fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

I remember a quote from my Statistics and Probability class: "If a million monkeys randomly hit a million typewriter keys for a million years, one would eventually produce Hamlet or the Constitution." A bit ludicrous but the point was made. If someone takes 40 or 50 shots, each with a different setting and different composition every time they photograph a single subject, eventually they'll take a few photos as good as Ansel Adams.

I guess it's a matter of pride (or stubbornness!) that keep us old film guys trying to get the best shot with the fewest shutter releases. I'll admit CHG CANON makes some very good points about the value of not being afraid to take a lot of shots and especially about post processing. If one in a hundred is a keeper, there's nothing wrong with that outcome especially if your shutter count is in the tens of thousands. Just don't be afraid to hit "delete," 99 times.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

One must delete as many frames as needed to succeed.

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

I never bracket with digital since I can examine the image and histogram and arrive at the correct exposure. I bracketed a lot more with film since I couldn't see the result. And taking a lot of exposures is not necessarily "spray and pray". With static subjects where there is plenty of time to consider the composition and exposure I don't shoot any more than I did with film. Where it really helps is with any moving subject. That is where digital gives the advantage of taking many shots and picking the best ones. I remember shooting events with film and having to time changing the film when there was a lull in the proceedings so I wouldn't run out of shots when something important was happening.

fourlocks Loc: Londonderry, NH

Hmmmm... A very Zen-like thought. It must also apply to life in general but for the life of me I can't figure out how. Lemme grab a few more beers and ponder this, properly!

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Being a little less flippant / zen-like, the approach to capturing a lot of frames needs to be part of a wholistic and integrated workflow that emphasizes efficiency. There's a need / assumption of being able to quickly flip through 100s of images and find / rate the 5 to 10 worth considering further. This takes both a skill / vision of the potential of the final result and the tools to quickly (preferably immediately) render each image for consideration.

Now back to Zen: The master has deleted more images than the beginner has ever taken.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

To repeat from my reply earlier on this page: don't edit those almost alike images. Delete the repeats and / or reduce down to just the 2 or 3 that have potential of being the single final keeper. Look at your tools and consider tools based on 'sync' technology like Lightroom. Therefore, you can edit one to near completion and use the software to automatically 'sync' those settings onto the other versions. Then, consider which of the almost alike to take to the finish while discarding the others.

Barn Owl

My early mentor in film photography looked at the cheap camera and lens, he had encouraged me to buy and said, "Congratulations, in about seven years you may know what you are doing." I was a little shocked at his lack of understanding of my projected mental skills. Needless to say; he was right. Fast forward to my enjoyment with my digital gear... My advice in editing digitals is to use the delete button with frequency. After at least two weeks, revisit your digital folder and then use the delete button on the many images that you thought were "keepers". There are a world of photographers, who think all their photos are potential covers for magazine and wall prints. The "shooters" delight in their photos and take many hundreds--if not thousands of photos. Unless you are asked to objectively response to their pics, why "rain on their parade"?

