How Many Pictures Do You Take?

[Coll]

Assuming you are going on an hour long dive, how many shots do you take? I understand it varies based on what there is to see, but on average, how many shots? Also, if you're brave enough, how many shots do you keep?

As for myself, usually about 120 pictures and I keep probably 20 out of the lot.

 

[paradicio]

50 - 100 and, like you said I keep 20 or less... If it weren't for digital I'd probably be a lot more cautious about the shots I took, but since all I'm taking up is memory I can free up later...why not go crazy?

 

[RAWalker]

I'll take 40-50 in an hour and keep roughly half.

 

[fairybasslet]

Like you say, it really depends upon the dive. Indonesia, especially Lembeh, was incredible. I must have taken at least 150 photos per dive. Maybe I got 10 keepers

 

[Larry C]

Generally about 40-50 per dive, sometimes up to 75. About half are keepers and about 1/4 are worth showing to others. I've been known to pop over 100 per dive while on a trip due to unfamiliarity with the critters and surroundings. I'll shoot 2 or 3 to get one that works. Lately, I'm spending more time with one subject, taking 5 or 6 pictures and not bouncing from subject to subject so much. Really helps get one that's well focused and well composed.

 

[fairybasslet]

What I meant by keepers are those I would enter in my camera club's competitions. I think about 30% I would show to others but not to judges. I realized after I wrote what I did that it seemed like I suck worse than I really do. LOL

 

[AndyT]

Somewhre between 40 - 100, depending on conditions and subject. I'm usually happy if I get 4 or 5 that I'm happy to show off.

 

[stu_in_fl]

i take lots - probably only 10% are worth putting on the web....the majority land in the bucket between good and ok, but not worth posting/sharing....and of course you get the 10% of "what was i thinking"

i thought i took alot underwater until i started topside photography - took about 6000 photos on land last year (and didn't even have any "photo vacations")

.....thankful for digital cameras !

 

[ScubaSteve]

Depending on the dive, I will take anywhere from 25-100 but the higher the number, the more unique to me the subject found (my first frog fish as an example). Typically I will keep 100% of my photos but only share 5%-15% of what I take. I shoot P&S so if the subject calls for it, I will also snap short videos.

And just like Stu in Fl, I seem to shoot higher numbers topside.

 

[spt29970]

The more experience I get, the fewer frames I take. I keep way too many of them because they become keepsakes to remember the moment, but I show only about 5% or less. When I did my dive trip to Alaska in August, I took 3500 frames, but many of them were of breaching whales during bubble net feeding, calving glaciers, or of bald eagles in flight. Underwater I never use the rapid fire mode.