The Hello Bar is a simple web toolbar that engages users and communicates a call to action. Hundreds of Thousands of Crappy Photos

Hundreds of Thousands of Crappy Photos

Have you ever seen the work of a great photographer and felt this simultaneous combination of “Wow, this is so awesome!” and “Man, I really suck.”

Well, join the club, my friend. I think we all feel that way at some point. I mean, you want to be looking at work that is better than your own to inspire you. But that’s inevitably going to leave you feeling like you don’t measure up. Dilemma! But here’s the big thing to remember. What you don’t see are the hundreds of thousands of crappy photos that photographer has taken. 

I’m not exaggerating. We tried to figure out how many photos we’ve taken that weren’t good enough to make the cut. We gave up really quickly because the numbers were staggering and I’d rather not think too much about it. ;)

So today, as hard proof, I am going to share some of our very recent crappy photos with you. I’ll give a bit of commentary about what makes them crappy, but, well, it’s pretty obvious. Hope you enjoy! :)

Exhibit A: From a very recent wedding. This is just a complete miss. I wasn’t in the right spot at all. Things were moving quickly, I was shooting a lot, wasn’t thinking enough, and took this stunner. 

Exhibit B: Wow. Could that dress BE more blown out? There is absolutely no information left, and no way to recover the photo. I really rocked on this one. Basically I took a photo before I had considered a new lighting situation. Fail.

Upload from December 05, 2011

 Exhibit C: This one is just all sorts of bad. It’s underexposed to begin with, so that’s not awesome. But there’s much more crappiness going on here. Note the beautiful light pole coming right out of the bride’s head. Lovely. And the half child playing in the grass. Perfection.

Upload from December 05, 2011

Exhibit D: Just a complete miss. Even if the focus was actually on the pup, where it should be, it still would have been a weak shot. Blah. 

Exhibit E: Textbook example of underexposure. Got too excited and took a shot before reading my light meter. Classic. 

Exhibit F: Wow, this one is just crappy in every way. Blurry, boring, and it features that nice big blue light in the top corner. If that was a UFO this would be a good photo. But it’s not. So it’s crappy. 

Exhibit G: What is this even of? I liked the lines, but did such a bad job of making something interesting out of them. It’s crooked, and the parking signs at the bottom are distracting. Just boring boring boring. 

Ok, I think you’ve got the idea. We take some really crappy photos, even after years of doing this. And I expect there are many many more to come, and I’m cool with that. By taking crappy photos, understanding why they’re crappy (this is the key!) and then improving next time you’re out shooting, well, that’s how you get better!

So, when you’re looking at all your crappy photos, don’t feel bad. Remember that every photographer out there has taken so many crappy photos it would make your head spin. The great ones just learn from their mistakes, and keep on shooting!

What To Read Next:

By Lauren Lim

About the Author:  Hey friend, I’m Lauren! I’m a professional photographer and head ninja here at Photography Concentrate. I’m downright obsessed with photography, and love sharing it with super cool folks like yourself. When I’m not shooting, or writing, you can find me cooking (and eating!), traveling, and hanging out with wonderful people. 

Upload from December 08, 2011

Discussion
48 comments so far

Jayme
Jayme December 5, 2011 (8:40 a.m.)

You guys are awesome….simply awesome.

Kelley December 5, 2011 (9:31 a.m.)

Your self-deprecating humor on these shots is similar to my own inner thoughts when editing my photos. When I can figure out what I could have done differently to have improved the shot, I feel better. But when I can’t, it irks me.

Evan December 5, 2011 (9:35 a.m.)

You should totally organize a crap-off photo contest! Only the most awkward and unintended photos need apply. A celebration of mediocrity! This is one photo contest I could win at.

Tracey December 5, 2011 (9:41 a.m.)

Thanks for posting this! It’s great to see that professionals still take crappy photos. I guess I hust have to keep reminding myself that everyone is human and a person is going to take a crappy/weird/boring photos every now and then…

Misou December 5, 2011 (9:42 a.m.)

I just love your down-to-earth manner and your honesty. They make you so oh-so-awesome! It feels more reassuring to know that even with pros, not every shot is a perfect one!

Rich O December 5, 2011 (9:44 a.m.)

LOL. Great post! Thanks for taking the time to remind us that ALL photographers—even those that seem as if they’ve swapped an eye for a universal lens—are still human and prone to mistakes. lol

Carey December 5, 2011 (10:02 a.m.)

You can’t be ON all the time. I actually love coming home and laughing at the crap I took and I think it makes the good shots look that much better to me.haha Great post guys.

Colleen December 5, 2011 (10:05 a.m.)

awesome article! & so true! :D thanks for making my monday a bit sunnier!

Shauna December 5, 2011 (10:25 a.m.)

Great post, great reminders. This is why we have over 10,000 shots from our trip so far…excitement takes over the brain a lot.