ShelbyDave Loc: Lone Rock, WI

LOL

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

Nickaroo

Yeah, after posting that I thought about going back and editing my reply. I say this because if I look at how many shots that I take, and I just did this for 2 months worth of shooting, I have probably 1 out of 45 that I have edited and put in my edited photo folder for that month. One folder only has 11 files in it and this month I would say that, even though I have shot more, I'm on track for a much lower keeper count, like 1-2. Now, I do backups of my cards, 3, and I even save my cards without clearing them. That may seem strange but I will not sit there and go through 1,000 shots to find "The One" that I need to show someone. I know where everything is at. And Paul, you are right, people are stupid. I have probably kicked keepers out at one time or another just due to the fact that I happen to be a Minimalist. I'm okay with that because I will be damned if I become one of those people that bombard someone with a personal or Commercial Website to show people the work that they have done, and the person looks at the Portfolio and by the time they get home their head is spinning like they just got done playing one of our frats. drinking parties that we did every weekend at U of M.. I don't know if this is a good rule to go by, but I believe that you have one collection on your Website, let's call it Flowers, I would put and do put 10 pics at the most in it. Because I feel that you put your starters out and make a good but hard drive down the Fairway and then show them how well you hit that 2nd. shot, then your sand shot or chip shot, and maybe you didn't quite connect in your terms so you have to whip out that 150 yard 7-iron, then throw a couple of good putts and your done. You have now made it easier on everyones eyes by not sifting through garbage. I have found that in most instances that it is better to hold back a little and if you feel like it later on, then by all means, go back to that Flowers Collection and yank 1-2 out and maybe put a sub in. If you can't get your quality across with 9-11 shots in any Genre, then what makes you think that 30 of them will help. A person that cannot cull and sift to pick, is A) Stupid, B) Can't make up their minds, C) They just don't possess good judgement or have no faith in what they are doing. The Classiest Restaurants, I think we still have those, don't have a Weekend Menu that is more than 2 sides. I'am so Thankful Paul that you said what I have always believed, and YES There Are A Lot Of Stupids Out There.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Although I agree in the less is more approach, using Flickr as the example misunderstands the purpose of Flickr. "Flowers" there are a collection (Flickr term - Album) of my flower images from now the roughly 15 years of digital shooting. It's not an attempt to present anything other than a convenient collection of images of the same general topic.

I'm not going to tell you how to manage your images and your storage, but your described process sends shivers up and down my spine. I aggressively cull my images, aggressively keyword and catalog in LR, and clear my camera cards for reuse. I can find any image that has been properly processed going back to the 80s, but it's still a WIP effort to complete the keyword and catalog work on older film scans and digital work prior to about 2014 when I started using Lightroom.

I don't worry about what I might have deleted. I don't have that level of attachment to any individual image. Every shutter is intended to be pure gold, but life doesn't work that way. Rather, I try to make every frame as good as possible and I pick out whatever seems promising when I get home and can consider the images in comparison to each other using a large calibrated display.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Also, while maybe shooting film made us more critical in deciding what shoot I don’t think it made us better. The beauty of digital is I can continually shoot and improve my technique without having to worry about the cost of film. The best way to get better at something is to do it. Now that doesn’t mean pray and spray, but it means to actually practice good technique.

Nickaroo

I did not even know that you had a Flowers section on Flikr. But, I do aggressively cull and keyword my images in my LightRoom Classic CC Folders. After all, that is why I have the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Please don't think that I don't look at the shots I take to put in those Folders. One must Keyword and Cull, but I was just saying that not everything gets to stay. Every 30 days I go through and look at what I have and double check to make sure that I don't have 6 files in a row looking exactly the same. And, I do have and do Calibrate my BenQ SW2700 PT Monitor every 2 weeks. As far as my cards go, I will admit this, I clear the XQD unless there is something that is on there that I just want, but I do pull the SD and label it and put it away. I knew that you were going to probably go crazy and ask yourself "Who is this Nut". I'am kind over the top when it comes to backup and storage. All that I was saying is that I will not be one of those guys that sits down with someone who is considering using me or buying something from me. I thought about getting on Flikr because it looks kind of cool. So when I say that I just chuck files, I didn't mean that I haven't culled or Keyworded my images. That is the whole objective of using a DAM management system and I find LR to be the best. I bought stock in Adobe when I was 35 just to add to my Portfolio and caught the splits so I have a few shares let's say, but please get some Crown Royal and don't have a Panic Attack. I'm really not that bad, I shoot U of M Football and Basketball and hopefully by Sept. we are allowed to go back down on the field because I cannot take poking my head out of a hole in a tarp at various spots throughout the Stadium. I knew when I told you that I was a Minimalist that you were probably scratching your head and thinking Wow! what a goofball. Seriously though I just can't keep every shot that I take and put it in a folder if I know for sure that I will never use it.

Nickaroo

See, right there you are telling me Delete and Abort You Bumbling Fool. Mayday, Mayday!!!