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Thread: How many photos is enough?

  1. #11

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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    12

    hell..13 - baker's dozen


    baker's dozen of pix

  2. #12
    Scott Walker's Avatar
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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    Start photographing and printing your subject or theme. Once you are satisfied with what you have done, count your prints.....that is the right number.

  3. #13
    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Ewins View Post
    I know that there won't be any definitive answer to this question...
    It's going to depend, subject-to-subject and photographer-to-photographer. Not enough for me may be too much for you, and the photographs will be different anyways. Personally, I tend to continue things until it just feels time to stop, and even then, I never know when I'll go back and pick it up again.

    If for a gallery show, the number would largely depend on the gallery space being filled. A large gallery space should have more images. Then again, the guiding principle in today's fine art photography world seems to be, "if you can't make more, at least make them bigger..."
    "I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

  4. #14
    Kirk Gittings's Avatar
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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    1 great photograph may be enough, but 100 may not be enough if the images are lame.
    Thanks,
    Kirk

    at age 73:
    "The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
    But I have promises to keep,
    And miles to go before I sleep,
    And miles to go before I sleep"

  5. #15

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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    It's like writing. Sometimes you can be Hemmingway and say all that needs to be said in a line or you're Philip K. Dick spending years scribbling volumes of an Exegesis that you never finish and no one really understands.

  6. #16
    Maris Rusis's Avatar
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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Ewins View Post
    And how many more would you think that you would require for a solo exhibition? At what point do you think you would have enough for a book?
    In my time as a gallerist I've hung exhibitions that seem to average 30 photographs.

    Thirty is about as many as the casual viewer can see and relate to in one go. Wall space is rarely a limitation. More pictures give opportunity to really explore a theme. Reviews and critiques are easier to write.

    Anyone who has produced, mounted, and framed thirty first class photographs deserves a show.

    Past experience with "standard" 64 page photo-books suggests at least 100 images should be available for the final edit.
    Photography:first utterance. Sir John Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society. "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..".

  7. #17
    Scott Walker's Avatar
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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Sawyer View Post
    Then again, the guiding principle in today's fine art photography world seems to be, "if you can't make more, at least make them bigger..."
    Something like the music industry, if you aren't any good you can cover it up by being loud

  8. #18
    chassis's Avatar
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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    My rule of thumb in many selection/sorting activities is the rule of 100:10:1

    For one "good" piece, whatever the piece may be, you need to start with 100 pieces of raw material, sort through them to get a short list of 10, and arrive at a final selection of 1.

    Yes it is resource-intensive (time and whatever else), but following this approach will increase the chances of outstanding results.

  9. #19

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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    How long is a piece of string?on a fairly recent nature shoot (not Lf) i was informed that a pair of breeding Osprey were at a certain point , i went down there one morning and the very first day i nailed a shot which has been highly acclaimed by my peers, encouraged by that success i went back three times ,Guess what nothing better than the first attempt ,So the moral of the story is when you nail it !! Regards Gary

  10. #20

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    Re: How many photos is enough?

    Paul, with every project I've ever had, I stopped when I was ready to stop. It wasn't a conscious decision. It came from somewhere else inside.

    Either I was done with that direction or I wanted to try something else. The number of good negatives/pictures didn't enter into it at all.

    The fact that you're asking yourself if you have enough pictures tells me that maybe you're ready to do something else.

    BTW, your dad sounds like a cool guy.

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