Do you keep everything?
Nov 15, 2017 17:34:30 #
iggy wrote:
Way back when I purchased my first digital camera,... (show quote)
Initially I keep everything except the "accidental" shots and blurry ones. I go through and decide which ones I want to edit and mark them with a white flag. The ones I don't think I want to use go into a separate file. Then once I edit something, it goes into the "best" photos file and the original RAW image is put in a different file. Keep photos grouped together depending on what category they are in. This means if I want to find my "best", it is easy to find, if I want to find the RAW for that image, it is easy to find, the ones I want to work on are easy to find, and the ones I don't think I want to use are out of sight, but available.
I will concentrate first on getting the flagged photos edited. Then when I have time, I will go through the rest of the images more carefully and decide if I overlooked something. Also if I missed something that should be deleted. But I am never in a hurry to delete images, because as an amateur, I usually know right away which ones I like the best, but know that some time later on I may want to re-visit some of them. I have gone back to old photos and re-edited them using techniques more recently learned. Sometimes I like the new version better, sometimes I don't. I have also gone back to old photos I never edited and never deleted, and decide they are worth another look. And sometimes I decide they need to be deleted!
You sound like you are not entirely sure about having backups of your photos. If you don't care if you lose everything, then it is not that important. But if you want to preserve your work, then backups are necessary. Hard drives can fail. Both internal ones and external ones. I just had an external HD fail, first time it has happened to me. But I have two 4 TB xHDs for backup, and the one that remains continues to save my photos and new edits. The other one is being replaced by the manufacturer, is due to be delivered tomorrow. Then I will put it into service!
When you say you have everything in LR, that is fine for looking at your images. But it is the folder on your hard drive that you will be backing up on an external HD. If you are leaving edits in LR in the RAW form [for Nikon that is .NEF], then those images are only visible through LR. On your HD, they are seen as .xmp sidecars [a blank page with turned down corner]. This is why I make sure that all my photos are saved in a different format, usually .tiff, sometimes .jpg. In LR you have to export them to do this. I use PS for some of my editing, and choose "save as" to designate they should be in .tiff, and they go directly back to LR [and to the folder on my HD]. Then I can delete all those .xmp sidecars.
Nov 15, 2017 18:09:33 #
Nov 15, 2017 18:12:13 #
I would only keep a bad shot if it happened to be unique,one-off. Why retain a bad shot if you have one or more good versions of the same or similar shot?
Nov 15, 2017 18:41:57 #
jwohlhueter wrote:
I create folders based on date and shooting session for everyday on a shoot. I also create a discard folder for each day. In the evening I'll delete those I am 100% sure of, but if a slight question I'll move the image to the dated discard folder. Upon returning home and doing sometimes days and days of editing I will delete the images that remain in the discard folders.
I'm too ignorant and lazy to attempt any of that I can barely turn my computer on. I will have to learn how to do that. As sometimes I'll go for a long weekend and shoot 2 to 3000 photos and just not up to all that much work.
Nov 15, 2017 20:00:09 #
When I get a shot of a one eyed little green space alien, I'm keeping it. I don't care how bad it is. One never knows when the chance will come around again.
However, if the subject is something I will see many, many times, I will only keep the better ones and delete the out of focus, blurry, etc.
However, if the subject is something I will see many, many times, I will only keep the better ones and delete the out of focus, blurry, etc.
Nov 15, 2017 21:12:25 #
I keep way more images than I need to. In fact I keep too much stuff I don't need.
Nov 15, 2017 21:25:13 #
C6Joe wrote:
I don't keep everything, as I do edit what I shoot... (show quote)
As I have shared here, I have just purchased a very high capability new computer. I now back everything up to two separate identical USB drives (I run the backup program twice to do it.)
Your NAS is a better solution. I'm going to begin thinking about that. It has several advantages. Everything is always backed up constantly but without the overhead of something like the over the Internet storage services. Secondly, it makes everything available to all your devices either through the local network or via the Inet.
You didn't mention which NAS box you are using. There are several "inexpensive" ones on the market.
Nov 15, 2017 22:02:21 #
Hi. I do not keep everything.... i do keep most of what i shoot, however, anything that is blurry gets trashed immediately. A blurry photo can happen to anyone, occasionally, and its best to get rid of it, because you only would want to put your best forth. I do not see any reason to keep a blurry file, ever. Also when im shooting portraits, and weddings I will take multiples shots of the exact same image, this is helpful for when someone blinks, and when smiles falter, and expressions change. I choose the best and get rid of the rest. I shoot in only RAW, so i always have the raw file on an external hard drive , and i save the edits on disk. After I have printed, posted, and distributed the images to my clients, i delete the images from my computer as to save space in my work space.
Hope that helps.
Hope that helps.
Nov 15, 2017 22:31:45 #
There is one way to make certain that you will need one of those old photos.... throw it away.
Nov 15, 2017 23:30:08 #
I revisit my old images, and sometimes find pearls.
Fotoartist wrote:
From this thread I now see that most photographers are hoarders. Their hard drives must be filled with clutter.
Hard drive space is cheap but the time to review all your images is not. Most photographers shoot new and a lot of the time better stuff all the time. And they don't have the time to revisit their files. Like I said, unless you occasionally review them and have the possible intentions to eventually Photoshop them, why not jettison your sub-par stuff. Life is too short.
Hard drive space is cheap but the time to review all your images is not. Most photographers shoot new and a lot of the time better stuff all the time. And they don't have the time to revisit their files. Like I said, unless you occasionally review them and have the possible intentions to eventually Photoshop them, why not jettison your sub-par stuff. Life is too short.
Nov 16, 2017 00:18:09 #
Leitz wrote:
Well, that's one question ChrisT hadn't got to yet!! 
Haahahhahhahahahahah..........
Nov 16, 2017 03:57:31 #
When I first got my first digital point and shoot, I did just that; I kept every image I shot. It started to get to be too much and too much time. I now edit my photos and delete the ones that do not make the cut. It really saves on storage space.
Nov 16, 2017 14:40:33 #
Nov 16, 2017 14:47:46 #
Good comment. I revisit old folders of images too. I call it travel photography in the computer. But that's another reason why you want to have culled out the bad ones in the past. Because who wants to go back and visit old failures? You want to rummage through only decent stuff. So don't wait till later to do housecleaning as that will discourage you from going back at all.
anotherview wrote:
I revisit my old images, and sometimes find pearls.
Nov 16, 2017 14:58:26 #
I keep everything on the card until it is downloaded on my computer (unless were obviously blurry on the camera monitor). Order of deletion: duplicate downloaded from previous session (system did not recognize them because had been deleted before), obviously blurry shots, boring shots I don't remember taking. I don't erase from the card any shots until all I want to save have been backed up on external drives.
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