What do you save?
Apr 23, 2019 13:50:53 #
Over the years I have been in a quandary over which pictures to save.
To put my question in context I shoot in Raw and JPG fine and down load all of it into a folder by year month and then date. Then when I have time or are so inclined I'll pick the best ones (IMHO) and PP them from the raw, and save in their original folders. So a typical folder will contain the down loaded raw and JPG plus the post process. As you can imagine I've got terra-bytes of pictures, most of which are untouched and most of which are, to my eye, fairly boring or repetitive. If a shot is seriously messed up I'll delete it out of hand but that's probably only 10%.
The question is what do you all save? How do you catalogue all of it? For a while I had shots saved by subject as well as the 'original". It's frankly getting impossible to find a shot that I want for one reason or another.
Any suggestions?
To put my question in context I shoot in Raw and JPG fine and down load all of it into a folder by year month and then date. Then when I have time or are so inclined I'll pick the best ones (IMHO) and PP them from the raw, and save in their original folders. So a typical folder will contain the down loaded raw and JPG plus the post process. As you can imagine I've got terra-bytes of pictures, most of which are untouched and most of which are, to my eye, fairly boring or repetitive. If a shot is seriously messed up I'll delete it out of hand but that's probably only 10%.
The question is what do you all save? How do you catalogue all of it? For a while I had shots saved by subject as well as the 'original". It's frankly getting impossible to find a shot that I want for one reason or another.
Any suggestions?
Apr 23, 2019 13:59:48 #
Apr 23, 2019 14:01:15 #
An 8 terabyte hard drive is only about $150. save 'em all
Apr 23, 2019 14:15:28 #
Storage is cheap. I save everything except for bad focus/exposure accidents. I consider the "eh" ones memory shots.
Everything is in individual subject directories (Acadia) under main subject directories (Places). Duplicate outings will be in another directory level under the individual directory (YYYY-MM).
I could never file images by date (taken) as I can never remember WHEN I went to a place. Easier to look for a place than look at what I took on a certain date!
The original is the name that comes out of each camera (different prefixex). If I make a mod, I'll indicate that in the file name-
IMG_1234.JPG -original
IMG_1234adj.JPG -adjusted
IMG_1234adj8x10.JPG -adjusted changed to 8x10 aspect ratio
Everything is in individual subject directories (Acadia) under main subject directories (Places). Duplicate outings will be in another directory level under the individual directory (YYYY-MM).
I could never file images by date (taken) as I can never remember WHEN I went to a place. Easier to look for a place than look at what I took on a certain date!
The original is the name that comes out of each camera (different prefixex). If I make a mod, I'll indicate that in the file name-
IMG_1234.JPG -original
IMG_1234adj.JPG -adjusted
IMG_1234adj8x10.JPG -adjusted changed to 8x10 aspect ratio
Apr 23, 2019 14:23:10 #
Toolking wrote:
Over the years I have been in a quandary over whic... (show quote)
If you want some space, get rid of the original JPEGs. You already have the RAW file and embedded information for the JPEG. I keep the JPEGs for only a short while for those times when I need a quick turn around.
Apr 23, 2019 14:25:17 #
I only save what I'm willing to edit and to share. That's a keeper rate down in the 10% neighborhood. Your RAW file is always your original. Unless you're using those JPEGs, they're a complete waste. You might begin immediately by stopping with the JPEGs.
When it comes to editing, your first step needs to be to get rid of all the extras / repeats aka culling. They're just making it difficult for you to find and keep only your best. They're slowing down your load times, your copy times, your back-up time, costing more money for more and more storage, and as you've noted, your 'search time', really they're holding you back in every conceivable way.
Get a digital library manager, Lightroom or similar. Ignore your back catalog and get started with your new work. When you import into the catalog / library, add keywords for any relevant future searches (examples: location (city, state, park name, zoo, etc), subject (flowers, pets, people's names, etc). Work out your own workflow. I've found it useful to do the keywording at the start. It's the same amount of time to highlight 10 images and add "rose" as it is to update one image later. I may eventually keep only one of those rose images, but the keyword "homework / admin" was done to all images so it doesn't matter the unneeded images are deleted.
Look at your work critically. Work in waves / cycles. Look at your work displayed at 100% zoom. At the first past, delete anything not in focus, best assessed at this 100% zoom. If the image is not in focus at the pixel-level details, it will never improve in the processing. Just delete and move on to those that are in focus. Second pass, view the entire images trying to pick the 'best version' from any repeats. The 'best' may still need some editing, so try to pick the one that represents the least amount of editing work. If you can't decide between two or three similar, use your tool's side-by-side compare function and force a selection. Sometimes, you need to finish the edits to make a decision, it doesn't matter so much how / when, except that at the end: you have the one keeper of the group and get rid of the rest. What you consider 'your best' will / should begin to get better when you get brutal at separating the wheat from the chaff.
