Canisdirus

Valid points.

I had to adjust to the massive plethora of images the new cameras are capable of taking in a few hours.

At first...deluged.

Then I simply got a leaner eye...shoot less...throw away a LOT more.

If they aren't a 9 or a 10 ... gone...excluding images of our pets.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

But each of my 75 shots of <animal> are different poses.......

tcthome Loc: NJ

I fall in between. I have been going through & deleting quite a few of what I think won't ever be used. But probably still keep way to many. Every now & then I come across something I should done something with & will play around in LR6/Affinity Photo when haven't been out shooting in a while. Different strokes.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Key operator!

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

Guilty as charged. Sometimes I go back and ask myself why did I take that shot or so many of the same subject.

BurghByrd Loc: Pittsburgh

Good philosophy Chance

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Bill, et al -

I hesitate to write any response, both because if it's long, no one will read. As well, I'm struggling with what counter-term to use going forward in response to spray&pray. This one comes up just often enough, as a catch-all, that I need a catch-phrase counter-response I can whip out on demand from memory. I'm going to start with 'fuddy duddy' until I find something better.

That flower example above, for me, would play out as:

1, A few test shots for the exposure. These are not sports / event images that can't be recreated. I can be casual in developing my manual exposure settings. There goes say 3 shots.

2, A few tests on where to focus on the flower. I don't chip very much, beyond a look for blinking highlights. Say +3 more.

3, Now, am I going to take one more and say I'm done? No, I'm going to work this flower, both landscape and portrait, if applicable. Varying my angle of view and / or position of the flower in the frame. If shooting from overhead, that's going to be another 10 to 20 shots, each rather similar, but also each composed individually and each unique. I'm not just holding the hammer down and ripping unnecessary duplicate images, what this spray&pray accusation means to me.

4, I also will likely try some eye-levels shots, either getting my behind on the ground or some risky just hold the camera down there (knee-level) attempts. That's going to double my total again.

The process above is why I'd expect to have 40+ images from just that one flower. I'll pull them up on my large monitor and look at each at the 1:1 pixel level details. I'll kick half, typically, before even importing into LR, using FastRawViewer to cull. There might only be 1 overhead and 1 eye-level that are worth keeping when done editing, including a process of one-to-one image compares at the pixel-level. But, I let the results and the uniqueness of each view determine the final count, not force the count to 1 or 2.

Those two images are probably a 30-minute commitment, covering the shooting time, culling and editing, probably an hour after prepping the social media versions for post. This is not spray&pray, which is why I 'promise' to find the term to throw back in response when I find the phrase / term that captures my sense of sarcasm, with a layer of mild bite. Anyone with candidate terms, please suggest. A photographer fuddy-duddy is a start, but doesn't feel yet like the new catch-phrase I'm wanting to use.

Hopefully, all can see why all but the final few best digital results are junk in my book.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

See my process described just above in an earlier reply. That's my reason "why" for so many captured, as well as "why" I only keep one or two and no records of how many were originally involved.

Photography is not a sport like golf where the low score wins. Rather, the measure of success is success. One great image is an undefeated season. It doesn't matter how many <Delete>s occurred prior to that image. Michael Jordan wasn't the greatest because he practiced really hard. He's the greatest because he has six championships and no defeats.

StanMac Loc: Tennessee

Stan

steve_stoneblossom Loc: Rhode Island, USA

Given the demographics of UHH, what are the chances that any of us will change our methodology if it doesn't suit us by now?

On a related note, I have to remind myself to set a limit on how long I follow a topic before un-watching.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You're right, it's a personal decision on what people do individually, as well as what they seek to uniquely accomplish. But, as a learning environment for those seeking 'best practices' of others with more experience -- so they too don't have to re-invent the wheel -- it's reasonable to discuss the 'whys' behind many of the 'hows' of the actions.

There's a list of members, that when they join the thread, I unwatch. That's my best practice for UHH participation and / or departure.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Okay, with that approach, you're making sense. What you call it is irrelevant. I get your thought process and it is definitely not spray and pray, which is more the sports action photographer's cliche, or the fashion photographer's cliche.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I was at Graceland a while ago when two different people ran through different rooms, both with spray&pray, or run&gun. Both picked three or four subjects in that exhibit room, ripped 3+ frames of each in a burst and walked out. These were DSLR-only days, it's been a while, where in today's silent mirrorless world, I wouldn't have known nor noted.

Meanwhile, I'd probably been in the room for 20+ minutes already, and only even seen / shot half of all the items displayed. I tend to shoot at the edges of what's possible, whether low-light, slow shutter, precise focus, DOF, etc. Much of my trash is me failing to configure the camera just right or failing to hold the camera steady enough. I never (again) want the sensation of getting home and wishing I'd taken more after failing to find the desired image in what I offload.

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

You're absolutely right..! I'm going to delete the hundreds of Big Foot photos that I have, including the selfie we took together when I was camping in the deep woods, and save the one that I have that is out of focus.😜

Abo

good question... apart from "because I can" I wish I had a good answer...

all my stored images that are not good enough to view, are good examples,
of what not to do... Who wants to bin a good example.