Quality or Quantity?

minimeeze

minimeeze

Suspended / Banned
Messages
7,512
Name
Cheryl
Edit My Images
Yes
I've noticed on here a few times now that people go somewhere with their camera in tow, then say they've taken about 500 or so photographs etc which got me thinking...

When shooting, do you go for quantity over quality in the hope that you've managed to get a good shot in there somewhere. Or do you take fewer photographs, having strived for the perfect composition etc first time around?

There is no right or wrong answer to this, I'm just interested in how people approach photography. I often struggle to fill up a 1GB card, and can spend a full day out somewhere and return with maybe 100 shots on a good day :)
 
I often wonder how many of those 500 or so shots end up in the digital bin.

I must admit if I'm shooting landscape I'll have a few shots. With my other type of work I did come back once with 300 shots which I have to narrow down to 30-50 and upload the same day to my agency's ftp site. At night around 1am I don't want to waste time sorting through loadsa rubbish, captioning them would take too long, and if I sent off too many, I'd be waiting for ever for the lot to upload, and then potential buyers, wont want to sift through loads of pictures. Much better to get a good selection that sums up the photo job and send them in.
 
I strive for quality, but it never works out:D
Depends on what i'm shooting, if it's an insect I haven't seen before or very often I will take quite a few shots just to be on the safe side, otherwise 3 or 4 of it are usually enough.
Dont think I have ever filled a 1gig card.
 
I can quite easily come back from a day at a motorsports event with over 2000 shots, out of which probably only 10 or so will be really worth keeping

Apart from the time needed to go through them individually, digital costs nothing so why worry about it?
 
I try to go for Quality over quantity, whats the point of shooting useless 100 pics. Quite often its because people don't actually understand photography so thinbk if I shoot 100 pics i must get a few good ones,
 
rwotton said:
I try to go for Quality over quantity, whats the point of shooting useless 100 pics. Quite often its because people don't actually understand photography so thinbk if I shoot 100 pics i must get a few good ones,
Click to expand...

You try panning fast moving objects as low as 1/15th and see what your hit rate is in terms of keepers to ones you bin :thumbs:
 
If i'm out on a shoot for myself I always go for quality over quantity. I'd far rather spend the time getting it how I want it than sorting through later.

Of course I often end up taking a whole shed load so at least I can return home with one out of two. ;)

On a recent week long trip to shoot some images I took hardly anything for 6 days, choosing to be frugal and only take what I really liked or thought had a good chance of being exactly what I wanted. On the last day though the light was soooooo glorious that I went snap happy and was bouncing around shooting in all directions at once.

In the end I shot about 400 frames that day, which was more than I'd done in the whole rest of trip. The number of keepers was pretty much the same though. In the end, I'm not sure it makes any difference. :shrug:
 
I definitely think it depends on what I'm shooting. If I'm doing portraits I shoot very few but if it is a fast moving item I might shoot tons.
 
Ross said:
You try panning fast moving objects as low as 1/15th and see what your hit rate is in terms of keepers to ones you bin :thumbs:
Click to expand...

You posted whilst I was writing my comment, I know motor racing is different, I was referring to slower types of photography
 
would depend on what i was shooting. I'm still at learning stage so sometimes take same object at few different angles. somedays i dont shoot too many other i do. I tend to go out 2-3 hours at a time mainly to events. only filled 4 gig card up once & that was tour of Britain, not easy taking moving object close with a 28-135mm IS :lol:
 
Both I suppose, very much depending on what I am shooting. If its something tricky I might take 10 shots at different settings, other shots might just need the one. Some days might be spent somewhere there is a lot to go at [say for instance the day we went to the Reading Show] so will come back with maybe 300 shots, many of which may well be keepers....other days I might only come back with 50 shots and all will be binners.... All I can say for sure is that I am probably more selective now over what I shoot than I was a year or so ago, so yes, quality has generally increased while quantity has dropped, but its all relative I think :)
 
I shoot tons, always have, and my keeper rate always seems to be the same whether I'm shooting a wedding, landscapes, commercial work - 20%.

Not that the other 80% are rubbish, they just are not quite as good as the ones I want to keep.
 
All dependant on what subjets are being shot. For example with motorsport you will burst through quite a few frames, then have a sort through when you get home. If its a studio shoot for example, probably wont take as many frames as you wont need as many to capture a good exposure.
 
