What if your best photo lies untouched in your archive?

evilhomer

What if your best photo lies untouched in your archive?

What if the photo most people would connect with, that you took, lies unprocessed in your massive archive of digital photos?

I find myself wondering if I have shown my best work to people or does it still sit in on my HD untouched?

Am I the only one who wonders this?

Fenster

It's all moot, I'm a narcissist.

CraggyIslander

definitely not, then again I've hardly processed any of mine proper yet..... am reprocessing the lot from Canada earlier this year for the 3rd time as I just cant seem to get them 'right' With all this practice I'm getting better understanding of the whole processing lark... Am getting close, but not perfect....yet

Still have a whole pile of unprocessed ones to do once I'm happy with this lot

evilhomer

Fenster, Touché

Fred, I guess I'm saying that people can now take so many photos that maybe some of the good ones get lost in the noise, of high-contrast, highly saturated, flickr-ness.

I'm as guilty as the next, I'm just wondering how many photos people have that they haven't even processed or looked at twice since taking them.

Thirdfox

Well my shutter count on the D40 is around 17000... but how many that I think are good photographs (as opposed to snapshots or garbage)? Perhaps 10 at the most.

But my ratio of garbage to good is coming down - it *only* took 100 photos to produce a good one last time

sheesh

I remember reading a quote from some famous photographer that if he gets 10 good pictures a year he is happy. the guy who was quoting him was also a pro said he looked back on his pictures and said that was about the same that he had.

Borderfox

It might be but I cant find it...

Masada

sheesh wrote: »

I remember reading a quote from some famous photographer that if he gets 10 good pictures a year he is happy. the guy who was quoting him was also a pro said he looked back on his pictures and said that was about the same that he had.

yeah i agree wih that. Ive taken loads of photos that could be seen as good photos or even great by some yet i dont really feel anything for them, but every now and then you take a photo that is just different and you look on this as one of your good pics over all the other meaningless flashy colourful stuff.,

Edit: that reads sooo snobby.,lol

Sebzy

Think I'm fine here as I know all my pictures are crap.

Calina

Seb, I think you undersell yourself there. Comparatively, your photographs are quirky and very thought provoking and always elicit a response, viz your toy soldiers for very recent example.

_____________

as regards the main issue here: are they really your best photographs if they are - to your mind - unfinished? Additionally, our own view of what constitutes good changes over time and, what we can do with photographs which, for example, may have technical inadequacies - we learn how to exploit rather than reject those.

magicbastarder

a related question - what percentage of your photos taken digitally do you delete, be it on camera, or on computer once transferred?

i.e. as mentioned above, the D40 with 17,000 shots taken; how many of these still exist?

Muineach

Calina wrote: »

as regards the main issue here: are they really your best photographs if they are - to your mind - unfinished?

Da Vinci never finished his "Mona Lisa" I think he ended up carrying it around with him for a few years, making slight changes, then he died ....:rolleyes:

Dades

Muineach wrote: »

Da Vinci never finished his "Mona Lisa" I think he ended up carrying it around with him for a few years, making slight changes, then he died ....:rolleyes:

To be fair - I wouldn't rate the Mona Lisa as all that. Sfumato? Whatever!

I think as long as you're happy yourself with the odd one of your shots then that's all the impetus you need to keep going. It helps too if you see a gradual improvement over time.

Also I think a lot of getting a great shot is being in the right place at the right time - and some people just don't have the time/money to get there. For example, it would be hard to return from a trip to say, India, without a pile of good shots.

Meh!

Thirdfox

magicbastarder wrote: »

a related question - what percentage of your photos taken digitally do you delete, be it on camera, or on computer once transferred?

i.e. as mentioned above, the D40 with 17,000 shots taken; how many of these still exist?

Heh about 5,000, maybe 1,000 processed, 100 processed to what I consider to be "printable" quality.

To be fair though so many of those shots were fire and forget ones (take it, review it and delete it...) Digital has spoiled us in that regard (I've used film SLRs too!)

mikeanywhere

Thirdfox wrote: »

Digital has spoiled us in that regard

Hit it on the head in one!!!

ThOnda

Yes, he didn't finish eyebrows.
By the way, If I have one good photo from 7 rolls, I am happy.
I have about four pictures from the last year I am proud of.

trishw78

I'm highly critical of my own work hense there isn't all that many on it. But as soon as i get my scanner I'll be putting more up.

magicbastarder

ThOnda wrote: »

By the way, If I have one good photo from 7 rolls, I am happy.

i aim for at least 33% keepers from film; i'd be disappointed if i didn't get a few good shots from a roll.