Saving or deleting ugly photos

I heard a very experienced professional National Geographic
photographer interviewed on TV talking about some of the
differences between film and digital. One difference he noted
was that, with digital, he tended to review his shots in camera
and delete those that he thought were no good. With film, he
sent his exposed film back to headquarters where his editor
looked at it before he did - sometimes choosing an image to
publish that the photographer would have thrown away. Only
later, after the photo editor singled it out for him, did he
realize that it was a great shot. He thought that some photos
were only recognized later for being as good as they were.

So, my question is, how selective are you in keeping photos? Do
you:

1. Review a shot immediately after taking it and delete it if it
doesn't impress you?

2. Review all your shots in the camera when time permits,
deleting those that don't impress you?

3. Save everything to your computer and review it there -
deleting shots that don't impress you?

4. Save everything, impressive or not?

It seems the closer we get to number 1 above, the more likely we
are to delete good photos by accident.

But the closer we get to number 4, the more likely we are to hang
on to reams of useless, embarrassing dross.
What do you tend to do? Why?

"Alan Meyer" wrote in message
ups.com...
So, my question is, how selective are you in keeping photos? Do

I have never ever deleted a single RAW. There have been times when I have
breathed a sigh of relief at this, when finding something I just -knew- I
had somewhere.

"Alan Meyer" wrote:
So, my question is, how selective are you in keeping photos? Do
you:

1. Review a shot immediately after taking it and delete it if it
doesn't impress you?

2. Review all your shots in the camera when time permits,
deleting those that don't impress you?

3. Save everything to your computer and review it there -
deleting shots that don't impress you?

4. Save everything, impressive or not?

It seems the closer we get to number 1 above, the more likely we
are to delete good photos by accident.

But the closer we get to number 4, the more likely we are to hang
on to reams of useless, embarrassing dross.
What do you tend to do? Why?

When I review a pic on the camera, I'll delete it if it's badly blurred or
if it didn't come out - like the corner of a room instead of a person's
face, or if something walks in front of the lens. Otherwise, I save
EVERYTHING, usually in both JPG and RAW. I make daily directories with
shooting information in the name (like "1998-12-11 XMas tree and sideboard")
so that I can browse through the directory quickly. I can make more than one
directory with the same date ("2004-12-25 Christmas" and "2004-12-25 Moon")
if I'm shooting more than one thing. I name them yyyy-mm-dd so that they
automatically sort by date.

But yeah, everything's saved if it's legible.

Alan Meyer wrote:
I heard a very experienced professional National Geographic
photographer interviewed on TV talking about some of the
differences between film and digital. One difference he noted
was that, with digital, he tended to review his shots in camera
and delete those that he thought were no good. With film, he
sent his exposed film back to headquarters where his editor
looked at it before he did - sometimes choosing an image to
publish that the photographer would have thrown away. Only
later, after the photo editor singled it out for him, did he
realize that it was a great shot. He thought that some photos
were only recognized later for being as good as they were.

So, my question is, how selective are you in keeping photos? Do
you:

1. Review a shot immediately after taking it and delete it if it
doesn't impress you?

2. Review all your shots in the camera when time permits,
deleting those that don't impress you?

3. Save everything to your computer and review it there -
deleting shots that don't impress you?

4. Save everything, impressive or not?

It seems the closer we get to number 1 above, the more likely we
are to delete good photos by accident.

But the closer we get to number 4, the more likely we are to hang
on to reams of useless, embarrassing dross.
What do you tend to do? Why?


Hi Alan

Not at all qualified to answer, not a photographer,
just a guy that takes tons of pictures... nevertheless,
I'll offer my 2 cents worth, and include a reason, if
I may.

I'd suggest that with the possible exception of bracketed
shots that you save every single one of 'em. Storage is
so cheap that it's virtually free, and you never ever
know what's going to tug at your (or someone else) heart
strings later on in life.

Got me a picture of my youngest about 30 years ago.
A slide. Back in the days of manual focus. So badly
out of focus, so poorly exposed that only I really
know who she is and what she's doing. So bad that it
never even made it to a tray, just stayed in the little
yellow plastic box that Kodak mailed it back in.
Back then it was totally valueless.

