Hit 10,000 shots on my DSLR last night, and only about 40 of them are actually worth keeping

Margaret Gonzalez · 2026-09-21T18:35:05.066535+00:00

I checked my shutter count after a session shooting the Orion Nebula from my driveway in Reno, and I crossed 10,000 frames since I started this hobby two winters ago. Here is the part that bugs me... I went back through my whole folder and maybe 40 pics are ones I would actually show anybody. That is a 0.4 percent keep rate, and I sat there kind of stunned at how much time went into the other 9,960. Nobody warns you that astrophotography is mostly throwing away bad frames, not collecting good ones. The seeing was garbage, planes kept cutting through my subs, and my focus drifted on half of them. So what is your actual keeper rate, and does it get better or do we just get pickier?

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Hit 10,000 shots on my DSLR last night, and only about 40 of them are actually worth keeping | Astronomy Photos - SMM Buzz