What is your keeper / success percentage?

[Locut0s]

By this I mean what percentage of all the shots you take turn out to be real keepers. Photos that you feel pride in and like to show off as examples of your skill? For me I'd say somewhere around 0.5 to 1%. Meaning out of every 100 to 200 photos one really stands out and grabs me and I look at with pride. What is your percentage?

Note this isn't to say you dislike your other shots by any means.

[Earth_First]

1. Some questions...

Is that a straight out of the camera assesement or with some limited post-process technique involved.

I'd say that striaght out of the camera, taking composition, appropriate levels and depth, I am about the same.

However with some post-process, I find that sometimes my percentage slightly increases.

I'm forever working on my techniques, hoping to improve my ability, as I'm sure we all are...

[NV Whino]

2. I would say that's a pretty accurate estimate

I usually do some minor processing since digital rarely gets it exactly right without a little help. But the quality of composition and exposure is apparent from the get go.

[RC]

3. Not very high, compared to the total number of pictures I have taken.

Bu then, I do a fair amount of just snap-shots, that I do not expect to make award winning photographs.

Like for instance, these:
http://rc.smugmug.com/Canada/Misc/1762979_K4mh3j#!i=87438637&k=sWVKg57

Or these:
http://rc.smugmug.com/Other/Misc/20007_GgsQKP#!i=682153&k=QfWm3GJ

[Blue_In_AK]

10. I'm like you, a lot of snapshots,

but I like them for historical purposes. Especially with my "photos of the day," I can track weather trends from year to year, garden progress, first snow, and so on. Like this year, we had a much later spring than usual but now it's ungodly hot ... It's been in the 70s for a couple weeks and 78 today, which is unheard of for Anchorage. I think we had three or four days above 70 all last summer.

So, anyway, I digress. Probably 1% are really good.

[groundloop]

4. It all depends on your definition of a keeper, some people are more easily impressed than others

I used to have a pretty high keeper rate, then I made the mistake of joining a couple of online photography forums and looking at other peoples photos . After that my keeper rate took a nosedive as I had a rude awakening to the fact that my post-processing skills sucked. Now, after getting better at processing raw image files, depending on what I'm shooting I'd say my rate of really good shots (the ones that I wouldn't mind showing in a photography forum) would range from maybe 1% up to 20% (on a really really good day). Some types of stuff I've been shooting for 20 or 30 years and those come easily for me, other stuff there's still a lot of learning left to do (which is why the photo contest here is cool, it forces me to do stuff I'm not comfortable with and have never done before).

[alfredo]

5. Keeper rate drops as experience grows. Days that I'm in the "zone" keeper rate it high.

When I use a tripod, keeper rate improves.

[sir pball]

6. I've always tried for about 1 in 12 "keepers" and 1 in 36 "showers"..

Back in the old days when I was taking B&W in college, the professor told us that was what we should be shooting for (no pun intended, groan) - about three "printable" shots off a roll of 36. Of course, not all of those were "showable", so for an assignment of nine shots you'd be expected to burn through eight to ten rolls. If there's nothing else to be said for digital, the costs have become truly negligible..

[Solly Mack]

7. Not as high as I would like it to be.

[ManiacJoe]

8. Depends on what I am shooting.

For me, there are three categories: what my family gets to see, what the public gets to see, and what I might brag about.

Family viewing:
Snapshots are probably in the 50-60%, but they are judged on a much lower scale.

Public viewing:
For sports, 50% might be usable (face and ball visible), 20-25% get shown to the public.

Fireworks usually result in the same 20-25% range.

Landscapes might be in the 10-30% range since there can be more time for planning and setup.

Public events and street shooting are probably in the 5-10% range.

If I am out for a day of "shooting anything and everything", the keeper is often 0-5% for the day, usually closer to zero.

Pride/bragging:
Given all of the above, maybe 1% makes it into the "brag about" category.

Shooting digital is cheap. Part of being a good photographer is knowing which photos to delete.

[Stevenmarc]

9. It depends

On how much control of the environment I have while I'm shooting.

[Mz Pip]

11. I'm a hoarder.

I "keep" just about everything. Photos are like shoes to me. I never know when a particular pair will come in handy.

I usually do a big purge once a year.