Today, it's my most precious picture. If I had to
somehow lose all but one, then in a heartbeat I'd
pick that one to save. Brings back incredible
memories for me (and for her)

So - save 'em all. You never know what decades from
now will be important to you.

Take care.

Ken

"Ken Weitzel" wrote:

Got me a picture of my youngest about 30 years ago.
A slide. Back in the days of manual focus. So badly
out of focus, so poorly exposed that only I really
know who she is and what she's doing. So bad that it
never even made it to a tray, just stayed in the little
yellow plastic box that Kodak mailed it back in.
Back then it was totally valueless.

Today, it's my most precious picture. If I had to
somehow lose all but one, then in a heartbeat I'd
pick that one to save. Brings back incredible
memories for me (and for her)

So - save 'em all. You never know what decades from
now will be important to you.

I took some throwaway photos of my son when he was about 4 years old, at a
firehouse a couple of blocks away from my father's apartment on the Upper
East Side. They were nothing special at the time - he's standing next to the
truck, looking at a firefighter, etc. They were very nice to him though,
considering we just walked off the street because he wanted to see the
engines.

Four years later, a dozen men from that firehouse died on 9-11, and the
pictures now provoke a very different emotional response.

"Alan Meyer" wrote in message
ups.com...
I heard a very experienced professional National Geographic
photographer interviewed on TV talking about some of the
differences between film and digital. One difference he noted
was that, with digital, he tended to review his shots in camera
and delete those that he thought were no good. With film, he
sent his exposed film back to headquarters where his editor
looked at it before he did - sometimes choosing an image to
publish that the photographer would have thrown away. Only
later, after the photo editor singled it out for him, did he
realize that it was a great shot. He thought that some photos
were only recognized later for being as good as they were.

So, my question is, how selective are you in keeping photos? Do
you:

1. Review a shot immediately after taking it and delete it if it
doesn't impress you?

2. Review all your shots in the camera when time permits,
deleting those that don't impress you?

3. Save everything to your computer and review it there -
deleting shots that don't impress you?

4. Save everything, impressive or not?

It seems the closer we get to number 1 above, the more likely we
are to delete good photos by accident.

But the closer we get to number 4, the more likely we are to hang
on to reams of useless, embarrassing dross.
What do you tend to do? Why?

I am close to option 4. I save almost everything, but I do delede some very
bad and very obvious duds. Uses a lot of disk space, but that is cheap.

Don Dunlap

On 27 Dec 2004 12:06:22 -0800, "Alan Meyer" wrote:

I heard a very experienced professional National Geographic
photographer interviewed on TV talking about some of the
differences between film and digital. One difference he noted
was that, with digital, he tended to review his shots in camera
and delete those that he thought were no good. With film, he
sent his exposed film back to headquarters where his editor
looked at it before he did - sometimes choosing an image to
publish that the photographer would have thrown away. Only
later, after the photo editor singled it out for him, did he
realize that it was a great shot. He thought that some photos
were only recognized later for being as good as they were.

So, my question is, how selective are you in keeping photos? Do
you:

1. Review a shot immediately after taking it and delete it if it
doesn't impress you?

2. Review all your shots in the camera when time permits,
deleting those that don't impress you?

3. Save everything to your computer and review it there -
deleting shots that don't impress you?

4. Save everything, impressive or not?

It seems the closer we get to number 1 above, the more likely we
are to delete good photos by accident.

But the closer we get to number 4, the more likely we are to hang
on to reams of useless, embarrassing dross.
What do you tend to do? Why?

3.8.
Everything goes on the computer to see.
Then the obvious bad shots get dumped. These are the out-of-focus
shots, the ones where someone stepped in front, the snap shot (not
*snapshot*) that didn't work at all.
I find that often the ones that I would delete because they don't
strike *me* as being any good are later seen (by myself or someone
else) as something that's actually very decent.

--
Bill Funk
Change "g" to "a"

I'm running out of hard drive space quickly but up till now I've been
saving almost everything. I'll download them & scoll through, either
marking with a + in the name or simply moving them into/out of a
"seconds" folder and sometimes even a "thirds" folder. If I edit a file,
I stow the original in the seconds folder: I've also made a folder
called "originals" for that but prefer to keep things simple.