For me, if I have the time take to try and get it right first time. I will. It's worth taking the time to get the exposure correct, so I spent less time in front of the computer screen post editing.
 
like most people have said, it depends what i'm shooting. Landscapes and the like, I'll probably take 3 or 4 shots, but i will changed the composition slightly between them.

If it's macro shots on the other hand, i'll take tons. Shooting at such magnifications, its so easy to miss your focus point and the DOF is that narrow, you have to fire them off unless you have hands of stone!
 
I go for a combination of the two....

When I'm out shooting landscapes & the weather/conditions are perfect I want to make the most of the situation so I shoot loads - different compositions/exposure settings etc etc.

Nothing worse than missing a great opportunity & no need to with digital !!

simon
 
Bit of both really. Having said that I'd love to get some time to take ANY just now :(
 
Definitely quality as the end result, but as has been said above, it depends greatly on what I shoot.

Airshows, sport etc I would shoot away and fill a 1Gb quickly and also because I shoot jpeg + Raw simultaneously.

At weddings between the wife and I we would typically shoot 12 - 14 Gig - because what you have lost is lost forever!

And, of course, you get paid to deliver good results!:D
 
I tend to shoot as many as I need, depending on the subject.
On friday I did two jobs - one was the rededication of a Military Cemetary in Hannover, the other was a Charity Fun-Run.
On the Cemetary job, I shot about 60 images, of which I used 15. I could take my time and set up each shot as i wanted. They included interiors of the chapel (6 frames), exteriors (10 frames from different viewpoints) and some GV's of the cemetary (5 frames) as well as group photos of the Padres, guests and the engineers who had done the work. Four shots for each group to account for twitching ad blinking.
On the Fun Run I shot 300-ish frames as there were hundreds of runners all in fancy dress and all moving around rapidly in varying light conditions (very bright sunlight and deep shadows) and I couldn't control anything - I just had to keep shooting as opportunities presented themselves. Of those 300, I used 10 - the best in terms of costume, expression etc, as that was all that was required, though I could have processed about 50% of them and they'd have been 'useable'.

So again it comes down to what you're photographing. If I'm on a job and I know I've got what I need to send out to the press, I'll stop and leave... If I'm taking photos for myself, with no specific brief, I'll keep shooting either until I get bored, or carry on in the hope that something 'better' will appear...
I always reply when asked what was my best photograph: the Next One...
 
Lol, I like your philosophy Arkady ... 'the next one' .. lovin that and so true.

Nice to see you back on the forums .. where have you been?


I like arty type togging and go for quality over quantity every time nowadays. However that still means I over shoot and use those frames when I find subjects I like.
I often go home with quarter of a meg of images and I know I didn't get the one I wanted, or even near to it.

... think I may revert back to guantity. lol.
 
I have a tendancy to shoot loads, but that's because I enjoy going through them and 'playing' with them at the end of the day.
Plus I find that I what I like and what the client likes are sometimes different so best to take more then less!

As someone said above with digital theres no harm in taking lots! Enjoy it! Have fun!

Rita
x
 
I have always taken a lot of photos, and kind of follow my dads rule of "one more, just to be sure" (and he did that when shooting film) so now if I see something I like I will take a load of photos of it, and chimp each time just to see how it looks, then if there is something I dont like I will shoot it again. I always find there is a slightly better shot just after I have moved too so a few more shots get taken :p - I really should look around for the best shot first (and would if I was shooting film) but I am just too lazy :(

Example is the Blackpool tower, took 48 shots of it in the 200 yards walking past it! A lot of this was down to messing around my ND grad filter :p
blackpoolcontactsheetmd4.jpg


Took well over 700 shots in Blackpool that day.
 
I'm desperately trying to cut down on the number of shots I take. I've got into a bad habit of spraying Canon fire everywhere then binning 90% of my shots when I get home and just saving a few keepers. It's a waste of processing time and effort. I'm trying to dicipline myself to think as if I have a 36exp roll of film in my camera and every shot has to count. It really does make me think so much more about composition, exposure, lighting, background distractions etc etc. I feel I take better photos when I think this way
 
I've been thinking about this one and I would say I aim for both quality and quantity.

