[raider]

Hi

Recently I took about 450 photos in an outing, only to discover later on the computer that only about 85 nos of them are "acceptable" quality. Those rejected ones are either too blurr, or just not good at all.

I am a beginner in photography and the failure of capturing more successful shots may be attributed to the lack of my skills.

I am interested to know what are your successful shots in an outing so that I can train/practice myself to meet this skill range.

Thanks!!

[bdavis]

You ought to practice to suit your own level of success. There isn't some magical ratio of duds to gems where you can be considered skillful.

[Ivan Glisin]

It depends: I probably get over 90% technically correct results. However, depending on the subject there could be from 20% to 80% shots that I would consider visually acceptable (I tend to be strict though). Sports, and active kids or animals have probably the lowest "hit rate" (20% or under), landscape, abstract or studio photography the highest (80% or over, sometimes even 100%).

However, my approach is to think before I press shutter release, not after. That results in relatively fewer shots taken per session, but they are usually all OK. (It could be 2, 3, 10 or 20 shots in a series, seldom more). I see the tendency with digital camera users that goes like this: "shoot (a lot) first, ask questions later". I call that "statistical shooting" and although this can certainly produce a few good shots one can not really learn how to make consistent quality, so relying on "statistics" unfortunately remains the only somewhat productive approach.

[blwnhr]

As has been said, there is no magical number that determines your skill level.

When shooting motorsport I shoot continuous shutter and snap off 1000+ photos a day and keep under 300 of them. I shoot for the shot I want and then follow through to see what else I can get.

When shooting landscapes you have time to compose and sort out your exposure so my "dud" rate is lower, about 70-80% keep rate.

But Raider, the beauty of digital, they're free so snap away. Don't worry about wearing out the camera, there are reports of 100,000+ shutter actions from *ist series cameras and they wouldn't have made them less reliable.

Pentax has always had a robust shutter mechanism.

[jfdavis58]

Hmmm, from the standpoint of photo-journalism, especially sports, 2-3 out of 100 would be a good (profitable) day. From a strictly technical POV, one could achieve 100% keepers depending to some degree on subject matter. Considering all factors 1 in 3 is a fair ratio for general shooting--give or take.

The real key is knowing when you have enough-that is "when is the story complete?".

Finding this point is largely trial and error: you show fifty and notice that after thirty-five the viewer(s) is(are) glossy-eyed or asleep---well, that was 15 shots too many!

In fact, you may want the viewer to go away just a little disappointed as in "gosh, I wish he/she took more shots". As long as you didn't miss any really important shots, there isn't much for them to complain about seriously--excepting perhaps that they didn't attend the event.

[Mike Cash]

One of the hardest things to do when doing an impromptu portrait session with people is to get them to hang around after the first shutter click. People are used to having someone take their picture as a snapshot and expect just one or two to be taken. I have to explain that I'd rather take a couple dozen to improve the chances that I'm going to have one or two that I can work with to make a respectable portrait out of.

Even in other situations, I'm pleased if I have one or two shots out of a hundred that I wouldn't mind showing to the public. Not that the others are all duds; they're not. But as was mentioned above, not every picture is worth boring folks with.

The greatest lesson I learned in photography came when I was teaching English here in Japan way back when and high school girls would return from "homestay" trips overseas....armed with a mountain of snapshots and expecting us to look at every single one of them. Cruel of the photographer and tortuously awkward for the viewer. I noticed that out of every mountain of snapshots, there were usually 4 or 5 that could have been interesting....had not the mountain sucked every bit of enthusiasm out of the room.

I learned that it is best to be very conservative about culling photos for viewing by others. Don't be tempted to put your second-rate work out just because you feel your first-rate stuff fell a bit short in numbers.

And if you only had 85 out of 450 that you felt were failures, I'd say you're doing well for a beginner. Study them instead of the good ones. Reflection and contemplation on them will help to cut down the ratio in the future.

[nathancombs]

it depins on

the weather
time of day or night
what i shoot
how coptive the police are being
distance to subject

worst cace so far i belive it was in March 29, 2007. it was poring down COLD rine about 10pm the state trupper was in a rather bad mood. there had been a 2 car wreck killing 2. it was all but black out they held us off about 75 yards in a bad spot. the fastest lens that could reach out was my Vivtar sereas 1 F4.6-5.6 ( not that i could see any thing any way) we had to stand in that rain for 4 hr every thing i had was souked and was not working so well when the finly let us in to get photos of the cars. well i got a big fat 0 for the day and ran with what i had.

the best i got are posted hear

The Photograph: Wreck Kills 2 on 608 - March 29

on the other hand the other day i got this story

The Photograph: Man Air Lifted After Antecedent - July 25

where i got almost 95% good photos. i was able to get close the light was good and the police did not hassle me at all.

