You take how many pictures?

[jdlaing]

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48 minutes ago, Herr Barnack said:

When I photograph groups of people, I will make 8-10 exposures in hopes of having 1-2 that are actually usable.

Why?  Because photographing a herd of people is no different from photographing a herd of cats. 

In spite of your best efforts to get all of them to pay attention,  look at the camera and put on a pleasant, friendly expression for the photo, the following inevitably will happen:  A few will look content.  Some will be staring off into space.  A few will look annoyed.  One will be asleep.  Two will look stoned.  A couple will be snarling, and one will be licking its butt. 

 

Wait……….

I forgot one.

stop photographing groups of people.

[Likaleica]

4 hours ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

How do you determine what's an *unnecessary image* at a wedding? I've had emails telling me a grab shot between some random guy and the bride was their most precious because the random guy was in fact a favourite uncle who was dying from cancer. Probably the last photo of him ever taken. Composition was poor. Lighting was rubbish. A snap shot at best. I probably picked the best of two or three exposures because people blink and sneer and squint and a couple of shutter pushes I can avoid those. I don't think I've ever taken an unnecessary image at a wedding. Plenty of terrible ones and a few great ones though.

Each to their own but I know how many images I'll shoot and cull and deliver and it's more than most. The client pays for my time so I can easily work out what to charge. Culling, to me, isn't about getting rid of unnecessary images. It's about finding the best ones. That's what I like most about digital. The freedom to not have to shot count every job.

I reckon I've had more referrals from snap shots at the reception than anything that ever made it into a wedding album. And I didn't mind doing the culling because I was not what you would describe as cheap.

Gordon

I think weddings are among those categories where more is better.

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[Ouroboros]

7 hours ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

How do you determine what's an *unnecessary image* at a wedding? 

Experience.

 

[FlashGordonPhotography]

15 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

Experience.

 

Well, I'm only 25 years and 1500 weddings in. I'll get there one day.....

Gordon

[Herr Barnack]

17 hours ago, FlashGordonPhotography said:

Well, I'm only 25 years and 1500 weddings in. I'll get there one day.....

Gordon

You, sir, are to be commended.

Most wedding photographers end up in an insane asylum long before they get anywhere near to having shot 1500 weddings. 

Huzzah!

Edited July 2, 2021 by Herr Barnack

[Herr Barnack]

On 6/28/2021 at 11:28 PM, Herr Barnack said:

...Sometimes I think I may be overshooting, but then I read of photographers like David DuChemin who makes over 100,000 images a year.  I read the story of a photojournalist who had shot with a Leica Q for four years, racking up a little over 500,000 images.

Maybe I'm not overshooting after all...

 

[horosu]

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Great topic!

On a recent trip to a very visually appealing place, I shot 360 pictures over a week's time. So, roughly, 50 a day. That's vastly more than I do when when walking about with the camera. In my defense, I own the M-D, which has no screen (I find it liberating) and I may have taken the same photo twice just to be sure that I didn't blow up the highlights.

When on holiday, I take less than 10 pictures a day.

[MikeMyers]

As I read through this thread, I was surprised by how many people just keep all their old photos on the SD card and add more as time goes on.

I got much of my training from the Sportsshooter.com website (https://www.sportsshooter.com).  It's sad how quiet the place has gotten, as newspapers folded and amateurs took sports photos for free for anyone interested, just to see their name in print.  To get the most out of the website, you had to prove you could take good photos, and write good captions, and it was $25 per year to maintain one's membership.

As for me, I came away from this website with a few rules I always tried to follow.  When I went out to take photos, I would always format the memory card, and fully charge the battery (or batteries).  As I went about shooting, I would delete the bad images that I knew had no value.  The other thing was as I took any photo, in my mind I needed to think up the five W's for every photo (who, what, when, where, and why).  I usually needed to make notes for later.  All the rules for photojournalism applied, and all "action" shots were real, not staged.  My Nikon made it easy to come home with many hundreds of images that needed to be reviewed, making it important for me to delete the scrap stuff, only keeping images that had some potential use.  Returning to my motel or hotel with 50 good images was MUCH more enjoyable, and I still remembered the details as I wrote captions.

All this changed when I picked up my Leica.  First with film, and later with digital, I had a feeling that every shot I took needed to be deliberate, not a "grab shot".  The total number of images with my Leica got to be between 5 and 50, which is still true today.  I find it difficult to explain "why".  

 

I should add that for many years, I was photographing radio control car racing all around the world for several magazines.  When I started, I was blown away with the quality of the images the "experts" created.  Eventually I learned how to do that well.  With a lot of practice and hard work, and keeping an open mind for better ways to do things, anything is possible.  I miss that part of my life.