Do you save all your pictures?
Jun 26, 2023 10:00:39 #
jerryc41 wrote:
I have a dozen or more albums with pictures dating back to the 1960s. I have no plans to scan them.
Actually scanning albums, mine go back to the late 1800's, is very valuable.
Only one person can keep the album.
I scan and then distribute to the family as broadly as possible.
This way over time the album will hopefully survive with the few who care about family history.
Jun 26, 2023 10:00:42 #
Everything I shoot is saved onto hard drive. I go through & isolate the ones I want to use, but still keep the others as a point of reference to study & learn not so much what I did wrong, but as a what could I have done better to make it a better image.
Jun 26, 2023 10:07:06 #
Curmudgeon wrote:
I have always saved all my pictures. I got my firs... (show quote)
It's a bad habit that I'm trying to break. I also have too much junk in my garage and office.
The big problem with keeping too much stuff is the problem of finding some treasure you remember putting away. If you can't find it is probably was not worth saving.
Jun 26, 2023 10:44:45 #
mikegreenwald
Loc: Illinois
Never, ever, save everything. The lousy shots are, and always will be, lousy shots. By saving only the best, it reduces the time and effort of reviewing and enjoying the worthwhile memories and similar.
Simple example: In a difficult lighting situation, I bracket, then save either the best, or an HDR offshoot. There’s no reason to save the garbage!
Simple example: In a difficult lighting situation, I bracket, then save either the best, or an HDR offshoot. There’s no reason to save the garbage!
Jun 26, 2023 10:55:08 #
Funny (?) story. I was in a class once taught by two wedding photographers who were partners in their business. I was one of the oldest in this class, in my mid-forties, but there was one older, who I estimated to be in his 80s.
Part of the day's lesson was about editing your photos, and by editing, they meant editing in the classic sense, which was culling the bad ones. First you would go through and pick out the obvious failures, then go through a second time and look for inconsistencies, and finally, pick out the "keepers."
The old guy almost lost it.
"You're telling them to throw away their precious, precious photos," he shouted from the back of the room. "How can you do that? They will be lost forever and never be seen that way again."
He and the instructor had a brief exchange in which the latter said (paraphrasing) that it was his class and he would teach it his way. The old guy didn't come back after the break, and we never saw him again.
P.S. It appears that you and I were born the same year...
Part of the day's lesson was about editing your photos, and by editing, they meant editing in the classic sense, which was culling the bad ones. First you would go through and pick out the obvious failures, then go through a second time and look for inconsistencies, and finally, pick out the "keepers."
The old guy almost lost it.
"You're telling them to throw away their precious, precious photos," he shouted from the back of the room. "How can you do that? They will be lost forever and never be seen that way again."
He and the instructor had a brief exchange in which the latter said (paraphrasing) that it was his class and he would teach it his way. The old guy didn't come back after the break, and we never saw him again.
P.S. It appears that you and I were born the same year...
Jun 26, 2023 11:01:47 #
Jun 26, 2023 11:16:09 #
Yes, I keep everything. My mother threw away my early negatives, but I have everything since I started shooting seriously. Some aren't very good, but it's fun to remember. Some are pretty good and just need a little tweaking. Some are (I think, proudly) magnificent and I wonder why I never did anything with them!
Jun 26, 2023 11:28:22 #
I pretty much save everything, and have 9 TB to provide backup in 4 places. I’ve since deleted jpg’s from 2015 forward, and everything more than 10 years old…to free up space on the laptop, but all still in backup.
I had an accidental shot (hit shutter release without aiming, focusing, checking exposure). Turned out to be a nice backdrop to some clutter in an otherwise nice shot. You never know.
I had an accidental shot (hit shutter release without aiming, focusing, checking exposure). Turned out to be a nice backdrop to some clutter in an otherwise nice shot. You never know.
Jun 26, 2023 11:35:57 #
petercbrandt
Loc: New York City, Manhattan
Curmudgeon wrote:
I have always saved all my pictures. I got my firs... (show quote)
I still have all my slides and negs from back then: 1960 to 2006! But when oh when will I find the energy to edit only the best ones and digitize those
Jun 26, 2023 12:07:28 #
Curmudgeon wrote:
...My hope was that someday post processing was going to allow me to salvage all those "I almost got it" shots that record important memories that I don't want to loose...
... I now have over 38,000 uncatalogued images most of which I will never look at some of them I will. I will salvage them using all the improvements in Lightroom, Photoshop, Topaz and many others. I will use AI technology with no apology...
... I now have over 38,000 uncatalogued images most of which I will never look at some of them I will. I will salvage them using all the improvements in Lightroom, Photoshop, Topaz and many others. I will use AI technology with no apology...
I would say the cataloging of the images is your first step. Lightroom makes that easy and you can put color labels on them to indicate where they might be in the journey from junk to value.
I delete digital duds during import triage for the most part although some sneak through as a result of poor judgement. I don't have any negatives any more as they were lost in a move. I do have albums full of photos which I am scanning in my Copious Free Time* and they go into the family photo group. I periodically distribute the photos to the family in the hope that some people will preserve them for the future family. I'm hoping for another decade to complete the process but I have passed the average longevity of my immediate ancestors for the last 3 generations (I'm hoping to match a couple outliers).
* Here I have adopted a format which I title 'Capitalization indicating Negation', a form I first observed in articles by Jerry Pournelle in a computer magazine a few decades ago. He would describe the adoption date of vaporware as 'Real Soon Now', which was widely interpreted to mean 'Never'.
Jun 26, 2023 12:49:39 #
Curmudgeon wrote:
I have always saved all my pictures. I got my firs... (show quote)
Since you asked. Yes, I have hundreds of prints from my film days which I have and in the past if one was bad I trashed it. Some I will eventually scan maybe post here.
My digital images, I delete the bad ones and keep the rest.
bruce
Jun 26, 2023 13:06:20 #
Curmudgeon wrote:
I have always saved all my pictures. I got my firs... (show quote)
Do you really mean everything? I am a ruthless culler. If it’s junk, it’s gone. If I’ve got fifty better shots of the same thing, it’s gone. I deleted 300 pictures of Humpback whales just yesterday because I’ve got hundreds of better shots of the same whale. So no. I don’t save everything. What’s the point?
Jun 26, 2023 13:14:36 #
CamB wrote:
Do you really mean everything? I am a ruthless culler. If it’s junk, it’s gone. If I’ve got fifty better shots of the same thing, it’s gone. I deleted 300 pictures of Humpback whales just yesterday because I’ve got hundreds of better shots of the same whale. So no. I don’t save everything. What’s the point?
I don't tend to take many duplicate shots except when I'm shooting BIFs. It's easier and faster to save them than cull them. As I've said before storage is cheep.
Jun 26, 2023 14:57:00 #
Curmudgeon wrote:
I have always saved all my pictures. I got my firs... (show quote)
I keep everything except duplicates and those that are badly out of focus. I have 37,700 digital photos but they're all date and event categorized within Lightroom. So I can locate any photo at any time with no issues at all. Memories are priceless.
Jun 26, 2023 14:59:34 #
Physlab
Loc: Portland, OR
Curmudgeon wrote:
I have always saved all my pictures. I got my firs... (show quote)
Curmudgeon,
You might consider using Excire Foto to analyze your images. Excire, while not perfect, does an outstanding job of keywording your images. It is my go to program for AI analysis. From this program I then use On1 Photo RAW or Luminar Neo to post process images.
Lowell
https://itawealth.com
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