Statistics

[Lubos-PM]

I came across a photographer’s statistics for 2025 on Facebook – how many photos he took and which subjects dominated. It inspired me to try something similar myself. Not super detailed, but good enough to get an overall picture.

These are fairly precise totals made up of slightly imprecise numbers – I don’t have all RAW files from 2025 anymore (some were deleted after editing), but even so, the results still have decent informative value. At the moment, I have 38 731 RAW files from 2025 stored on my NAS, so in reality I most likely recorded over 40 000 images to memory cards. Thanks to sorting photos by individual events and days, I know that I photographed on a total of 97 days. The number of RAW files I actually edited (those with ACR files) is 7 979, which is more than 20 %. Is that a lot or a little? Considering how many shots were taken in burst mode at some events, it feels like quite a high percentage to me.

I currently have 8 836 JPGs from 2025. There are more JPGs than edited RAWs because some photos exist both in color and black & white, and in some cases also in additional resized versions for different platforms (facebook, Instagram, this forum).

By subject, rodeo clearly leads – 15 days, at least 13 906 RAW files, resulting in 2 903 JPG’s.
Next in line:
– motocross (4 shoots / 4 599 RAWs)
– speedway (5 shoots / 3 839 RAWs)
– Giant League cycling (5 shoots / 3 531 RAWs – I deleted quite a lot here, so the real number would likely be higher)

Besides that, I did 10 portrait sessions, spent 7 days documenting the demolition of a courtyard building on Jateční Street, and of course photographed many other things as well – street photography, animals in the zoo, various events, trips, walks, and so on.

One last quick calculation: if editing a single photo takes on average 𝟯 minutes (I don’t batch edit – I work image by image), that adds up to roughly 𝟰𝟰𝟬 hours spent in Photoshop over the year. And that doesn’t even include time spent on tutorials, workshops, and further learning.

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TL;DR:
over 40 000 photos
97 shooting days
more than 20 % of images edited
approx. 440 hours in Photoshop
most time & photos: rodeo

The Foto2025 folder currently has a size of 909 GB and contains a total of 63,354 files in CR3, ACR, XMP, DNG, TIFF, and JPG formats. I should finally bring myself to ruthlessly delete all unedited RAW files from the NAS — but every now and then I stumble upon something that I end up editing after all, because it turns out to be useful somewhere…

Still, I’ll have to get started sooner or later — not only with 2025, but with previous years as well. I’m down to just 3 TB of free space left on the NAS. And since I’ve already started going through the archive, photos taken in the past with various cameras and gear will be appearing in different threads over the next few days.

 

[paddler4]

The number of RAW files I actually edited (those with ACR files) is 7 979, which is more than 20 %. Is that a lot or a little?

I think only you can answer that. The question I would ask myself is: how many of those edited images were ever printed or displayed? If the percentage is low, that suggests wasted effort.

I currently have 8 836 JPGs from 2025.

I have very few stored JPEGs. I have some from my early days in digital, but as a user of Lightroom rather than ACR, I find have no reason to save them. I can just save a snapshot in the editing record and re-generate a JPEG to whatever specs I want in seconds, and I'm not stuck with whatever specs I used in the past. For example, I use a different file size for posting online than I do for digital competitions. And having B&W and color is no problem: I just make a virtual copy for B&W. Because I print in LR, I also don't need new files for printing. When I softproof, I save the proof as a virtual copy, named with the paper I proofed and sometimes the rendering (relative/perceptual). One could do the same with online postings, but I don't bother.

Given what you shoot, you have reason to have vastly more raw images than I do. However, I find that my biggest question about waste is which raw files to keep at all. I do discard the worst, but I have found that I end up keeping a large number that I will never want again. Some are just low quality, but there are other reasons too--e.g., raw files used for focus stacking, or the images from a burst that I won't use. I'll bet that if I were willing to endure many hours of total boredom, I could get rid of 60% of the images I've saved.

 

[Lubos-PM]

I think only you can answer that. The question I would ask myself is: how many of those edited images were ever printed or displayed? If the percentage is low, that suggests wasted effort.

I print photos only minimally, and only for my own use, or for calendars that I’ve been making since about 2007. I don’t take part in competitions and I don’t hold exhibitions, even though I’ve been offered the opportunity to organize one several times. But I’ve never found the courage to present myself in that way. Photography is just my hobby; I’ve never made a living from it and I never will.

I don’t use Lightroom. I never really learned how to work with it and probably never will. I process my photos in Camera Raw and then in Photoshop. In some cases I keep the PSD file, but the final result is a JPG file. I usually make these available to rodeo, motocross, speedway, and similar riders for their own use, and some of my photos are then used by race organizers for posters and programs for subsequent events. The vast majority of my photos are used only in digital form.

I delete unusable RAW files (out of focus, poorly exposed), but even so a lot of them remain. And as technology—especially autofocus—keeps improving, there are very few technically poor images. Choosing only the very best ones, processing those, and then uncompromisingly deleting the rest is really difficult for me.

 

[paddler4]

Choosing only the very best ones, processing those, and then uncompromisingly deleting the rest is really difficult for me.

And for me too. That's why I have so many left. Most of the junk I have stored isn't obviously trash. For example, when I upload images, I delete any that aren't in focus, are badly enough exposed that they can't be used, or that are terribly composed (e.g., candids where a kid isn't in the right part of the frame). The problem for me is the ones that are just bad photographs in other grounds. And I'm unskilled enough that I have a lot of these.

I've never made a living from photography. I have sold a few prints and one electronic image, but I'd starve if I had to rely on photography to feed myself.

 

[Mr Roboto]

Interesting set of stats, Lubos!
With mirrorless and especially electronic shutter mode, it is definitely too easy to rack up the total number count (even by accident). In the field with other birders, there are still those who seem to hold down that shutter release button constantly. I'm looking through my viewfinder thinking "Is he shooting this same bird? It's just sitting there - why is he filling his buffer?" Then again, he just may capture a moment that no one else will get and net him a significant return so the additional work may be worth it for him. No right and wrong answers here.

Everyone will have a different set of stats that might be meaningful for trending purposes perhaps. However, comparing stats among different people shooting different subjects for different purposes may not be that meaningful.

What to do with those RAW files is a different matter. After every shoot, I go through my files and delete the obvious bad ones or duplicates in-camera. I select only the ones I want to edit from a series and download/edit/store those on my computer. The rest I move to an external drive once the memory card is full.

 

[ShipleyNW]

I don't get too detailed with my photo stats, but I do keep 2 charts.

First-cull counts by month.
After my first cull, potential keepers get put in a directory and imported into LRC. When I scrape EXIF data (for other purposes), I count up the number of those keepers by month over the last 25 months. This lets me know if I'm getting out enough. No fancier than that.

The chart does show that in May, 2024, I started a stricter cull policy for a smaller number of first-cull keepers.



Gear Usage
This chart shows me a cumulative tally of the gear used to make first-cull images, ordered by most recently used. In 2020/21 I had 30 EF-mount lenses pass through the quiver. This chart shows me which gear is actually getting used and which was mere GAS curiosity. Mirrorless more or less cured my GAS, so I don't have the turnover I used to and it mainly reflects how long I've owned each piece, but since this is a one-button-push update, it's still a useful chart.