red sea (olympus) trip

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I love #10. The face on that puffer makes me smile!
 
thanks dee, checked your photo album out and was very impressed. what sort of good/bad ratio should i expect with my photos? the ones on my site are about 25% of the ones i took. and then i would only consider about 10 of those to be really appealing.
 
That's really hard to say because everyone has different criteria for what is acceptable. I usually seperate mine into three catagories....

OK for friends...this is pics that are snapshot quality. Good enough to throw in an album to drag around to show friends and family. They may not exactly be in sharp focus, but my friends who have never been underwater don't care! These make up about 30%.

Keepers....These are the really good ones, the ones I'm proud to show off even though there is still room for improvement. This is where the biggest percentage of mine fall, about 60%.

Wall hangers....These are just what it sounds like. The closest to perfection I can get and they warrant at least an 8x10 to hang on the wall. This is the smallest, about 10%.

Your percentages won't be the same as mine because I've got a bit more experience at it but it won't take you long to catch up! And what I found acceptable changed at each stage. What I was keeping as wall hangers 6 years ago now go in the trash. I'm still learning and improving (I hope!) and I'm sure it will change again.

There's more than technical criteria to making a great photo. In fact, some of my favorites are technically wrong as in soft focus, too dark, etc. but the composition is what made the picture shine. A perfectly exposed picture is very uninteresting if it's subject is crowded in a corner, lost into the background or placed like a bulls eye. I highly recommend Jim Church's Essential Guide to Composition to learn how to take striking pictures.

It's important to learn the technical side, but don't forget the composition...it's save an otherwise ho-hum picture...no matter what stage you're at!
 

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