Tip: examine your own success rate

mousquito wrote on Tuesday 30 July 2024 at 10:45  | reply

I haven't made this calculation yet, but I fear it will be even a little lower.... When I take photos of my pets or toddler, I do dare to use the machine gun every now and then, so clicking through. then you take 3 to 4 photos, of which maybe 1 is good. usually it's about the pose or it having moved too much after all and the background being wrong or something... Or for my bottle of whiskey that I wanted to have looking nice, I suspect over 150 photos and each time something different, the bottle turned a little, the flash just different, the reflector that wasn't in the right position, maybe a different background after all.... and then there was 1 photo that, with a bit of post-processing, was good enough to put up in an exhibition. but it could also be because I was a bit strict with myself I'll keep myself busy this evening looking at a number of projects and counting the photos.

Does the success rate in photography matter?, is my counter-question then. For me the answer is: absolutely not!! The success rate doesn't interest me one bit. Whether a photo is good and successful is always a personal conclusion. One person considers it successful and another thinks the same photo is nothing at all.
If I go out to take photos, I don't care how high/low the number of photos that I consider successful is.
For me, what matters is the pleasure I get from taking photos and then the successful photos come naturally.
You can't tell from a success rate how good or bad you are. The drive to perform is the worst adviser when it comes to making a good photo and being a good photographer.
Coming to the conclusion that, for example, only 1% of the photos you have taken can be considered successful can make you lose heart and spoil your enjoyment.
But if you come home with 1000 photos and, in your opinion, you have a few brilliant photos among them, then the project has succeeded and you look back with pleasure at how you went about it and enjoyed taking photos.
I think, for example, back to a day sitting in a bird hide together with a good friend to photograph birds. Hundreds of photos taken. Many successful photos? No, absolutely not, but I enjoyed that day enormously. That's what it's about for me, and having a few beautiful photos left over from it.

I completely share the author's opinion; sometimes you think 'this is going to be a beautiful photo' and when you then want to get to work on your computer, you come to the realization that it is going to be absolutely nothing. Sometimes it is also the other way around. A beautiful result ultimately emerges from a photo you didn't have many expectations of after taking it

Analyzing photos helps me: what makes me like one and not the other. That way, you can also look at your image before taking the shot. Your success rate (but always within the same branch of photography) could be a measure of your learning process. But whether it’s really useful is something you have to decide for yourself. Maybe.... you only take a few really good photos in your entire life...... and that would already be very nice

@ Jean Decoutere, if you shoot in RAW, post-processing is necessary. You apparently shoot in JPG. Then you are apparently satisfied with what the camera delivers. Fine, no problem. You just have to adjust the 'picture style' every time you switch, for example, from nature photography to, for example, a portrait photo to get correct colors.

With the possibilities we have nowadays, a percentage of 1 in 40 is not crazy at all. In the analog era, you looked three times before pressing the shutter. Every printed photo also came with a price tag back then. That is no longer the case. I now have cards in my camera that allow me to easily shoot 3000 photos in RAW. Whether that is a blessing is another question. There is less need to wait for the right moment, which can lead to a certain laziness. On the other hand, waiting for the right moment can lead to pressing the shutter when the moment has just passed again.
The question is also what a good photo is. Personally, I have nothing with 'the perfect picture'. A good photo, that is my view, must keep reasoning. From that point of view, 1 in 40 is very optimistic.

@Liesbeth, you're welcome. Above all, keep enjoying photography. You're doing a great job and having fun!