Poll: What's Your Hit Rate?

[Rich Silfver]

Not that it *really* matters but just out of pure curiosity...

"What's your hit rate per roll of film?"

"Hit rate" - here defined as "% of shots per roll that you YOURSELF consider to be keepers.

Personally I seem to average about 20% pretty consistently.

 

[Kris]

Oh boy...mine is very low. Call me film waster but my hit rate is on average 1-2 frames per 36 roll. If I'm lucky, maybe 8 per rolls. Quite often, none out of a roll.

 

[RML]

Well, I voted for "1-5% - I get 1, maybe 2 keepers on a 36 roll" before I read the definition. I keep almost ALL of my shots but the amount I think are worthy of "public" display is much less: sometimes none on a roll, sometimes half of the roll or more, but mostly 1 or 2. Mainly I just shoot because I like to. It gives me something to do when I'm out walking, it gives me a purpose when I'm on an excursion or such, and I find it helps me relax (probably because I'm no longer thinking of work, the bills, or such but instead focus my mind on taking the photo, looking around for opportunities and subjects, and making decisions on shutter speed, DOF, etc.). I often don't really shoot for posterity, so that may part of the reason why I have few "public" keepers.

 

[pvdhaar]

I voted for 0% because, despite that some of my pictures appeal to others, I always feel there's something amiss with them.

When I get the prints from the lab, I immediately sift througgh them and throw out all but three or four. But still, after this, I find objections to perfection, like composition not right, focus not entirely right on the intended point of attention, you name it.

Twentyfive years of photography have left me with about a single dozen pictures that I truely consider to have come out as intended. That's about 1 per two years....

 

[rover]

I think that my standards are low, as my subject mainly is my son, and I am looking to keep good shots. On average though I would agree with Richard's 20 percent, 4-6 shots on a roll of 24. Lately, unfortunately, I think all my cameras' meters are going at the same time. I think it is probably just batteries in my x-700 and Bessa R, the Canon 10s is getting on in years though. I was a little upset with this as I think I had a couple good rolls shot only to find that they were underexposed from these three members of my pack.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I'm perfect! I throw away almost all my prints and consider only a dozen as decent out of 5 36-exposure rolls.

Ain't that great?

 

[taffer]

Oh, I enjoy so much the pure act of shooting that I don't care at all about results !

Just kidding, but I guess I'm on the low part of the spectrum of that 5-20%

But I keep trying, it's fun anyway !

 

[Borghesia]

From all my 35mm camera's my score is low, 5-20 %. But when I'm shooting with a Rolleiflex (also a kind of rangefinder isn't it) my score is 90%.

 

[Peter]

I would get a 10 - 20% success rate per roll as I have this bad habit of shooting multiple frames for a scene.

 

[marksct]

It depends on when I look at the images

It depends on when I look at the images

I find that I don't appreciate my images right away. I might like one mmmmaaaaayyyyybbbbeee two our of a roll of 36 on the first review.

But if I put them away and look at them a few weeks or months later, I learn and like more of them.

I don't know if that is subject saturation at first but it has alway been that way for me.

I love going back to old work and reviewing them, I learn so much, but I appreciate them more too.

 

[JohnL]

Since a few years ago I m only shooting digital, so I take a lot of shots, varying viewpoint, framing, exposure etc. So what do we define as a keeper? On a recent holiday, I took about 2500 shots. After downloading, I kept about 1300 which I backed up to CDs and HD. As for printing, I'm in the process of making maybe 150 images - 5x4s for family. After that I'll make bigger prints of the best - maybe 10 or 20.
So is my hit rate 0.5%, 7% or 55%?
John

 

[lshofstra]

Just came across this thread, perhaps a shortlived revival... It came as a relief that many others consider only a couple of photographs per roll worth keeping....

 

[Damaso]

I believe in the one percent rule, that is at the end of the day only about one percent of the photos I take are really, really good, sometimes not even that...

 

[BNF]

1 to 2 per roll.

I'd also say with "unlimited digital" that my rate is similar.

 

[Maxapple88]

I do shoot with the lens cap on most of the time

 

[giovatony]

My hit rate is near 100% meaning they all come out within acceptable exposure tolerences. However the keeper rate is very low ,maybe 10%.
Your question needs to be re-defined as it is misleading.
John

 

[Ducky]

Since I started souping/scanning my own I shoot a bit loosely. But my keeper ration is about 10% (3-4 on a roll of 36). I still tend to duplicate ala my digital daze.

 

[chris000]

A difficult question:

1. It depends entirely on what I'm shooting and how tricky the lighting is

2. It depends on how you define a keeper - I have a lot of shots that I 'keep' and that I like but whether I would hang them on a gallery wall is another matter.

​

I would say I keep 50%, how many of those are 'great' shots would be for others to decide, but certainly a lot less!

 

[varjag]

Keepers is a thing of perspective. I'd say 2-3 nice snaps per 36 for is common, but there are just 3 shots I've taken in last 5 years that I'd really hate to have missed.

 

[Ronald M]

15/20 per roll. Sometimes more. Believe digi Nikon D200 is the same.

I edit before I push the button. 4x5 film training