I’m new to the hobby and I thought this would be an interesting discussion question. Greatness is subjective, of course, so I’m not talking greatness in terms of being ranked against all photos taken in the world (unless that’s personally the benchmark you choose to rate yourself on). What I’m really asking is how often do you personally feel fulfilled with your photography? Whether you go out daily on photography walks, take your camera everywhere all the time, or just do a ton of professional gigs, what I want to know is how often do you think “Wow, I got a great shot there. I’m really proud of this one.”? Do you have several every time do take photographs, maybe one a day, or is it few and far between for you? How do you feel about coming home from a photo session and feeling that you didn’t really get anything good? For those that do professional client work, how do you feel if you finish a pro gig and don’t feel like you got anything all that special (even though it may be good enough to warrant your professional standards)? On a second note, if you do professional gigs like weddings and such, do you ever aim to get something unique and original or are you more focused on making sure you get everything on your standard checklist of photos your clients expect to have?
if you shoot film 90 percent of the time
100% hobbyist here.
A shot I think was great ten years ago might look pretty average now. But a shot I took ten years ago that I still think is great? Then it’s great.
I couldn’t put an exact number on it, but it’s certainly less than ten percent of the shots I’ve ever taken, and that’s quite a lot of photos. That doesn’t mean that 90-plus percent of my shots are garbage (those get deleted). They’re OK, they may even be good, but just not “great”.
Joe McNally has a great phrase. If I remember right, he called it the “pucker factor” (try saying that fast). It’s the feeling you get when you absolutely know beyond all doubt that you’ve taken a real cracker of a shot, and by that definition it is rare.
And if you evaluate too many of your shots as “great”, then you have to raise your game to make “great” harder to get…
Like maybe 3 great shots from nearly a decade of shooting including 5 years of it full time.
Thousands of good shots, but ones I see as truly great are rare.
I shoot a lot of college sports. 1500-2000 shots for volleyball. 1000 for basketball. 500-1000 for soccer.
In any of those there are 75-200 that are good enough to edit and give to the team. Of those, 2, maybe 3 make me say “wow.”
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I do occasional professional work and a lot of photo walks. And a photo trip somewhere a couple of times per year when possible. I’m rather addicted to photography. It depends on how good “great” is…I’ll get a few shots that make me really happy each week as I shoot quite a lot. That might be a shot I post on social media or share with friends, like a great street portrait. But something truly great for the portfolio?..Probably 10-20 per year? Less? I haven’t counted but it’s not super high.
I do feel very fulfilled with my photography, though I also have so much more to learn. I can see my style even in my oldest images and I see it becoming more refined with each year. Because I snap every time I go out. Sometimes I just snap because I’m curious to see how my camera renders a patch of light or I want to play with a different aspect ratio. Each snap helps me better understand what compositions and subjects best match the feeling of inspiration that first caught my attention. It really is about just shooting more and more and more. Like any other skill.
maybe like this
- 5% great shots
- 10% messing up settings (aperture, SS, focus etc)
- 15% standing on the wrong spot, having blocked view or being too slow to capture the action
- 70% bad lightning or being in mediocre environments, like friends places. Not a bad thing, but rarely do epic shots come out.
I got one this year and was helped to it by the Olympus 12-40 pro. In 2021 I had more, being helped by opportunity, the weather and the Samyang 7.5mm. I got a very nice portrait shot this year. In 2022 I didn’t get any. In 2021 I had more opportunity and I got more. The weather was fab.
Regularly. It is usually the first one I take too. I try to shoot about 10 and if I can’t get it by then I move on.
Once a quarter
I usually have a shot or two from most shoots that I like, but I can only think of a handful of shots from the past 10+ years that I consider “great”. I can’t even guess how many photos I’ve taken in that time, if I somehow did the math and realized that only one out of every 10,000 shots was genuinely great I wouldn’t be surprised.
That said, as I’ve gained experience I do feel that I get consistently good shots much more often. I think part of why I haven’t gotten many exceptional shots is because I have a deeper understanding of what a good shot even is. As I’ve become more capable as a photographer I am able to more consistently take good photos, but my standards for what I consider to be exceptional have also gone up.
Some people on here need to lower the bar on what’s considered ‘great’. A photo isn’t great only if it wouldn’t look out of place in Ansel Adams’ portfolio. You don’t have to cook a meal to Alain Ducasse’s standards to make it great. You don’t have to paint something to the same standards as Da Vinci to make it great. Photography is no different.
It’s great if you’re proud of it and want to do something with it/show it off to others.
I don’t think anyone can be incorrect in how they choose to set standards on themselves. When I posed this question, I knew it would be more of a question of each person’s psyche than one of how good they were at taking photographs. We’ve seen a full range of answers here from people interpreting the question as photos they’re happy to download off the SD card to others who interpret it as photos they’ll look back at as accomplishments from their death bed. There’s no wrong way to see it… it’s all about what drives you to keep going. Some people drive themselves through a consistent feeling of growth while others thrive on an ambition to do things that they haven’t seen before.
I think I get one great shot every day.
However, each time I look back at my “great” shots, they look that little bit less great.
Once The Great Filter Of Time has done it’s work, I reckon on 1-2 “Great” per year and a couple of dozen “I Really Like This One”.
Plus 10,000 I can’t quite bring myself to delete.
I took one great photo this year. So far I have shot 13k images (way below the norm for a year) with 60% being published in various magazines and books, but only one truly great image. I’m happy with that ratio.
On my normal work camera shooting for clients, I always get several good shots and 1 or 2 great shots. More than enough to complete the project. I’ve been photographing my niche for over 10 years and using my current camera for about 5 years.
But I recently bought a new camera for personal use and I am not getting great shots. I guess the frustration comes knowing I have the ability and the camera has the ability but we’re not compatible yet. It takes practice to get your groove with a new camera so I’m trying not to be too hard on myself.