percentage of 'keepers'

[Richard Schlesinger]

I have just returned from two days in Death Valley with about 20 4X5 negatives which I am in the process of proofing. From past experience I expect I may have maybe two or three (at best) I want to spend time printing. I intend to go back in the next few weeks to try to improve the ones that are almost worth spending time on.

What I am wondering is what percentage of your negatives you find you want to spend time printing, toning, mounting etc. I think I am doing well if I have one out of ten I want to put in the time working on. And what to do with all the other negatives? The trash barrel? I have done that and later been sorry. But now I have zillions of worhtless nicely exposed negatives (is there a market?).

I'm sure those of you shooting 8X10 must have a much higher percentage of keepers. And 11X14? I would be terrified to expose that much film all at one time! I have nothing but respect and admiration for those of you working at the ulf sizes.

Just wondering

[Steve Feldman]

1:10 - Seems about right for me. 2:10 was a great day. 3:10 hasn't happened yet.

BTW - Death Valley's gotta be d*mn cold about now. That's dedication.

"What to do with all the other negatives?" - Wallpaper the bathroom.

[Steven Barall]

Having some kind of experience during the shooting process is important. I think that it's a good idea to go out with the camera for a couple of weeks but don't bring along any film. Find your photos, set up the camera, frame the photo and just fold it up and move on. Do it just for the experience without thinking about a product. If you know why you are making a photo in the first place you will have more film that you think is worth dealing with in the end. Identify where the important experience is for you and look at every frame intently.

That said, I personally end up having about five 4X5 sheets out of ten that I feel I can continue on with. I mean that they are films that continue the process and don't peter out or become diffuse in some way relative to my intent or they reveal to me for the first time what my intent actually is. It's a dialogue.

Save all of your film. Intent can change and you might find that those films you ignored in the first place can form a different core of your work and you might not realize this for years. Besides, you made the photos and it's your responsibility to deal with them. That said, purging, turning the page and moving on is important also. Life is a highway...

[Bruce Schultz]

For me, that would be too much like keeping score. Sometimes I like more than half of what I shoot, while other times I can't bear to look at anything.
I try not to look at my rejects as failures; they are all part of the learning process that never ends.

[CXC]

For 4x5, 1 in 4. I am very focussed on weeding out the boring stuff _before_ clicking the shutter. It took some years before I could get completely set up for a shot and then not take it.

[Dan Jolicoeur]

My precentage of keepers have increased with film testing and readyloads. Also I believe with staying with one focal length lens until you start getting consistant results. Figure out what your problem is, composition, subject matter, exposure, development. There are many variables, change one at a time. Do you have a preconsieved image in mind of the composed pictue before you snap the shutter? Do you need to move in closer? An intersting excersise; take a roll of 35mm film on the same subject. Take a picture from all sides and different heights, moving in closer and finding another object on the original subject from each side. This can be done with a paper grocerie bag in the back yard.

Good luck
Dan

[Daniel Geiger]

One in five to ten 4x5 sounds about right. And that is "scenes" or set-ups. That figure is for those that are good for the family greeting cards, and are submittable to the stock agency. There may be just half a dozen to a dozen out of 200-300 sheets that I really like.

I shoot chromes, with respect to exposures within a set, there usually are two that are fine and differ in mood,while the third is simply over/underexposed. I keep most of them and file them in binders with plastic sleeves along with the data sheet. If I throw one or two, I mark on the data sheet, which one was tossed. And as others, I view it as a learning experience and after a while I can pick out patterns (e.g., adding only +1 f-stop for light polarizer use is too little, rather +1.5).

I have just been at it for a year, so I still try a bunch of things (like flashing, selective focus vs large depth of field, with/without CF), so shoot about 70% of the set-ups; for about 30% I pack it in again and move on. As it is a hobby, I don't get worked up about "wasted" film. If I have fun going out, that's all that matters. If the images are fine on top of that, it's a bonus. In the glass half full/empty metaphor, the good picture are what flows over the rim of a full glass.

[Brian Ellis]

Was this your first trip to Death Valley? I've found that my number of "keepers" improves as I visit the same place multiple times. I seldom make many "keepers" on the first visit, especially if it's on vacation and I can't be picky about lighting and weather conditions. If it's any comfort, I spent a week around Death Valley for the first time earlier this year. I made about 70 4x5 negatives. I made contact sheets of all of them, proofed about ten, and actually made serious prints of about six of the proofs. And that was pretty good for me on a first visit. If I hadn't spent an afternoon at Alabama Hills I would only have made three for my week in Death Valley.

I read somewhere that Ansel Adams estimated that he made 40,000 photographs in his lifetime and made exhibition quality prints of about 1,000. If Adams only got 1 in 40 "keepers" you did well if you got two or three out of twenty.

[MIke Sherck]

What Brian said. The first time I visit a particular place or work with a person I may feel fortunate to get one good exposure out of ten. The more often I re-visit a place or see a person, the better the ratio becomes.

As for what to do with "failed" negatives, I weed out the obviously awful at once (perhaps half, perhaps less than that,) the rest get contact printed for proofs. Every couple of years I go back through the discard piles to see whether any of those images have "grown" in the meantime. I'm consciously critical of them at that time, and rejects get shredded. I don't feel bad -- I've accepted the fact that over the course of my lifetime, I'll make lots more rejects.

At least glass plate photographers can make windows out of their failed negatives!

[Richard Schlesinger]

I plan to go back to DV with contact sheets in hand to try and "improve" what I have. I've been there many times over the past 40 years - but not much lately. I am really very curious about the 8X10 and larger photographers. How many negatives do you make? I think about 8X10 but aside from being too big and heavy for me at my advanced stage of decay I don't know as the photographs I make are worth that much film.