Melvin December 5, 2011 (10:41 a.m.)

Good article and a perspective that is seldom covered.

Exhibit C is not really that bad. However, if given the dilemma of completely throwing away that series or putting effort in to photoshop out the kid and the light pole, I would photoshop if it was the ONLY salvageable photo from the series. Otherwise, getting it right out of camera is always best.

Also, another interesting stats to track is your keep rate. Mine usually hovers around 60% because I am quite selective on when I press the shutter button. However, the side-effect is that I do lose some good opportunities some times.

Dawn Shiree December 5, 2011 (10:47 a.m.)

You are continually one of the most encouraging sources on the web for us newbies. You rock.

Kat Forsyth December 5, 2011 (11:22 a.m.)

Ha, I’ve seen photos like those actually ON people’s sites, advertising their work.

andrea December 5, 2011 (11:50 a.m.)

haha, this is my favourite post ever.

Mikhail December 5, 2011 (12:13 p.m.)

You guys are always so encouraging. When it feels like I’ve lost all hope in my work, I come to your blog and read posts after posts, and I can’t help but feel so enlightened and inspired :)

Tiki December 5, 2011 (2:19 p.m.)

Thank you for sharing these. Seriously awesome.

a.barlow December 5, 2011 (3:05 p.m.)

This is awesome man.

Daniel December 5, 2011 (8:19 p.m.)

When I edit my wedding photos in Lightroom I use a #rating. #1 = client images and #5 = crappy images. What I then do is export all my crappy images from weddings or what ever the event is and put them all in one folder. Then once a week I look at the folder to see why I can improve on and do certain “improvement shots” on shoots. Just a few shots , not a whole shoot just because I don’t want to risk a clients session.

malithi December 5, 2011 (10:27 p.m.)

love the open, down to earth-ness!. so much awesome going on in one site!

Stasha December 5, 2011 (11:36 p.m.)

I like this post. Nobody is amazing all the time. Trouble is if it is a photo of my family I cannot click delete, mushy old me…

Maria December 6, 2011 (3:22 a.m.)

Love this post! Really value your honesty! We can all relate! :D xxx

Buntha December 6, 2011 (4:24 a.m.)

I was having a pretty down morning from last night. Thanks for picking me up with your humor. Thank you for this post!

Kam December 6, 2011 (8:48 a.m.)

I love yall, man you are so right! I beat myself up when I am looking at my “inspirational photographers’ works” all the time! I guess we all have hit or misses!

mike alexander December 6, 2011 (9:49 a.m.)

This is a great post! Made me feel better. Thanks.

Jasmine December 6, 2011 (11:51 a.m.)

Okay, THIS is what I am talking about. God, I love you dudes and your wonderful realness. I recently wrote a big ol’ blog post about finding purpose through photography and how I deal with the occasional self-doubt that comes up when stumbling across these gloriously magical photographers one occasionally (often) comes across. THIS is the answer to that. Reminding yourself that everyone is human and errs is so strangely and wonderfully heartening. You guys are great.

Jennifer December 6, 2011 (8:20 p.m.)

I actually love Exhibit D… but maybe that’s the kind of style I’m really in to.

But all things aside, when I started out I thought there was something wrong with me when i had a 75% deletion rate. It has taken me 2 years to realize that one can still take really crappy pictures even with a 5dmkii with a 85 1.2. Thank you.

Sara December 6, 2011 (8:59 p.m.)

Thanks for being real! Great post!

Erin December 7, 2011 (5:29 a.m.)

Oh, you guys. I just love you.
I actually have a Lightroom collection of all the photos that make me laugh when I’m sorting. They’re mostly half-blinking toddlers and smooshy-faced drummers. Pretty good way to cheer yourself up on an off-day!

Vic December 7, 2011 (4:41 p.m.)

Great post. Very funny and nice to see someone else’s crappy shots for a change rather than my own!

Susanne December 7, 2011 (8:25 p.m.)

lol, awesome, thanks for reminding us it’s ok to get bad photos too.

Eryn December 8, 2011 (11:48 a.m.)

You have no idea how much this post meant to me! I do that all the time…go looking for inspiration, and come away feeling lousy about my own talent and images. Thanks for keeping it real. I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Sandy
Sandy December 8, 2011 (11:04 p.m.)

Oh my word. I just stumbled onto your blog from a friend who was creeping photographers and I loooove the work you both create. I’m starting to fall in love with portrait photography and tried photographing my friend’s little family. Epic FAIL. This post just made me feel a heck of a lot better. Instant fan here!! Added to google reader IMMEDIATELY!

Lauren
Lauren December 10, 2011 (11:34 a.m.)

Wow guys! Thank you ALL for the amazing comments. I’m so glad that you enjoyed seeing my crappy photos, haha!!

