Does anyone else find themselves taken too many pictures! [Archive]

View Full Version : Does anyone else find themselves taken too many pictures!

michillebaker

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 09:52

Ok, I am not for sure if it’s just me but it seems like every time I take pics (usually of my kids) I will fill my whole 2GB card just in one outing. I usually like to go out and take pics at least 3 times a week so you could image how many I take. Now, I have to make a trip to the store today to bye more CD-R just because I have filled my first 50 cd’s that I bought just 4 months ago. Does anyone else have this problem? Oh and yah I don’t do this for a living I just LOVE taking pictures so just think how much I would be filling up If I did J. Maybe it’s just an addiction that I have, but who cares because I love it and its an addiction that can be cherished through years to come!

Thanks,

Michille

cricketboy75

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 09:55

i've actually managed to decrease that due to my new found craze for film rangefinders and film SLRs. its' forced me to be a lot more selective...having said that though, after 2 weeks just taking film shots, i went crazy this evening and took 200 random shots of the dogs! :)

FlyingPhotog

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 09:56

In2Photos

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:00

You're certainly free to enjoy photography to any extent you prefer but I'll bet you a dollar that as your skills improve, you'll actually make fewer images.

The better you get, the more often you will capture a decisive or special moment in "one take."
I agree. Over the past couple of years I have taken less pictures, but have been happier with the quality of the pictures. I tend to make sure that my camera settings are correct, make sure the light is good, no background distractions, and wait for the right moment (which doesn't always happen ;)) etc as opposed to just shooting.

michillebaker

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:01

Yah thats probably tru FlyingPhotog, but right now I will just be high on photog and take as much pictures as I can. :).

Thanks,

Michille

cricketboy75

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:03

as long as you're having fun, you should carry on! :)

pjfrad

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:04

I find that on an outing I take a lot of pics, and many of the same subject, in my last outing i got over 30 of the same bird sitting on the same post from different angles, zoomes, fstops, etc...

I then go through and pick the best ones to keep and delete the not as good ones.

Peter

FlyingPhotog

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:04

Yah thats probably tru FlyingPhotog, but right now I will just be high on photog and take as much pictures as I can. :).

Thanks,

Michille

Rock On...! ;)

Mum2J&M

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:05

As my kids have gotten older, I don't take so many. When they were infants/toddlers, yes, I was snapping away like you. Once they start giving you a hard time, things get a bit different. ;)

gjl711

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:07

I have never been a spray and pray shooter. Too many years with film I guess, but I do take way more pics than I did with film. Lately though I have gotten aggressive culling the pics when I get home. An average shoot for fun, like a hike, or nature walk, or trip into the city I can generate anywhere between 50~250 pics. I have slowed down a lot up front taking much more time per picture and giving each more thought, but it’s really when I get home where I cut my numbers. First cull I dump al the obvious errors like OOF, bad exposure and such. I then take a second cull and keep only the top 2 ~ 5 pics of the same subject. For instance, if I take 10 shots of a particular bird, I may only keep the best few and I dump the rest. This has greatly reduced the amount of pics I keep. The only time I don’t follow this is when shooting a family event. I keep them all though I may only post process a handful.

cricketboy75

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:09

As my kids have gotten older, I don't take so many. When they were infants/toddlers, yes, I was snapping away like you. Once they start giving you a hard time, things get a bit different. ;)
haha...that's hillarious! :D

cricketboy75

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:10

sethmo

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:20

Why are you backing up to CDs instead of DVDs? 800mb of space on a CD vs 4.7gb of space on a DVD! DVD burners are cheap enough, that if you dont have one, spend $30 on a new one and have at it. If you have a laptop, just get an external DVD burner for about $60.

You could fit the info you burned on all 50 of those CDs onto about 9 DVDs.

cricketboy75

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:21

michillebaker

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:21

Mum2J&M my 3 kids are no longer baby's. My oldest which is 8 she just loves getting her pic taken. She is usually the one I photog the most. My son who is 6 likes it also but just not as much usually I tend to get those picture perfect moments with him, like one that I gotten resently with his butt crack showing :). My youngest daughter who is 5 now she also enjoys getting pictures taken but she tends to try to do those funny posses and moves around alot which sometimes results in deleted pics. Most of my pics I feel could be called keepers but about 1/3 or less have to be deleted due to overexposure or blurreness. Now If i had my DSLR when they were infants I first would have made sure that I had something way better than the kits lens I have now (as i have found through trying to take pictures of my nephew that the kit lens just doesn't cut it there). I would have also tooken twice as much as I have been taken now ;), but like all here have said I will get to a point were i will start taking less pictures. Oh, and if you guys here would stop cc my pics well I just might slow down a bit ;) just kidden I truly appreciate everyone here and all the cc you have given me. I've improved I feel 10 times better since posting on these boards.

Michille

michillebaker

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:24

Oh, I could back up to DVD's but the last time I recieved a DVD from my uncle-in-law I was having issues playing it back on my dvd player and also not everyone in my family has a DVD player so I thought it would be better if I burn them to cd's. How is everyone else burning their pics to cd or DVD?

michillebaker

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:25

cricketboy75 actually I usually fill my 2gb card each time which usually after deleting the ones that are not good I fill 3 cd's.

