible, trying to keep in mind that while I am not on film anymore, I am also not shooting video at 24 frames per second.

Hope this helps get things started.

thanks mario... im just tryin to get a feel out there. im shootin @ 40% and i fudge...LOL

jimmywires wrote in post #5933595
thanks mario... im just tryin to get a feel out there. im shootin @ 40% and i fudge...LOL

He he... you complainer !!!

LOL

nobody wants to play...

party-poopers.

I asume by morning you will have more responses.

Let's up the ante. anyone who tells you their keeper rate is 80% and up, I am willing to travel wherever they are located (U.S.) and go watch them, because it either means that they are extremely good at what they do -and they themselves deserve a photo and biographer- or, they keep a lot of crap .

Perhaps it would help for you to define below this post, what your criteria is for Keepers, something like Sport Event, paid, entire event, keepers meaning not deleted from hard drive, or keepers meaning photos that are technically good enough to keep in one's archive, yet not the very best image of the day, etc.

Otherwise I could tell you I shoot flowers, and my keeper rate is over 95%. He he... But I was reading from a photog here who shoots Drag racing. I wonder how many frames can be squeezed in one of those races, and then how many of those are actually keepers.

Cheers,

As an example for me, I have been shooting hockey and baseball and I will rattle off ~500 images a game. From this I will usually put about 80-100 up on a web site for players/parents to view. This does not mean that the other 400 were crap. There are some of those that will be OOF or miss the peak action in the play, but many, at 6.5fps (40D) are all perfectly good technically, but I only need 1 or 2 in the sequence to put on the web and tell the story so to speak. This, however does not count any images already deleted in camera that were obviously OOF or totally missed the action (or action blocked by another player).

It just depends on so much. For cycling if my goal is to just get keepers I can shoot with my 70-200 @ 2000 shutter and the keeper rate is very high. I like to slow the shutter down to around 200 to 250 to get some blur in the wheels so my keeper rate obviously goes down.

Also are we talking keeper as in a great shot or just in focus.

Then if you start talking about low light stuff it suffers even more. So basically it all depends on the situation.

While I have only been shooting MLL (Major League Lacrosse) this summer on a typical shoot I will come back with anywhere of 600-900 shots depending on how much action I need to cover and extra stuff just here and there that "flares" up.

Of that I am told that 16-18 shots will be posted on the Inside Lacrosse webpage. I have been freelancing for them for just over 4 months now.

Of that depending on what I might have needed to cover there is a "possibility" that between 2-4 photos will make their way into the actual magazine. If that happens then it has been a very profitable day.

Like said also there are photos that I will keep as portfolio shots to use when trying to achieve other employment or selling myself to prospective parents to shoot their kids.

Ross

Keep rate is so subjective, shooting for yourself or a publication your more critical. If I shoot a tournament or a specific game for a team I tend to leave a lot more in. I have had galleries where all the pictures that sold were pictures I would have tossed. Parents sometimes have a whole different idea of a memorable picture is than I do so self editing really depends on situation for me. For example if I get a shot through a chain link fence at a softball tournament of a girl making a silly face its almost a guarantee its going to sell even though the fence makes the picture look like crap. But parents see these kids through the fence every weekend of the year so it really embodies their experience. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right.

If I shoot 300 frames at a baseball game, I'll be lucky to get 5 keepers. Its not that the rest are bad, but how many "player swinging bat" shots do you need ? My challenge is to find something interesting and fresh.

For a typical action sport I'll delete 10% right out of the gate as being out-of-focus, subject out of frame, or another player or ref in the way. Another 20-30% are dull, boring shots or the player is in an awkward position. The rest get put out on the website.

For slower sports such as golf or wrestling the keeper rate is a bit higher.

One other thing to add about "keepers" is subjectivity. There may be shots that I ditch that others may keep. And there maybe shots I keep that other people toss.

The other thing to think about is the fact of what level your shooting. I may keep the so called "stock" shots more often if Im shooting kids, HS or college level photos because they will sell.

But those same photos I would only take at a pro game just for the fact if a publication might need something because they dont' have a certain player.

Action is pretty much the same because you have different levels of what you would keep compared to put in the trash or on the "second" string portion of the hard drive.

Some shots at lower levels of competition you keep and wouldn't even think twice about hitting the delete button if covering a Pro level competition.

Ross