Once you've began to operate where you continue shooting as much as you please, but editing only what's worth keeping, and then keeping only what's worth showing, make a plan to load your historical work into your catalog tool. Get rid of all those JPEGs where they overlap with the same images in RAW. Perform a mass-import and then use date sorting and slowly begin to add the keywords and organize. Don't try to do everything at once nor spend time culling. Just get the keywords applied so you remember what you have historically and have the keywords to find beyond trying to remember individual shooting dates.
When you get an interest in a specific subject / historical shoot, treat those RAW files as if you'd just shot them: aggressively cull, edit and finalize what is worth keeping. You may have left yourself weeks (months, years?) of culling and editing work. Don't let the magnitude of that effort stop you from getting started, but don't exhaust yourself on this task. Just chip at it every so often if / when you have a need for an image.
When it comes to editing, your first step needs to be to get rid of all the extras / repeats aka culling. They're just making it difficult for you to find and keep only your best. They're slowing down your load times, your copy times, your back-up time, costing more money for more and more storage, and as you've noted, your 'search time', really they're holding you back in every conceivable way.
Get a digital library manager, Lightroom or similar. Ignore your back catalog and get started with your new work. When you import into the catalog / library, add keywords for any relevant future searches (examples: location (city, state, park name, zoo, etc), subject (flowers, pets, people's names, etc). Work out your own workflow. I've found it useful to do the keywording at the start. It's the same amount of time to highlight 10 images and add "rose" as it is to update one image later. I may eventually keep only one of those rose images, but the keyword "homework / admin" was done to all images so it doesn't matter the unneeded images are deleted.
Look at your work critically. Work in waves / cycles. Look at your work displayed at 100% zoom. At the first past, delete anything not in focus, best assessed at this 100% zoom. If the image is not in focus at the pixel-level details, it will never improve in the processing. Just delete and move on to those that are in focus. Second pass, view the entire images trying to pick the 'best version' from any repeats. The 'best' may still need some editing, so try to pick the one that represents the least amount of editing work. If you can't decide between two or three similar, use your tool's side-by-side compare function and force a selection. Sometimes, you need to finish the edits to make a decision, it doesn't matter so much how / when, except that at the end: you have the one keeper of the group and get rid of the rest. What you consider 'your best' will / should begin to get better when you get brutal at separating the wheat from the chaff.
Once you've began to operate where you continue shooting as much as you please, but editing only what's worth keeping, and then keeping only what's worth showing, make a plan to load your historical work into your catalog tool. Get rid of all those JPEGs where they overlap with the same images in RAW. Perform a mass-import and then use date sorting and slowly begin to add the keywords and organize. Don't try to do everything at once nor spend time culling. Just get the keywords applied so you remember what you have historically and have the keywords to find beyond trying to remember individual shooting dates.
When you get an interest in a specific subject / historical shoot, treat those RAW files as if you'd just shot them: aggressively cull, edit and finalize what is worth keeping. You may have left yourself weeks (months, years?) of culling and editing work. Don't let the magnitude of that effort stop you from getting started, but don't exhaust yourself on this task. Just chip at it every so often if / when you have a need for an image.
Apr 23, 2019 14:25:28 #
boberic wrote:
An 8 terabyte hard drive is only about $150. save 'em all
With all due respect to your viewpoint, I take many macro photos of insects or flowers on perhaps a windy day. I just did that exact same thing yesterday. I haven't looked yet at the downloads but I know from experience that many of the photographs will be out of focus due to the very small working distance of perhaps an inch or less. Can you give me one good reason to keep those out of focus photographs.
My two year old granddaughter runs around much of the time having fun. When I take her photo, or try to, many of them are fantastic but some are blurry, out of focus and so on. Can you give me one good reason to keep those photos forever when they are obviously not good photos and I will never do anything with them? No matter how much storage I might have what is the sense in keeping bad photos?
Dennis
Apr 23, 2019 14:39:01 #
dennis2146 wrote:
With all due respect to your viewpoint, I take man... (show quote)
I have the same attitude. To anyone espousing the 'save them all' approach, I ask that you walk to a nearby mirror and ask yourself: am I a photographer or a packrat?
Similar to Dennis, I shot at the Lincoln Park Zoo both Sat & Sunday this past weekend, testing / practicing with different set-ups. I've already done most of the culling so I can only guestimate I filled just over one card in RAW, around 1200 images total. At this point the catalog shows I'm down to 82-images still being edited and I know there's probably another 10 to 20- that will be rejected before all the edits are completed. I only care about the images that make the grade. I'll never miss any of the rest.
Apr 23, 2019 14:45:24 #
CHG_CANON wrote:
I have the same attitude. To anyone espousing the ... (show quote)
Photograpackrat?
