Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] what % keepers do you get?

Subject: Re: [OM] what % keepers do you get?
From: Acer Victoria <siddim01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 15:28:03 -0700 (PDT)
On Sun, 19 Sep 1999, Jan Steinman wrote:

:>From: Acer Victoria <siddim01@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
:>
:> >From each roll, how many photos are you happy with?
:
:You mean there's a hard and fast formula?

Not entirely; so far, I have yet to do anything formal. For that matter,
almost all my photos are non-people. The few people ones were either
experiments (test out lens and things to soften them; low speeds and
movement) or casuals.

:I typically get between 0 and 36 good shots to a roll. :-)

SO far, my highest has been I almost one roll...but that doens't quite
count. It was my sister's play, and everything went well (even the
'load-film-in-the-dark' deal ;-)). Other than that, 3-5 is the highest
I've ever gotten. Usually there is /something/ wrong...building is just a
/wee/ off, something unseen is in picture, or whatnot. I guess that's my
fault as I concentrate on the main subject in frame and not pay attention
to that little tiny screen's corners.

:Seriously, I'm amazed at how much variability I experience. Part of 
:that is due to failed experiments. (Part of that is due to wildly 
:successful experiments! :-) Most of it is probably due to inspiration 
:-- when I'm really happy with what I'm seeing, I take more "keepers."
:
:But I actually have some statistics. In my digital archive, I assign 
:between 0 and five stars as a keyword to photos that I really like. I 
:currently have 2283 images:
:
:146 (6.4%) got *
:144 (6.3%) got **
:  72 (3.2%) got ***
:   8 (0.35%) got ****
:   2 (0.088%) got *****
:
:Note that it's not a bell-curve. I'm probably harder on my own work 
:than others would be.
:
:>... I feel
:>good if I get 3/24. The rest may be good, but there's something that could
:>have been better.
:
:So I only found about 160f my shots worthy of rating. That's not 
:too far off from your 3/24 (13%).
:
:But how do you define "keepers?" Of the images I've been paid for or 
:had published, none have as much as a single star. My ADITL shot 
:(which one person wrote to tell me it was her favorite!) didn't get 
:any stars.

Keepers as in one that elicits a grin on your face: everything is either
just as you wanted or better. Nothing else. 

:One thing I've discovered in attempting an archive is that it is a 
:very difficult task to "rate" images. I ended up defining the meaning 
:of my star rating as, "Do I really like this image?" This is not the 
:same thing as "Would you like this image?" or "Would a panel of 
:distinguished photography judges like this image?" or "Would someone 
:pay me for this image?"

I guess that's because photography is rather subjectve (or rather, one's
interpretations of exposure, framing, bokeh (uh-oh, that's theat bad
japanese term that makes for interesting threads on the 35mm group ;-))
etc etc etc.

/Acer "steppenwolf" Victoria
--
"Nothing left to win / And nothing else to lose."               --U2


< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz