How many shots do you take at events?

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ned.c

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Andrew
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Just out of curiousity really - I'm talking about shooting circuit racing.
I'm shooting for the organisers of a series which involves typically a qualy session and a couple of 20 or 30min races over a weekend, occasionally 1hour races.
Obviously I try to get a few shots of each car plus racing action as it happens.

I end up spending quite a long time reviewing sometimes a couple of thousand or more photos from a weekend. I appreciate it depends how much track time you cover and as my 'hit rate' has improved I think the numbers are coming down slightly, is this completely normal?

thanks,
Andrew.
 
Yes I think the better you get the less you take but the % of keepers is much higher. Take as many as you can/want, then just go through and pick out the 'best of the best' as such.
 
Speedster502 said:
See this is something I'm not sure about too, I generally seem to be taking more than what I did last year.

But at the same time I'm keeping a lot more of photographs that I'm taking in comparison to last year and I also move around the circuit a lot more.
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Could it be that you are getting better at identifying the right "moment" to take a photo, so you are taking more?
 
shabba said:
Yes I think the better you get the less you take but the % of keepers is much higher. Take as many as you can/want, then just go through and pick out the 'best of the best' as such.
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That must explain why I took 400 at the Valencia Grand Prix. :LOL:
Probably take a similar number this weekend at Silverstone.
Managed about 50 at a Steam Rally over the weekend. But they are slightly easier to catch than Lewis Hamilton doing 180mph.
 
I wouldnt worry about how many you take or how many you bin... the only really usefull info is how many you keep.. we are all different and will shoot in different ways.. have different levels and blah blah .. you rally cant guage by how many other people take.. to be perfectly honest i wouldnt even give it another thought :)
 
Ragwort said:
That must explain why I took 400 at the Valencia Grand Prix. :LOL:
Probably take a similar number this weekend at Silverstone.
Managed about 50 at a Steam Rally over the weekend. But they are slightly easier to catch than Lewis Hamilton doing 180mph.
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Just out of interest what kind of gear did u use there?
 
I usually end up coming home with about 600-800 or so shots from a race day or something. Sometimes I will delete shots in camera, although that's usually just if I know I've messed something up, like if I know the shot's OOF, or if my exposure's wildly wrong.
 
k3wt said:
Just out of interest what kind of gear did u use there?
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I posted three pics down in Motorsport. http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=331985

Sadly, because of the joys of travelling hand-luggage only on Ryanair, and having to pack clothes for three nights / four days. I simply had my 70-210mm "Beer Can" lens. I had to make a guess on what was best for my grandstand. It's an oldy from my 35mm days. So I think that makes it a little bit "longer" when used on my DSLR.:thinking:
 
KIPAX said:
I wouldnt worry about how many you take or how many you bin... the only really usefull info is how many you keep.. we are all different and will shoot in different ways.. have different levels and blah blah .. you rally cant guage by how many other people take.. to be perfectly honest i wouldnt even give it another thought :)
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:plus1:
 
Newbie here.

My first grasstrack event ( take old cars and rally them about fields in a timed circuit ) i took over 900 photos.... for about 19 drivers doing 9 runs each...

If you've got the cards, i don't see why you shouldn't take as many as you wish..Sometimes you have to.. for example, there was a jump that i was shooting at that event, and if i didn't burst just before the car hit the jump, i was never going to catch any cars in mid-air ..... therefore i had to burst..

I'm no expert, as i said i'm a newbie but personally i don't see why not. Most professionals in the motorsport businsess i heard ( word of mouth & reading/posts ) that they take thousands, and might only come out with 5 they'd use.

I suppose if you shoot JPEG ( like myself ) it's no probelm ,but you might want to shoot a little less with RAW.. but mind you, memory cards aren't too expensive..
 
A few years ago at Silverstone F1, I only took 200 photos all day, but at an air show I've taken 990 photos in one day, including static planes.
 
On a typical weekend i would take 1000-1200 images per day with a keeper rate of 10%. However that 10% are only the absolute best from the bunch. Normally about 80% are framed ok, and in focus, but the content isn't interesting enough or there there is another image that is better than it with similar content.
 
