Camera Labs

I don't know how it is for you all out there, but I'm guessing we take far more shots than ever see the light of day. How many do you actually use or post? 1 in 10? 100? 1000? Regardless how many there are, what do you do with them? Stuff them on a hard disk forgotten?

For me I'd roughly class shots as follows:
1: Great shots. Definitely one you want to share.
2: Ok shots. Might or might not post. Maybe something to save for a quiet day or if you need a bit of filler.
3: Adequate shots. Still makes it as a "keeper" but not something you'd use by itself. Tends to be technically ok, but of low artistic value.
4: Bin fodder.

On the scale above, it is class 2 and 3 shots I just decided to make further use of. I've just recycled an account on deviantArt where I'll stick selected images for use as stock. This is NOT something like the commercial stock accounts. This isn't for money and I wouldn't make the technical requirements of those sites anyway. I'm hoping others who may have use for reference or stock find them useful.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Well its hard to tell, because when i go shoot somewhere, i choose (usually) 30-40 shots, from lets say 3-400, but i keep all of them (and i even keep raw files, dunno why), but after two years i am planning to delete raw and keep all jpegs, picking only good ones would cost lots of time. When i import photos into picasa, i select only good with stars, and work only with them. I upload good photos on picasa, and really good (30-40 picked ones) i send to a certain website i shoot for.

So why i keep even not good ones ? - for memories. Those photos can remind me details i was doing that day, even things when i was not shooting ( that i had fantastic meal while sleddog was racing few metres from me... or i nearly crashed my car while overtaking another one) and once in a while its nice to remember such good times.

Usually, i make 1 out of five, but i tend and like to take more photos (even from same angle - one will be sharper)
but when i am shooting burst, there is a lot of trash because usually only one is the best.

And there is the matter of how good of a photographer are you, and i;m not a good one, so a trash count is now high for me...

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I'm new to DSLR's, so please be patient and take my opinions with reserve. Thank you : ) Yes, i am Canon man.
Google + My picasa photos My 500px album
Canon 60D + 15-85mm f3.5-5.6 IS, Canon 70-200 F2.8L IS II, Canon 430EXII, polarizing filter 72mm,
Canon AT-1, 50mm FD F1.8
Canon A430,

I like shooting sport capturing the face and body expressions so most of my shots go to the trash bin when I capture someone's back. I post a few on flickr as a link to CL posting.

I get my kicks and ego boost when our local paper prints my photos as photo of the day, I've had around 35 printed so far. I managed to recover one from Friday when I did not check my EV setting of 4 times ASP World Champion Surfer Stephanie Gilmore who also won the Roxy Pro early March at Snapper Rocks, a local girl so hopefully it will get printed this week.


Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

I do rating immediately after download with Lightroom initially setting all images to two stars.
When I go through a first viewing round images with slight technical probs get downgraded to 1 star, serious probs to 0 stars.
Hopefuls get 3 stars or if their value is immediately clear even 4 stars - but that normally only after some postprocessing. Those are the ones from which I upload to flickr (not all of them, mind you).
My filter in LR is always set to at least 2 stars, so the lesser images wont show up when browsing. Every once in a year I browse through my 0-1 star images and decide which to delete.
My hit rate for >=3 stars is 1:10, for >=4 stars 1:70 and I only have one 5 star image.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I split mine into two groups.
The top tier - these are images I think any viewer would appreciate. For these the composition, timing and lighting all need to be right. They are images I believe the viewer can enjoy without needing any personal connection to the image. These can be streets shots, objects, sports shots but only ones that I feel would not look out of place in a book or on a print. These are the ones I put on my website.
Tier two - these are the lesser images. Nice holiday shots, general shots of a friends Rugby team or lesser street shots. I put these up on a photo sharing site but just send the link to friends.

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Dan Marchant
I am learning photo graphee - see the results at www.danmarchant.com

Personal digital images: I delete almost all of them, except for the ones deemed to have sentimental value, or which seem to have some artistic value. (There are very few of the latter!) For a while, I saved all of them, to help me learn, but storage quickly became a problem.

Work images, all of which are digital: I shoot evidentiary photos, and by the rules of evidence, as interpreted and codified by my employer, I cannot delete any of them, even the ones that are badly flubbed! If I make a mistake with any of the initial images, which show the overall environment, I can simply delete them and start again. Once I have shot the first evidentiary image, however, each one must be retained, and uploaded into the proprietary system, in order, with no deletions. Most errors are with exposure or focusing, or my not letting the flash re-charge to full power; I can explain such mistakes in my report.

Personal film images: I never discard developed negatives. There have been a few rolls of film that I have never had developed, as I deemed it not worth the cost and trouble to do so.

Really, my personal photos are mostly uninteresting, not really worthy of mentioning, but I thought my work photo situation might be a bit interesting. I have only recently started taking composition seriously, mostly with my film cameras.

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Canon 7D/5D/40D/1D2N; Nikon F6, FM3A, & Coolpix A; Canon 40mm Pancake, 135L, 50L, 35L, pre-II 50mm 1.8, 100mm 2.8L Macro, 10-22mm EF-S, 28-135 EF, 400mm 5.6L; Nikkor 50mm 1.2 AI-S, 50mm 1.4G, 50mm 1.8D, 16mm 2.8D Fisheye, 180mm 2.8D, 100-300mm 5.6 AI-S; Tokina 17mm & 100mm 2.8 Macro

As my standards increase so do the files in the delete basket.