How many of your pictures are throwaways?

[theysayjump]

I was just wondering how many of your pictures turn out to be throwaways?

I can go out and take 200+ pictures one day and after all is said and done I could have maybe 10 or so that are keepers.

How many of you just snap snap snap away and how many of you only take pictures that you think will be great?

[Iguanasan]

I work hard to only take shots that I want to keep. I usually only throw away about 10% of them. Part of that is because I think the shot is worth keeping and part of that is because I'm a pack rat!

The only ones I totally ditch are ones that are clearly out of focus or are so overexposed or underexposed that they are not really salvageable. Note that I'm not that interested in really abstract photos so blurs of light don't really appeal to me that much.

[Murtasma]

I used to just snap away but I've broken out of that habit. Now I only take a picture when I can visualize the finished image before I raise the camera to my eye. I would say now the majority of my images are keepers. I don't post process every image I take or upload them to flickr. I like to have a surplus of images that need to be worked on mostly for the winter months when I shoot a lot less.

[jprime84]

I throw away a lot of individual images, but very few ideas.

What I mean is, I might try to capture "photo A" three or four times, messing with settings to ensure I get what I want. I may only keep 1 out of the group, but they were really just duplicates.

I dont really take pictures of everything in sight and only keep good ones. Thats why I say I keep at least 90% of the ideas that I have in photos

[dakwegmo]

Originally Posted by jprime84

I throw away a lot of individual images, but very few ideas.

That's a great way to look at it.

Nearly every idea for a shot I have yields at least one decent image. I usually only process the best one or two from the series, but I keep them all, except for the exceptionally bad shots.

[teedlepeep]

It depends on a lot of factors but it kinda boils down to if the creative juices are flowing or if I"m just out putzing

[dcclark]

jprime said it just about right. I may try a wide variety of angle, details, etc. of a given subject, and only keep a few, but that's because I was working to find just the right way to address the subject. I am pretty vicious with my work though -- I probably keep only 5 or 6 out of 100 from a typical outing.

[rediguana]

I tend to keep only around 5-10% - I actually try and force myself to be that ruthless so I'm only keeping the best photos. I've been getting stricker and harder on this as I go. As someone else pointed out, this is often because you are experimenting with framing and exposure, taking multiple shots of the same subject, and end up just keeping the best 1 or 2.

I really don't want the clutter in my Lightroom catalogue, and I just want the really good photos. Less files to back up, less files to assign metadata to, less files to manage full stop. I'm even going back through older photos now, and starting to cull some of them as well.

[windrider86]

I'm like Murt. Man I used to just see everything and want a picture of it. Then when all was said and done I would have 500 photos and keep maybe 20.
Dont do that anymore. I have an idea in my head what it should look like and know what I want to do beforehand, now I save about 1-2 out of every ten. Makes my life so much easier!

[Saralonde]

Same for me. I used to keep everything. Now I try to be far more heartless about it. Except when it comes to pics of my family .