A personal observation on images worth keeping...

[Neil Barnes]

Has anyone else noticed the curious inverse relationship between the number of films on the roll and the number of images on that film worth keeping?

After years of experimentation, I've come to the conclusion that except in very rare occasions (e.g. I'm very pleased with a series from a dead town in Arizona) I never seem to get more than two good shots per film!

36 * 35mm - two good shots
12 * 6x6 - two good shots
15 *645 - two good shots
1 * 4x5 - one good shot

And I hesitate to guess how many electric pictures deserve to go straight to /dev/null...

I'm sure it's to do with the care you feel you have to take when you have to consider every detail of the shot before you push the button, when it costs a couple of quid just to make the negative, and when you can't just click and wind on.

Is it just me?

Neil

p.s. I've never done 10*8 but by extrapolation I probably don't even need to push the button on those to get a good one!

[Susie Frith]

I know what you mean Neil. I can think of very few pictures I have made that I think are worth keeping, even those that are pleasing to look at!

However I must say, that even though they were poorly posed, badly exposed, over developed and imperfect in many more ways, the wet-plate tin-types I did at Carl's workshop last month are the most satisfying pictures I have ever made. Maybe that is what makes a picture worth keeping: not its technical merits, but the emotion it has for the photographer.

Susie

[Neil Barnes]

I find it must more satisfying to be doing something a bit off the beaten track... currently investigating, as I have been for a few weeks, developing Adox CHS-50 in coffee...

Neil

[Robert J Fallis]

I've changed my digi camera, to black and white only..so do not discard too many...but with 5x4 and half plate I don't discard at all.. I think what it is, is that with one shot only you really look at what your taking. and you are much more careful when you process it.

bob

[Charles Twist]

The other amusing corollary is that the more expensive the image recording solution, the more room it takes and the less of it you carry in your bag - film or digital. So maybe we shoot less when we have less of 'it' - whatever 'it' is.
Regards,
Charles