It is exhausting torture for me to go through the weeding process so I
don't dare throw out things casually. As I go back to two year old
archives, I'll pretty often find something interesting in the seconds
folder. Also I do save a lot of pics because they capture the subject
accurately but are not particularly beautiful compositions, usually
that's when I get into a "thirds" scenario. Renaming with the plusses is
also nice because I can search for "++" or "+++" and find the most
gorgeous shots in a category quickly. OTOH I often re-discover unmarked
pics later with no + mark.

I think the guy above had the right idea about naming:

2004-12-27-rainstorm
2004-12-27-rainstorm-originals
2004-12-27-rainstorm-seconds
2004-12-27-rainstorm-web-version

is better than what I've mostly done:

2004-12-27-rainstorm
originals
seconds
web-version
2004-12-27-rainstorm

Because you can see what you've got without opening folders & can move
the seconds easily to backup when your hard drive fills up!

Also I've moved my web versions into another folder so ultimately I'll have:

C:\pictures
2004-12-27-rainstorm

C:\web\pictures
2004-12-27-rainstorm

D:\picture-extras
2004-12-27-rainstorm-originals
2004-12-27-rainstorm-seconds

I'm running out of hard drive space quickly but up till now I've been
saving almost everything. I'll download them & scoll through, either
marking with a + in the name or simply moving them into/out of a
"seconds" folder and sometimes even a "thirds" folder. If I edit a file,
I stow the original in the seconds folder: I've also made a folder
called "originals" for that but prefer to keep things simple.

It is exhausting torture for me to go through the weeding process so I
don't dare throw out things casually. As I go back to two year old
archives, I'll pretty often find something interesting in the seconds
folder. Also I do save a lot of pics because they capture the subject
accurately but are not particularly beautiful compositions, usually
that's when I get into a "thirds" scenario. Renaming with the plusses is
also nice because I can search for "++" or "+++" and find the most
gorgeous shots in a category quickly. OTOH I often re-discover unmarked
pics later with no + mark.

I think the guy above had the right idea about naming:

2004-12-27-rainstorm
2004-12-27-rainstorm-originals
2004-12-27-rainstorm-seconds
2004-12-27-rainstorm-web-version

is better than what I've mostly done:

2004-12-27-rainstorm
originals
seconds
web-version
2004-12-27-rainstorm

Because you can see what you've got without opening folders & can move
the seconds easily to backup when your hard drive fills up!

Also I've moved my web versions into another folder so ultimately I'll have:

C:\pictures
2004-12-27-rainstorm

C:\web\pictures
2004-12-27-rainstorm

D:\picture-extras
2004-12-27-rainstorm-originals
2004-12-27-rainstorm-seconds

Alan Meyer wrote:
I heard a very experienced professional National Geographic
photographer interviewed on TV talking about some of the
differences between film and digital. One difference he noted
was that, with digital, he tended to review his shots in camera
and delete those that he thought were no good. With film, he
sent his exposed film back to headquarters where his editor
looked at it before he did - sometimes choosing an image to
publish that the photographer would have thrown away. Only
later, after the photo editor singled it out for him, did he
realize that it was a great shot. He thought that some photos
were only recognized later for being as good as they were.

So, my question is, how selective are you in keeping photos? Do
you:

1. Review a shot immediately after taking it and delete it if it
doesn't impress you?

2. Review all your shots in the camera when time permits,
deleting those that don't impress you?

3. Save everything to your computer and review it there -
deleting shots that don't impress you?

4. Save everything, impressive or not?

It seems the closer we get to number 1 above, the more likely we
are to delete good photos by accident.

But the closer we get to number 4, the more likely we are to hang
on to reams of useless, embarrassing dross.
What do you tend to do? Why?

I review them as time permits. I dump everything I don't like. I have
to please only myself, I don't really care if anyone else hates them or
loves them. In the end, I'll bet most people who see my photos, would say I
am a much better photographer than if I saved them all.

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math