How many photos per roll are you happy with?

How many shots per roll are you happy with?

  • 1

    Votes: 125 23.6%

  • 2

    Votes: 64 12.1%

  • 3

    Votes: 81 15.3%

  • 4

    Votes: 62 11.7%

  • 5

    Votes: 43 8.1%

  • 6+

    Votes: 154 29.1%
  • Total voters
    529
It can take me weeks to go through a roll of film (36) as I'm very selective and slow in my shooting, so I hope I get about 10 keeps in a roll of 36. However, If I get one really outstanding shot per roll, I'd consider myself lucky. There's a big difference between Keeper vs. Great. And, technically right my percentage is very high, but that doesn't make it a keeper or great.
 
Generally, I keep about 1/3 to 2/3 of a roll, with 2-4 standout frames that I am really happy with.

Overall though, I get many many more keepers with film than I did with digital. And my best film shots are, to me, leaps and bounds better than my best digital shots ever were.
 
Couldn't vote... In my case it's usual that I'm not happy with any of the shots. That's the pure truth... Not always, but many times.

Cheers,

Juan
 
I'm easy. I'll usually keep and print a quarter of all my film. Of course I get the "Why did you take a picture of that?" thing all the time.
 
I guess what the roll is... If I'm shooting on the street, me expectations are different then if I'm shooting an assignment or just a night out with friends. But overall, i expect the following per roll: 1 portfolio quality, 3 print worthy shots and a dozen shots I'll share online with friends.
 
I came across a good Winogrand quote the other day.
(His appetite for shooting a lot of film is well known).

When asked how many pictures he takes to get 1 good one, he replied,
"Art isn't judged in terms of industrial efficiency".

Cheers,
Gary
 
IMHO this is a pointless debate, because 'keepers per roll' has such a number of variables that what will plucking a number tell us? Variable include:

Type of shooting
Quality threshold required
Experience
Whether you are having a good day
What you pick today compared to two years in the future

Once in a blue moon I get half a dozen that I would print for exhibition on one roll. Sometimes I shoot 30 rolls and don't feel any make it past 'quite nice.'

Then there is the question of 'how many is enough.' This also varies and changes over time, it depends on budgets, time constraints, purpose etc. Obviously a two day short holiday needs to have moer keepers than a two year project delivers in two days...
 
After decades, i expect 75%. Know what it takes to make a good shot and do not push the button if all is not correct. Spray and pray may work with a machine gun, rearely with photography.
 
Ronald M said:
After decades, i expect 75%. Know what it takes to make a good shot and do not push the button if all is not correct. Spray and pray may work with a machine gun, rearely with photography.
Click to expand...

Are you serious? Such a percentage is about 100x too optimistic for most forms of RF photography (e.g. documentary/street) at the top end of the quality scale. Sounds like you are playing it waaaaay too safe. Do you no longer experiment or try new things?

When working various styles under certain circumstances, one needs to work in a very intuitive, fluid manner and that means not getting the right shot a lot of the time, but it does mean that you have to keep moving, shooting, engaging, shifting, shooting, re-engaging etc. Its not a question of pray and spray necessarily but accepting that there are so many things to bring together in space and time and your ability to monitor them all, in detail and perfectly, is limited. I know that if i waited for everything to be clearly perfect in the frame I would miss far more than I would gain by being somewhat more relaxed and instinctive. I get a fair few shots by anticipating or simply going with the flow. And this does demand skill of the photographer!

Your exceptionally methodological approach could be considered equally unconducive to the best results as 'spray and pray' and I think we would struggle to find even a BTZS LF worker that could come even close to this sort of success rate. If, however, a person is using a RF to take very safe landscape shots or static objects, such as steam locomotives, the success rate is going to be much higher for the intended goal, but that does not mean the shot is 'any good' only that you produced a correctly exposed shot with the composition as intended and with very easy goals. If I counted all my keepers as 'well exposed and looking sensible' my percentage would be a lot higher, but I am not sure this is what a keeper is to most people. I think they are talking about something you would put in a portfolio that you would show, or perhaps put in front of a critical eye, or consider a shot you feel represents your high standards and best level of achievement.
 
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When I look over contact sheets from the sixties or seventies it seems that I had a much higher percentage of keepers than I thought at the time. I don't get that high a percentage now with my current work. Perhaps it's just too soon to make that call.
 
I'm astonished that some are able to get so many quality photographs from each roll of film they put through the camera. If I could get a picture from each roll that I felt was good enough for my portfolio I'd be expecting to either make an awful lot of money or be hailed a 'genius' photographer.


I suppose as Turtle debates above, there are many factors involved including the types of photographs you are making that may affect the 'quality turnover.' Those that make very fast exposures due to trying to capture a specific moment will always have a higher failure rate. Those that are able to consider what is before them and how they wish to capture its image should have a higher success ratio. However I still struggle with the idea that so many people really believe that they have so many top quality images from a 36 exposure roll.


With the exception of my work website this is the only place I post images online and the images I post here are always just pictures of things that I'm attracted to ( not street, just pictures taken on streets.) As such I should be happy to post pretty much anything even if the quality isn't great, yet I haven't posted a picture to the gallery in months - I'm still taking pictures but if I think its crap then it goes nowhere and far too much of what I take is crap. I may know this when I'm shooting but take it anyway to keep a rhythm or because I trust the instinct that made me lift the camera or, indeed as Al said above, I may find that there's more to them after revisiting them some years later. Yet there is a very simple fact that remains, in my case at least; the majority of the frames I shoot with my rangefinders don't work to my satisfaction and this means I can shoot several films before I find an image that genuinely hits the mark in my eyes.

So, I'm unable to vote as I can't honestly say that I get as many as one per film :eek:;)
 
From a 24 exposure roll nowadays, I expect anywhere from 4-6 that I keep around, maybe print, and put together as a part of a project.
However, average of 1 or less per roll that I would print large and display as a standalone image.

From a roll of 120, probably 2 or 3 shots.
I'm pretty happy with my hitrate considering I bracket both ways for some of my shots.
 
"Good" for me at this stage is if it's in focus and not totally under exposed - a much lower standard than most of you here.
 
Well it depends. If I have a lot of time to prep, such as a landscape/citiscape shot on vacation when my wife is in the gift shop, I expect a higher rate of good photos. However, if I am trying to capture a photo of my daughter moving around, I have to worry about:

1. Focus
2. Lighting
3. Timing of action
4. Frame

So one in 10 is a good rate of success there.
 
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