Poll: What's Your Hit Rate?

[ItsReallyDarren]

2-4 keepers per roll of film. Thats pretty good coming from digital where I got 2-4 keepers per hundred, using the good ol' spray and pray approach.

 

[raid]

I aim at 100% correct exposure hit rate, which is not difficult to attain. As for keepers per roll, I would say that somewhere between 25%-50% are for me good enough to want to keep them and to take a look at them again. I am experienced with slow slide film, which requires highly accurate exposure. Using negative film makes it much easier.

The 25% goal is reached [on average] for rolls that spend a long time in the camera, whereas when I have my subject in excellent condition for photography, I can get 50%-100%. When it comes to "really exceptional looking photos", if I get 1-3 images per 36 exposure roll, then I am [temporarily] satisfied.

 

[sirius]

My friend who is a professional once said that the difference between a pro and an amateur is that the pro gets more keepers off a role. I like his work that I see, but I don't know if that's true. What do the pros here think? Agree?

 

[Bob Michaels]

No category for less than 1%. I typically get about 15-20 "keepers" a year. Since I've been shooting at least half MF, my 3 rolls a week average is only about 2,500 frames per year. When I shot only 35mm it was about 5,000 frames per year but still that 15-20 "keepers".

For me, a "keeper" is something that ends up in an exhibit. Since that is typically 20-35 photos per exhibit, it's somewhat limiting.

 

[MickH]

I voted at the low end 1-5%. I'm my own biggest and critic. Mrs H is far less so and would rate me much higher. Still, she is biased.

 

[sepiareverb]

No category for less than 1%. I typically get about 15-20 "keepers" a year...

I'm in this category too, very picky when it comes to what makes it to a 1620 exhibition print.

 

[amateriat]

I agree with others that the question, as put, is a tad hazy. If we're talking about keepers based on technical merit, my "hit rate", on average, is about 75-90%. These days, I don't regard that to be extraordinary. If we're talking photos I'd gladly hang/exhibit/show to others without hesitation, I'd say it falls to around 15-40%, a rate which, I might add, went up when I switched from technologically well-endowed SLRs to RFs. We keep telling ourselves it's the eye and not the camera, but the type of camera used, IMO, has a more-than-casual influence on how one photographs, and how much (at any given moment).


- Barrett

 

[Steve Bellayr]

Hit rate? To paraphrase a great photographer who said to me when I asked that same question...one in twenty if I am really lucky. (However, if it is a photograph of someone's child that is in focus the parent will certainly say..."Its a keeper!")

 

[lewis44]

I've always been real happy if I got one or two per roll, but lately it's been up. I would like to think I'm the one who should get the credit, but I have to say that going back to an M3 (or any camera w/o a built in meter) makes me think about what I'm doing, not only exposure wise, but framing, etc. I got lazy and most of my images suffered from it.
The other thing is I found a lens that gives me what I have been wanting in my shots. I'm getting a look that I just love.
Thank you Zeiss for the C-Sonnar 50mm lens. The combo of that lens and the M3 just works for me. I haven't taken it off since I got it.

 

[FPjohn]

i say i shoot 100 to get 10. Of those perhaps 1 or 2 may be true keepers. So <1-10%.

yours
FPJ

 

[Jamie Pillers]

I'd put myself in the well-below-1% camp. That doesn't really bother me though. I think the world flies by much too fast to get exposure, composition, and interesting subject matter all right at the same time... even when I'm just chasing my 6-yr. old around the house, let alone being out on a busy street corner.

I've noticed when reading about photographers like Winogrand, Friedlander, Lyons, et.al, that they also appear to be in the well-below-1% camp. When you look at their contact sheets, they've circled VERY few images.

 

[pevelg]

I went with the 5% to 20%. When I first started RF with negatives, it was around 50%. When I went to slide positives, it went to around 75%. Now that I have been working with photography for a slightly longer time, I am heavily questioning my previous keepers, seeing the million areas in which I can improve. Thus, now I'm in the lower range. If I was more critical of myself, I'd just shoot with the lens cap on and call it emotional art!!!

 

[giellaleafapmu]

The question is a bit strange to me. It assumes that people just go out with a camera and shot...

If I shot still-life, products or food I might need sometimes a few hours to find a setup I really like but eventually I do get what I want (no, I am not being arrogant, of course many other people could have much better ideas given the same object to photograph but I do get what I had in mind, be that good or not in an absolute scale).

I guess that also people working with models do the same, otherwise they would go out of business quite fast.

If I go out with a camera "just in case" I most of the time get nothing really worth keeping. No, not bad shot but things which I would not hang in my living room... In fact even most "great pictures" which "catch the moment" spot on are usually forgot very fast (take any sports magazine, it is usually full or great shots but how many would you really keep forever?).

GLF

 

[MikeCassidy]

I voted zero; because one to two per roll is too many; its more like 1-2 for three rolls.
What I do find is that sometimes I get four or five in roll but then I can go for four or fivr and get nothing. Sometimes I force myself to shoot, when I go I will shoot at least one roll no matter what.

 

[spiderfrank]

Usually I like "very much" (that's my definition of "keeper") 5 or 6 slides per roll, but I keep everything, because I want to remember the errors and learn from them.

 

[giovatony]

I once asked a pro friend how is it that each and every one of his photos looked so impressive.
His reply was : I throw out all the bad ones before anyone sees them.

 

[charjohncarter]

I said 5-6, but those are keepers for everone else and me. Just me it would be 1.5 per roll of 36.

 

[gb hill]

On a 36 roll, which BTW I rarely shoot I guess I average 5 or 6. The thing being when I first see them I don't like none of them. Others say different but I feel like there just being polite. I have found that if I go back 6 months from now and view them again, I see my photos from a different perspective, and some are quite good. I don't know why! Recently I was contacted by a person that wanted to use one of my photos to submit to a publisher to use in a book. I didn't like the photo but she thought it was outstanding. So really what constitutes as a throwaway just might be a keeper.

 

[shimokita]

Like many, when I look back over time there are few that stand out. On the other hand the process makes every shot fun. Not too often that I take multiple shots at one time, unless I am trying different setups or testing for some reason.