@Evan: I love it! Crap-Off contest. Totally have to do that!

@Melvin: We took a bunch of shots of setup C, so there was certainly a better shot to use. My keep rate is much lower than yours because I shoot a TON! I don’t usually miss much, but have to spend ages sorting photos. Definitely a trade-off!

@Daniel: That’s a great idea, ranking while sorting, and then checking out the bad stuff to see how you could improve! Thanks for sharing!

@Jasmine: Thanks for sharing your post! And for writing it. It definitely resonated. Hard. I very much agree that thinking of our why can help big time when self-doubt creeps up. You’re great!!!

Thanks again everyone. I was a bit nervous showing these photos, but with all these wonderful responses, I’m so glad I did!!

Kat December 12, 2011 (8:30 a.m.)

Guys, how much we love you for putting these out there. We all have these shots! But it takes someone truly talented and humble to use them as a learning opportunity, especially when it’s a public lesson! Cheers! You guys are fabulous.

Kristin December 12, 2011 (5:51 p.m.)

LOVE this post. My wish list from my Secret Santa family member this year is for Extremely Essential Camera Skills. I couldn’t be more excited to go through it all and even more so after reading this post! THANK YOU!

Angie December 13, 2011 (1:17 p.m.)

I am glad to see more of us are willing to share our mistakes, I recently posted on my blog my mistakes. You can check it out http://off-leash.ca/blog/archives/3103
Thank you for sharing, sometimes we get carried away and as much as I want to say I take only good shots I have to admit that like most of us I only SHOW the good ones! lol

Sabtiago
Sabtiago December 15, 2011 (1:37 a.m.)

Nice one!
Great post and fantastic examples. :)

Redza January 9, 2012 (6:15 a.m.)

WHOAAAA Lauren.. Thanks for reminding us that both of you are still human enough to do mistakes especially in photography. I always admire your humility and passion to help other fellow photographers!!!

Cheers fr Malaysia

Lauren
Lauren January 9, 2012 (11:09 a.m.)

@Kat, Kristin, Sabtiago and Redza: Thank you so much guys! I’m so glad you enjoyed this one!!

@Angie: High five to you for sharing your mistakes as well! I learned a TON about pet photography from your post, thanks so much!!

Niaz Ali January 10, 2012 (5:50 p.m.)

Like they say… the truth is out there! :D
Love your honesty and down to earth personality! :)
Keep it coming.

Christian January 21, 2012 (7:40 a.m.)

This is fun! I imagine a sort of AA meeting for photographers: “Hi, I’m Christian. I occasionally take poor photos…”

Kim Porter January 26, 2012 (10:44 p.m.)

I NEVER post comments anywhere, b/c…uh…I don’t even know why. But, I HAVE to here. How awesome that you will actually admit that you overshoot sometimes, that EVERY FREAKING SHOT is not a “winner”. You guys give REAL info, and that is hard to find these days. So, Thank You.

Tom January 28, 2012 (11:32 a.m.)

This was pure awesome! Made me laugh and realize that, as a beginner, I don’t have to get bummed out when I see my craptacular photos! Bookmarking this site NOW!!!

Carrie Linn Mercer January 30, 2012 (10:29 p.m.)

Hahahhaha. LOVE it. What a rockstar. My favorite was the half-child on the grass. teehee. Thanks for sharing and reminding. You can just never take yourself TOO seriously. :)

Xaris February 6, 2012 (12:04 a.m.)

Aww… this article really touched my heart. Thank you for boldly exposing your err crappy photos HAHAHA and for the witty, slightly self-depreciating remarks (really made my day).

Denn February 14, 2012 (9:05 a.m.)

as they say, practise makes perfect. but a friend of mine who is photographer also told me.. per session.. hundreds if not thousand of shots are taken.
it’s like the old way of warfare with the line of fire, they didn’t have sharpshooters.. they went with the quantity

Bethany February 17, 2012 (11:13 a.m.)

Takes courage to show your “outtakes”! Thank you very much for sharing and reiterating that not every shot is going to be a keeper!

Wil February 17, 2012 (10:56 p.m.)

Oh wow… so true. I’m just starting out and barely know the jist of photography. I think 1 out of an average of 20 shots that I take I consider is pretty good.

Question: Do you just delete the crappy photos? or Do you still keep them?

I kinda do both (i don’t know why). But the REAL crappy ones I just delete straight off the camera. My other crappy ones make it to my computer.

Would like to get your thoughts on that.

Excellent post and thanks for calling it out. :)

Jessica February 21, 2012 (4:51 p.m.)

This post made my day, I love your honesty! I have recently started out in photography and have been trying to get up to courage to post my stuff online and expand my client base beyond family and friends. However, every time I look at “inspirational photographers” I chicken out feeling like I still have such a long way to go. This post was so encouraging, thanks for sharing!!

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