(I don't take dozens of the same thing, so I have no problem.)
Apr 23, 2019 14:48:00 #
Longshadow wrote:
Photograpackrat?
(I don't take dozens of the same thing, so I have no problem.)
(I don't take dozens of the same thing, so I have no problem.)
Digital midden maker?
I shoot a lot of live animals, many times at the edge of what is possible at the lens and camera boundaries of ISO and / or shutterspeed. So, I'll have multiple bursts, trying for the one that has the best focus on the eye, best starting noise profile, best head position, clean background, etc.
Apr 23, 2019 14:50:02 #
CHG_CANON wrote:
Digital midden maker?
Haha, no, they all aren't that bad.
Apr 23, 2019 14:54:34 #
I only save the keepers, worthy of post processing. Then I delete all the other pictures from the shoot. Since I only consider a few percent of my shots to be keepers, I just save them in a folder on my desktop. and in sub folders of that folder. I don't have to catalog them since the sub folder name and/or the thumbnails can be reviewed in just a few minutes to find a pic I am looking for.
Toolking wrote:
Over the years I have been in a quandary over whic... (show quote)
Apr 23, 2019 15:15:03 #
CHG_CANON wrote:
Digital midden maker?
I shoot a lot of live animals, many times at the edge of what is possible at the lens and camera boundaries of ISO and / or shutterspeed. So, I'll have multiple bursts, trying for the one that has the best focus on the eye, best starting noise profile, best head position, clean background, etc.
I shoot a lot of live animals, many times at the edge of what is possible at the lens and camera boundaries of ISO and / or shutterspeed. So, I'll have multiple bursts, trying for the one that has the best focus on the eye, best starting noise profile, best head position, clean background, etc.
Apr 23, 2019 15:18:23 #
Toolking wrote:
Over the years I have been in a quandary over whic... (show quote)
Lightroom.
I only shoot raw, upload everything I shoot to Lightroom for cataloging, review and cull, then the remaining are rated, and the very best are selected for post processing. These are then edited in any number of applications, but usually Photoshop and On1 Raw. I save the resulting 16 psd file with it's layers. Some can be as big as 1 gb.
For the few commercial clients I have, I shoot raw, post proofs right out of Lightroom to my personal website. Client reviews and selects images for post processing. Then these are uploaded to a subfolder to the original upload.
I have copies of files in at least 3 different places - active storage in my computer, external hard drive, personal website and cloud. I don't bother saving or keeping jpegs.
Apr 23, 2019 15:22:44 #
If you are a professional, the question is what personal photos do you save. If like me, you are an amateur, most of your photos are important and you took them for a reason having nothing to do with commerce.
I think the question for me is what to save, from what time period(s) and where to store them. The solution is everything.Every photograph that I have taken and digitized, as well as all I have taken since I 'went digital' reside on a external hard drive. Can I find anything on it, of course not. As you get older nostalgia will raise its ugly head and make thing ever harder. I have snap shots, negs and scans of the former, that I took when I was 6 or 7 years old. Throw those away? Not if you hold a gun to my head!
As Longshadow said storage is cheap. All, every stinking one, of my photos reside on external hard drives. That takes care of the question for me but, of course, it creates an even bigger problem. Once a photo is on the hard drive how in the world do I ever find it again? Answer, I don't.
I am about to violate Scott Kelby's number one commandment and create a second catalog in Lightroom. It is going to contain only things I access often and will be only the only catalog I 'work' out of. When I finish working on a photo it will be so heavily key worded, flagged, starred and titled that I can find it anywhere. Only then will I transfer it back to the original files to be included in the original LR catalog.
Oh, you may ask, what about all those negs and prints? They reside in a safe deposit box along with one of the hard drives. Drives get rotated every 3 months.
I think the question for me is what to save, from what time period(s) and where to store them. The solution is everything.Every photograph that I have taken and digitized, as well as all I have taken since I 'went digital' reside on a external hard drive. Can I find anything on it, of course not. As you get older nostalgia will raise its ugly head and make thing ever harder. I have snap shots, negs and scans of the former, that I took when I was 6 or 7 years old. Throw those away? Not if you hold a gun to my head!
As Longshadow said storage is cheap. All, every stinking one, of my photos reside on external hard drives. That takes care of the question for me but, of course, it creates an even bigger problem. Once a photo is on the hard drive how in the world do I ever find it again? Answer, I don't.
I am about to violate Scott Kelby's number one commandment and create a second catalog in Lightroom. It is going to contain only things I access often and will be only the only catalog I 'work' out of. When I finish working on a photo it will be so heavily key worded, flagged, starred and titled that I can find it anywhere. Only then will I transfer it back to the original files to be included in the original LR catalog.
Oh, you may ask, what about all those negs and prints? They reside in a safe deposit box along with one of the hard drives. Drives get rotated every 3 months.
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