ole sarg Loc: south florida

Don I fear that the admonition even a blind squirrel finds a nut in the forest is the philosophy of many a new digital shooter. Film was relatively expensive to both buy and process so oldsters like ourselves plan. The rest just shoot away!

brokeweb Loc: Philadelphia

That's pretty much it. That is why I shoot in bursts and work the scene.

Hawknest Loc: South Georgia

i'm relatively new in digital shooting (less than 2 yrs.) and still learning. i'm averaging around one wall hanger in 700-800 shots which a little better than when i was using film (about 1000 shots). used film for 35+ yrs..

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

When I am shooting I have it in my head that every image that I make will be my best possible work. I do not think that I will shoot hundreds of images to get 5% or 10% or whatever percent of good images. I think that every image that I make will be my best. By thinking like this it slows me down and it forces me to really look at what I am doing. Quality is accomplished by experience.

Wall-E Loc: Phoenix, AZ

And how do you get that?
By shooting.
A Lot.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

200 shots in 60 minutes equals 20 seconds or less per shot. That's not the way I would go about getting great photos. There's things to think about like lighting direction and balance, capturing candid emotions that come from your subject while they're relaxed between planned shots, positions to put them in for posed shots, how clothing contrasts or conflicts with their surroundings, what's going on behind them and clutter you should get rid of while composing, fill flash settings or reflector positions, etc.

Even 100 shots in an hour is a lot. If you can get that down to 60 shots in an hour, 20 that are quite good, and 10 that are eye-popping knock-out good, then you're getting somewhere with a pretty high rate of success.

Some people take 60 shots in a whole day or 200 shots on a two week vacation with a comparable rate of success.

One can certainly hit a pigeon with a both-barrels 12 gauge shot gun blast which sprays 250 pellets into the air but the better shooter is one who can use one patiently created handmade .22 bullet and hit the bird with one shot.

deej

:thumbup: , especially when one considers the effort used to get it all to the location! :shock:

deej

Dang, you must be real picky!, :thumbup:

ChuckL Loc: near Macon GA

I had trail cameras in the 80's that shot with film. In three years of shooting about 100 rolls of film I got one good picture. But it was very exciting every time i got my pictures back from the developer.

Hal81 Loc: Bucks County, Pa.

Wow! I guess Im just an old stick in the mud. When I was a wedding photographer I never took more than ten rolls of 120 film with me on a wedding. Thats 12 shots per roll. only 120 shots per wedding. Unless it was a very large wedding. than I might throw an extra roll or two in my case. Yes I said case.I never carried a camera bag. And my cameras were never in my case. Both cameras were ready at all times with strobes attached. In my case was extra strobes. My wide angle lens, film. Always kept a roll or two in my pockit for quick use. We were prepaired for all the shots that had to be taken. We knew our settings we only took the shots that we needed to tell the whole wedding story. Through the years you knew what shots they wanted. You knew what things to carrie with you. I always carried a small sewing kit, black & white bobby pins, aspirans. Also my own three candle candlelabra that I could put on a light stand in case there was none avalable for the candlelite shot.It was adjustable to any height I needed. I made a paper filter I could slid in front of my strobe head so the shot looked like candle lite. My case came in handy to stand on to get over the heads of the people when getting the shot of the bride & groom comming out of the church.Very seldom had to shoot the same thing twice. When doing the group shot I always
took three shots, You could never see if everyone had their eyes open. Id take one shot, take a step to the right take the second, then take two steps to the left to take the third shot. This made it much easer to pick out the negative by lineing up someones head with the backgroung. You learn a lot after 39 years of wedding photography. 50% of the job was knowing how to handle people. You have to be a good people person to be a good wedding photographer. The last wedding my wife attended I couldnt get over how many shots the guy took each time he hit the shutter. It was like a machine gun. No wonder they take thousands at a wedding. He was using a nikon D4. Even with that said I saw him miss a lot of important shots im sure the bride would have wanted. Opps Sorry for rambleing on. Just chalk it up to an old 83 year old man.

Dave Johnson Loc: Grand Rapids, Michigan

I think when you start out you should click away, if nothing else just to have some photos to compare and analyze. I started out clicking away and hoped for a few keepers but as I've progressed in photography I've learned to slow down and plan a shot. What you'll find is as you progress you'll take a lot fewer shots and get more good ones. Learn as much as you can about composition and lighting. Don't be afraid study the shots you take, be honest about how you could have improved them. Talk with other photographers and ask them questions. Most of all have fun.

dat2ra Loc: Sacramento

as one who cut his teeth on film, shooting a roll of 36, if I got 5 keepers, I was happy, and that's when each click cost. photo editing is now a lost art, but no less important. edit, edit, edit. no, you will NOT need that overexposed, out-of-focus pic of the famous celeb. Kill it and move on!

NormPR

When I am taking snapshots at random, I can pick and choose out of a couple of hundred. When I do photography, then the odds change, I try to take and use the picture that comes out of the camera as a keeper. I am certainly not a pro, but I am getting a little better than a novice...Norm

spectraflash Loc: Boston

It depends on the subject and the shooter's skill level. For instance, in sports or action photography, you have to shoot a lot and weed through to pick the great shots. Studio work is different and I'm siding with donrent in that planning is critical to making a perfect photograph. Subject matter usually determines the process. Personality is a factor too. Some love to shoot and cull through their images, others prefer careful setup to make a few well-executed photos. It's all good as long as you're being creative!

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

Duck, I think there are several things going on here. The event shooter, say a wedding, needs to turn in say 50 fotos, no matter what. If they shoot 500 or 5000, they still turn in 50 fotos, no matter how good or how bad. I'm sure the bride will be happy. A shooter doing Fine art photography will have a completely different standard. He doesn't have to turn in any shots to anybody. So they pick and choose what are called "money shots". The absolutely best by their standards, and those standards will vary depending on ability level. And those standards are going to go up as we get better.
As for me, I think I get about 12-15 per year, out of about 10,000. I think I could hang those in a gallery. SS