Digital photography means that there is no cost per frame as there was with film (OK there is a slight cost for storage but that's tiny ~0.15p per RAW shot), so as long as you learn from the shots that don't work I figure why worry!

What I try and do is to when I get back and I pan for the gold in the gravel is to identify 3 common things from the dross that I need to work on next time I go out.
 
"did" a wedding yesterday
more by accident than design!
clicked 337 shots
116 useable - so that's about 50% - crikey - surprised myself there!
 
I try to take a minimum amount now. I think once the novelty of having the ability to shoot a thousand shots off wore down I was left with the fact that I was just wasting time and storage space having to go through 6-8Gb at a time of rubbish, or not too well thought out photos. Now I just try to think a bit more about what I'm shotting in digital. Film of course requires even more thought. That doesn't mean I shoot minimally, just that there's no random snapping. More of a balance.
 
mmcp42 said:
"did" a wedding yesterday
more by accident than design!
clicked 337 shots
Click to expand...


How exactly was it accidental?



(DD - Pictures-this-scene-in-his-head)

Mike happily walking down a street, camera swinging back & forth - SUDDENLY - while innocently passing a church - he trips and falls head over heels into the churchyard coming to a halt with a sudden jar

He hears a anxious cry of 'AARRGGHHH', and picking himself up discovers he's stopped by bumping into a wedding tog who was high up some stepladders doing a group shot. As if in slow motion he sees both the tog and his camera fall to the ground - the camera shatters (not a Nikon) and the tog lands badly breaking his shutter finger

A few seconds later Mike's faced with an angry crowd of wedding-goers, shouting about what are they to do now for the album???

Quick as his flash, Mike leaps to his feet - apologises - and starts snapping away aplenty. 337 shots rattle off with previously unseen skill & panache - the onlooking injured tog is astounded - Mike later discovers he has 116 usable ones, a fantastic hit-rate and one to make the injured tog envious in the extreme



Was that how it went m8? More or less? :D
 
Grendel said:
I'm trying to dicipline myself to think as if I have a 36exp roll of film in my camera and every shot has to count. It really does make me think so much more about composition, exposure, lighting, background distractions etc etc. I feel I take better photos when I think this way
Click to expand...

This is exactly how I work. Having done a film based course, it made me appreciate the difference a few moments setting up & composing for the shot actually makes (obviously this isn't relevant in all aspects of photography). I got sick of having to work my way through hundreds of shots looking to find the few decent shots. Working this way has most definitely improved my keeper rates!
 
DiddyDave said:
How exactly was it accidental?



(DD - Pictures-this-scene-in-his-head)

Mike happily walking down a street, camera swinging back & forth - SUDDENLY - while innocently passing a church - he trips and falls head over heels into the churchyard coming to a halt with a sudden jar

He hears a anxious cry of 'AARRGGHHH', and picking himself up discovers he's stopped by bumping into a wedding tog who was high up some stepladders doing a group shot. As if in slow motion he sees both the tog and his camera fall to the ground - the camera shatters (not a Nikon) and the tog lands badly breaking his shutter finger

A few seconds later Mike's faced with an angry crowd of wedding-goers, shouting about what are they to do now for the album???

Quick as his flash, Mike leaps to his feet - apologises - and starts snapping away aplenty. 337 shots rattle off with previously unseen skill & panache - the onlooking injured tog is astounded - Mike later discovers he has 116 usable ones, a fantastic hit-rate and one to make the injured tog envious in the extreme



Was that how it went m8? More or less? :D
Click to expand...

ahh
that it was that easy!

brother's wedding
tog-of-the-day (totd) already assigned
took camera anyway (well you do don't you!)
totd had a Nikon (but that's not really important, now is it?)

don't like to criticise a fellow tog,
but he didn't seem to have much crowd control,
so I acted as 2ic and marshalled the throng
then decided I'd just carry on
took pics of b&g
and managed to get (almost) all the couples (including a few who hadn't actually met before the pic, but that's a whole nuther story!)

finished up with enough pics to tell the story
including a couple of decent ones of the key players

dunno if I'll give up the day job, but fairly pleased with the results

oh - and with nod to CJ - getting people to "put their faces together" really works
made people laugh and gave great expressions
only one couple gave a frosty "no", but there ya go!!!

but I'll remember Dave's idea for next time!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top