I easily manage 1000+ at air shows, my rule of thumb is "take more than you need, as you can always delete photos but you can't add any more later"

:)
 
Rob 80386 said:
I easily manage 1000+ at air shows, my rule of thumb is "take more than you need, as you can always delete photos but you can't add any more later"
:)
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My thoughts exactly, too late when you get home and think"I should have tried x"
 
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I snap about 1500 images a day. I generally delete as I go and am left with about 1000 images. It really depends on the event though and what is needed, sometimes I shoot more, sometimes less. Keep rate depends on light conditions, shutter speed etc. I generally put approx 10% on my website because shots are often very similar. I prefer not to "spray and prey" because I can't be ar$ed to sift though them afterwards :LOL:
 
What he ^^^ said.

I will usually take close to 1200 a day, delete a few in camera if I get a quiet moment but usually view the RAW files in irfanView to junk the really bad ones before processing.

Cracks me up when I'm stood near certain shooters and where I 'track / frame / shoot' they hold their finger on the button and hope for a good one - it's like being in the trenches sometimes lol each to their own I guess

.DAVID.
 
Just got back from Silverstone and have already cut my 550 pictures down to 150. More will get the chop later when I get more picky.
 
I done a Kart race yesterday, 708 shots taken, 316 in frame/focus, 72 usable, 12 with portfolio potential.
 
do delete as i go but then after a while i get bored then just do the rest when i get home, 800 shots taken on the saturday, probabley about 500 in focus, got 2 crackers that are being used on the sleeve of the dvd they are realising of the event, SEMSEC if anyones interested so no big event but still pretty chuffed considering ive only been using a digital slr since January
 
It depends how highly you value your time


Several frames per second when taking but an average of 1 minute to review checking focus etc.

Then 5 minutes to post process 10% of them - thats another half minute on the total number

Then you have to back up the keepers and clean up the hard disc

So if you take 900 and allow say 100seconds each -that's 25 hours

Far better to press the shutter button once at the right moment and not be told "you spend too much time sitting at that computer" :annoyed:
 
It also depends how fast you process. I can usually process 1000-1200 images (narrowing them down to keepers and then processing keepers) in about 35 mins.

Adding Meta data to the images takes the time. On a few hundred images there is perhaps 45 mins work there.
 
Yup, This is what i do, usually after each race.

Import images, adding batch metadata for circuit/day/round on import as well as copyright/photographer data.

Go through images and flag/select my favs.

Open the picked/flagged images, filter a few that slipped through the net.

Find a typical image, crop to 5x7 ratio, adjust contrast/vibrance/saturation/sharpen/fill

Apply this setting to all images.

Go through each image, composing/cropping each image and making minor PP adjustments.

At this point i will export images if they are needed quickly.

After this (usually next day or in the evening) i will add Driver surname, Car make, Team.
 
i took over 500 in about 1 hr 20mins at the f1 second practice.....there are 2 that im really happy with and maybe another 5 which are ok (to me).

i accept this does little more than show how poor my skills are but thought it was worth sharing;):D
 
My average is about 1000 for a full day (at Castle Combe, that often means 8:30-18:00, at least 10 qualis and 10 races and virtually no breaks in the action all day). The vast majority of my shots are taken individually (ie not burst) as I usually have a specific framing in mind, I probably delete 50 or so during the day if I notice anything really rough on the LCD.

When I get home around 3/4 are usually 'viable' shots (ie sharp where they should be), but as I'm just shooting for myself I only usually keep one or two from each angle if they are quite similar, the outcome being that maybe only 30 or 40 might make it into my folders that I look back on or onto Flickr etc.

Based on Club at Thruxton though, there are guys who think nothing of shooting several thousand as they usually are using their fps' limits to the full constantly, so everyone is different.
 
I took around 1000 shots at the FIA GT1 round in Algarve (Portugal).
It was my first time with the D90 so I tested and practiced a lot during the weekend.

Also, I don't use the AK47 approach, I prefer the sniper mode :LOL:.


Cheers(y).
 
I shoot mainly airshows and take around 1500 shots per day. This is my first serious airshow season and, once I have reviewed and processed the images, I'm hoping to reduce this number in the future by being a little more selective and picking my shots.
 
Me and my friend cover whole day motorsport events and each take 1500-1700 images of a day's motorsport. We than cut it down to around 750. This gives us 75-100 images per class, which would have had two heats.
I often take two or three frame bursts with the 1D, and keep the best one. Imperfections are deleted without fear.

The aim is to have many good photos, but at least one in a thousand must be brilliant
 
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