---

Last edited by nathancombs; 07-29-2007 at 12:53 AM.

[raider]

And if you only had 85 out of 450 that you felt were failures, I'd say you're doing well for a beginner. Study them instead of the good ones. Reflection and contemplation on them will help to cut down the ratio in the future.

Actually it is only 85 good ones. The rest are bad....

[chrisman]

As I read your post only 85 out of 450 photos taken were technically OK - that is 85 were in focus and exposed correctly while the rest were not. If that is the case then you need to brush-up on your understanding of how your camera performs in different situations and which is the best mode to use for what it is you are photographing.

To do this you need at least a basic understanding of the interaction of shutter speed, f-stop and ISO and the affect they have in different situations with different lenses. And, what each does in the different camera modes - how they interact.

Getting your photos technically correct is something you need to do as much as possible - 100% would be nice but the reality is likely to be 70% - 90% once you are competent. If you are into action shots there is less time to fiddle around with the camera settings or the 'moment' will have gone and so it likely that your failure rate will be higher.

Getting a 'good/satisfying' photo is much harder. Often expressed as Photographic Seeing, this is the real goal of every photographer, as opposed to those who just want to take a few snaps every now and then. If you look through books which cover the history of photography and the photographers, you will see excellent photos taken a 100 years ago with equipment that we now consider incredibly crude but they have that 'certain something' that makes them stand out from the crowd - the result of Photographic Seeing.

Gaining competency, technically and artistically, requires lots of practice and lots of photos - Good Luck.

[Mike Cash]

Actually it is only 85 good ones. The rest are bad....

That must be amazingly disheartening. Give us a little more detail on what sort of settings you're using. Sharing some examples shots would make it easier for folks to give more specific and useful advice.

[raider]

Yeah...it is amazing disheartening

Which type of photos should I post? the good ones or the bad ones here? I already posted the so called good ones in https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/10052-da-50-20...28-200-di.html

The bad ones are such as:

Attachment 4018

Attachment 4019

Attachment 4020

My settings are:

Image tone = bright
saturation = -1
sharpness = 0
contrast = +1
AE metering = centre weighted
switch dst msr pt = spot
shake reduction = on. Mindful of pressing the click button
Shoot in AF-S mode.
Shoot in single burst mode.

Photo session in abt 3 hours duration.

I got a bit of problem of using the focusing mechanism of the K100D. Sometimes I am using spot AF and I want to focus on something, but the result ends up that something I am focusing on is blur! Not sure how does this happen??

Please help...

[Mike Cash]

Yeah, I think a few of the bad ones would be most helpful. I'm pretty useless, but some of the folks here are practically geniuses at spotting what the problems are.

Are you using the Shake Reduction feature?
Are you pressing the shutter gently so as not to jar the camera?
Are you mindful of the shutter speed?
Are you shooting single shots or burst?

How long was the session that resulted in 450 shots? It may pay off to slow down a bit.

[raider]

I put my answers to your question in the earlier post.

[Izzy]

Wow, sorry to hear about your experience. Lots of high photography thinkers here to help you but thought I would share a view from somebody who just wants their shots to turn out nice without this depressing number of misses.

Got my K100D last October. Except for a few personal custom settings (turning of noises, beeps and messages) I shot in "auto" or "P" mode about 100% of the time. Leaving the cam on matrix metering ect. I was thrilled. I already knew "just enough" to set the ISO and the custom ISO. All the while I kept re-reading the manual and reading forums to learn more. My short answer to get the shot you were attempting has always been to stand way back, get that yellow branch in focus - then the camera naturally threw out the back ground and got my subject in sharp focus. I love the 50-200 lens you were using it's practically my daily driver. If that dang little green light in there isn't solid, the shot is a for sure miss. "Auto pic" was the mode that surprised me most. I expected it to be a gimmick, but I feel it actually works - which is astounding to me.

Then around Christmas I discovered "white balance flash" and got the best inside family stuff shots I've ever gotten in my life. Then worked on finding the threshold of ISO where I became unhappy with the shots. Just stepped through it so to speak. I just gave myself time and have now at least experimented with most of my options for capturing a shot to get a good grasp of what works for me and what doesn't - for my personal taste in shots.

My babbling point is, since you mentioned being new to photography, is that I think it's OK to let the camera do the thinking for you as you start to learn. People need to experience success. It's real easy to start to feel frustrated or to feel small in company of photog giants. Fortunately this forum is filled with really nice, helpful folks in the whole range of photography experience.

[raider]

I tried the P mode when I first get the camera. The problems I am facing is that I can't use this mode to take shots with good bokeh as it will always try to make everything focus nicely and stuff.

That said, I also got very little success of using P mode to take bees and butterfly, something which I enjoy doing, which is the reason I resort to Av mode.