To Keep or Not to Keep

[andrewvid]

so after every time i go out for photos and then upload them to my computer.. there's always those few pictures that are of the same thing or a picture that doesn't quite seem right.. and was wondering.. which one should i delete? obviously not the best one.
sometimes i find it to be a difficult decision to choose which one to keep and not to keep.

i just keep a max of two pictures that are the same.. if there's more then i'll right click it to the recycle bin!
what is in your criteria that makes you say.. "lets delete this photo."

[Seabee]

I delete 'nothing'!
I often find that even though it wasn't what I anticipated at the time, it can come in handy later on! But that's because I do a lot of graphics type stuff as well, so I like backgrounds, textures, colours shapes etc!
Plus I like going back through old stuff to gauge my improvements!

[Bear Dale]

And years later as your PP skills get better or you learn a new PP skill, you do something with an image that you thought was only suitable for the bin.

[andrewvid]

hm interesting! never thought of that one..

[Presotto]

And years later as your PP skills get better or you learn a new PP skill, you do something with an image that you thought was only suitable for the bin.

This is so very true, I am now going back after 2 years and looking back over my photos. I have pull out shots that I would have thought to bin at the time and with 2 years pp skills, created great photos. So now I keep everything (unless it really is bad like I moved the subject moved etc) and go back when I have nothing much to do and just play and try out ideas and new skills I have learned.

[andrewvid]

thanks for bringing this up guys! i have never thought of this.. i should cut down on my 'paper' toss

[Brian500au]

I keep almost everything - I toss the OOF and the ones where the strobes did not fire - but apart from the that storage is cheap and you never know what you can do with it in the future. Most times you can never capture the moment again.

[andrewvid]

I Most times you can never capture the moment again.

that is certainly very true..

[Mark L]

Though not totally addressing your question Andrew, some of this thread may interest you. http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...at-is-a-Keeper

[Wandapics]

I photographed a wedding about 18 months ago just for fun with my first/new DSLR. I wasn't impressed with a lot of the images I got & was going to delete a lot of them. The official photog - the Brides Sister - messed up badly. The Bride wants to see what I have - when she gets time between work & new baby. With the photoshop skills I now have, I know I can give her some reasonable pics - so glade I didn't delete them.

[jaycee]

I agree with what's been said above. I don't delete anything except for those obviously faulty exposures.

As well as the possibility of you fixing an image later in Photoshop etc, there's also the chance that at some point you'll realise that something you captured in the background, which you thought was irrelevant, will become newsworthy or of interest to you or your family - I have countless crap photos which show things in the background that I now find intriguing or memorable but would never have thought to photograph on purpose (things such as old tools in the background of photos of my dad in the garage, or old cars in the backround of family snapshots etc).

As said earlier, storage is relatively cheap now.

Cheers,
jaycee

[Seabee]

I agree with what's been said above. I don't delete anything except for those obviously faulty exposures.

As well as the possibility of you fixing an image later in Photoshop etc, there's also the chance that at some point you'll realise that something you captured in the background, which you thought was irrelevant, will become newsworthy or of interest to you or your family - I have countless crap photos which show things in the background that I now find intriguing or memorable but would never have thought to photograph on purpose (things such as old tools in the background of photos of my dad in the garage, or old cars in the backround of family snapshots etc).

As said earlier, storage is relatively cheap now.

Cheers,
jaycee

I totally agree, the one thing I love about photos from years ago is the everyday stuff!! How houses were built, shop fronts, cars, servos, the old strip shops, fashion etc!! A lot of the stuff that we don't take these days!!
The happy snaps are the future record of the past!! Keep taking and saving them!

[fess67]

I am going to buck the trend here.

I delete lots. I do an initial sweep and rate them out of 5. 3 stars and above survive the cut, anything else is deleted there and then.

I then do a second sweep. Anything outstanding gets to be a 5*.....not many of those. Others worth processing get 4* and the rest (left for another time) remain at 3*. It may be possible a 3* really did not deserve to be there so it may get tossed at this stage.

Everything left after the 2nd sweep is kept and depending on mood etc may or may not get looked at or processed in the future.

I do this because on my trip to Alaska a few years ago I took 10,000 shots.........I realised about 12 months later that 6,000 were pure crap (or duplicates due to over use of the burst mode). I culled and have stuck with the attitude ever since

[Xebadir]

I tend to be hypercrtical of my imagery and end up deleting heavily. While I agree that sometimes its worth keeping certain shots - the best PP techniques will still not offset if a photo meets my standard or not. If I take more than one shot of a scene I will pick the best and trash the others (weddings excepted, I delete nothing until the Bride and Groom have reviewed my produced set in case of images sought which I didn't include). Perhaps its just the way I think - but my shots fall into a few categories:
1. Useful for archival (still has to be a reasonably composed shot, with potential when post produced or showing an unusual feature for instance a low contrast tornado. Also contains shots that with a lot of work could make it to category 3.)
2. Panoramic partial (self explanatory)
3. High grade images - either needs no post, or very little post to get to the desired high quality images.
4. Family/Memory type shots - things that can never be captured again, including relatives, once offs etc.

Perhaps its not the right approach, but I don't want to be storing hundreds of thousands of images for no purpose no matter how cheap storage is - there are so many people taking photographs now that I don't think it is necessary - the probability of capturing a totally unique image is falling rapidly, even on thunderstorms!

[AdamR]

I delete shots that are flawed for some reason. If its out of focus, lacks a unique aspect, my framing way off and cropping wouldnt make a difference, or underwater usually back scatter to some ridiculous extent. If its an irreplaceable moment or a record shot I always keep.

[SandraS]

I keep most of mine, although I have deleted in the past. It's helpful for me to be able to bring up a bad shot, look at the settings to see what I may have done wrong and then try again.

Others, I use to try different processing techniques on. The main jpgs I have are those that I took when I first started, and those I take when I just can't be bothered, otherwise I keep all my raws and only convert them when I need them as I have a swag of external hard drives for storage and they're cheaper now than they were a few years ago when I first started

[swifty]

I have always kept practically every shot, afterall memory these days are relatively cheap and I don't think I'm particularly trigger happy.
But in practice, after my first edit I have very rarely gone back to re-edit an old photo.
That said its more cos of my laziness and poor archiving (and hence difficulty finding particular shots).
One thing I do wish is that I had captured all my previous photos in RAW but I don't really want to start another debate on it since its OT and done to death. But jz saying though, I honestly wish my archive were all shot in RAW.

[Seabee]

I have always kept practically every shot, afterall memory these days are relatively cheap and I don't think I'm particularly trigger happy.
But in practice, after my first edit I have very rarely gone back to re-edit an old photo.
That said its more cos of my laziness and poor archiving (and hence difficulty finding particular shots).
One thing I do wish is that I had captured all my previous photos in RAW but I don't really want to start another debate on it since its OT and done to death. But jz saying though, I honestly wish my archive were all shot in RAW.

I did a weird thing when starting lol!
Started off just jpeg! Learnt about RAW and started shooting everything RAW+Jpeg, then for some reason just went to Jpeg again

Back to my senses now, some people just take longer to learn than most

[ricstew]

if its for a client ......I keep it ) except the OOF or totally bad ones )..........for myself I only keep the OMG ones now.........