Shooting Ratio Calculator
Calculate video shooting ratio and storage requirements from raw footage vs final edit length.
Covers H.264, ProRes, and RAW codecs at common resolutions.
Shooting ratio in photography describes how many frames you capture for every final image you deliver or keep. It is an essential metric for understanding workflow efficiency, storage needs, and your editing time investment.
The formula: Shooting Ratio = Total Frames Captured / Final Delivered Images
A 10:1 shooting ratio means you took 10 photos for every 1 keeper. A 50:1 ratio means 50 shots per final image — common in wildlife, sports, and action photography.
Worked example: A wedding photographer shoots 1,800 frames during the event and delivers 350 final edited images to the client. Shooting Ratio = 1,800 / 350 = 5.1:1
Storage calculation: Storage Needed = Total Frames × Average File Size
If shooting RAW files at 25 MB each: 1,800 × 25 MB = 45,000 MB = ~44 GB
At a 5:1 ratio across 20 weddings per year: 1,800 × 20 = 36,000 RAW files per year = ~878 GB/year in RAW files alone
Typical shooting ratios by genre:
- Studio portraits: 3:1 to 8:1
- Wedding photography: 5:1 to 15:1
- Journalism/events: 10:1 to 20:1
- Sports/action: 20:1 to 50:1
- Wildlife photography: 100:1 or higher
- Film-era photographers (Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson): often under 5:1 — deliberate and slow
Why ratios matter: A higher ratio means more culling and editing time. At 10 minutes per final image and a 20:1 ratio, a 100-image delivery requires reviewing 2,000 shots. Tracking your ratio helps you price your services accurately and identify whether you’re shooting too conservatively or too freely.