SuzyView

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:27

I was doing that same thing, but have really cut down on my taking, and increasing my keepers. I am an events shooter and that is wonderful for taking 500 in 2 hours. I try to make each shot count and not just anything. If that is your style, keep it going! Just take the time to look at the work, not just store it.

cricketboy75

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:29

i'm really tough on my pics nowadays. i took 100 landscapes last night and only kept 2. it makes it easier when i want to look at the pics, show them to other people, store them and/or print them...

gjl711

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:38

is your avatar a vitomatic?
It's an old Agfa Karat 36. Here is the story behind the camera. It was my first ever and started me on this whole mess.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=435106&highlight=agfa

cricketboy75

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 10:40

It's an old Agfa Karat 36. Here is the story behind the camera. It was my first ever and started me on this whole mess.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=435106&highlight=agfa
nice... :) i have a vitomatic, but don't use it yet. i've been practising first on a minolta sr-t and leica cl.

Elaine M

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 14:30

How is everyone else burning their pics to cd or DVD?

For sharing family/friends ... I usually burn to CD-R ... they're cheap and I figure if it won't fit on a CD I don't need to be giving it away! :)

For paying customers ... I usually don't offere electronic files but if I do it's DVD.

For archive/backup ... external hard drives ... you can get 500 GB for about $100 and all you have to do is plug it in by USB. No more sifting through hundreds of CD's lookin' for that one image you can't quite locate. I usually just keep .jpg's. If you shoot raw it'll add up fast enough, but you can put a LOT of files in 500 MB's.

EDIT: I meant to mention, just like most everyone else here ... the more I shoot.... the less I shoot! When I first started I'd shoot 350-500 shots at a football game and get 35-50 'keepers' (and lookin' back now even those were not that good! :) )These days I shoot closer to 200 a game ... 50-75 keepers (that are actually worth keeping!).

When I first started, I also used to archive EVERYTHING! These days ... I only save the 'keepers' if it wasn't good enough to make the cut the first round, it ain't gonna get any better sitting on my hard drive. When I transfer them off the card everything that is OOF is automatically deleted, the rest is scored with 1-5 stars. Once I've made a first pass I go back have a second look at the 1's and 2's just to make sure I didn't accidently give something low marks then they get deleted. The 3-5's get saved to the EHD and the best 50 or so of those make the website.

You gotta do something or eventually the walls start closing in!

dave kadolph

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 16:09

A few random thoughts.

And this is from an old filmshooters point of view.

And someone that hates to process images.

You seem to be an ideal candidate for a stand alone hard drive and some good photo manager software.

The shutter on your XT is rated for 50K if i remember correctly. And a 2gb card holds about 500 images. So 100 trips out and you are due for a new camera or expensive repair.

When we upgraded my wife from an XT to a 40D--and 6.5 FPS--she would fill a 4 gb card in one soccer or softball game--and 95 % of it was junk.

Downgraded her to a 512mb card--when it was full she was done shooting--and the number of "keepers" was way higher than with the 4gb card @ 8 times the number of frames.

I've been doing this for over 30 years--If the frame is not potentially worth printing it's not worth taking IMO.

My .02--your mileage may vary!--And free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it ;)

cchooks

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 16:43

Does anyone else have this problem? Oh and yah I don’t do this for a living I just LOVE taking pictures so just think how much I would be filling up If I did J. Maybe it’s just an addiction that I have, but who cares because I love it and its an addiction that can be cherished through years to come!

Michelle,
I have to say that I am a full time professional, and I don't even shoot as much as you. As a matter of fact, when we go on vacation, my wife is the one who takes the pictures. Anyway, I sure hope your kids do not start treating you like an insurance salesman, you know you see them coming, they are sweet people, but you run the other way when you see them coming. So what if you are addicted, you have created priceless moments. Enjoy

Mum2J&M

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 17:09

Michelle,
I have to say that I am a full time professional, and I don't even shoot as much as you. As a matter of fact, when we go on vacation, my wife is the one who takes the pictures. Anyway, I sure hope your kids do not start treating you like an insurance salesman, you know you see them coming, they are sweet people, but you run the other way when you see them coming. So what if you are addicted, you have created priceless moments. Enjoy

That's because photography is your job. It's a bit different than a hobby I think. Just like with any job, it can get stressful and exhausting. And it's unlikely you'd want to do it all the time during your vacation. Just watching the photographers I've been working with do their jobs made me tired of it for awhile! I find myself taking more breaks lately than I did before.

txduggan

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 18:50

You're certainly free to enjoy photography to any extent you prefer but I'll bet you a dollar that as your skills improve, you'll actually make fewer images.

The better you get, the more often you will capture a decisive or special moment in "one take."

As a corollary (I love using words that I think I know what they mean!) to the above.....

I definitely agree with FP.....

Not that I "get it," but I'm finding I'm a bit more reserved about tripping the shutter unless I actually "see" what I want to capture.

I also find a lot of long-time shooters who've shot film most of their "life" and now shoot digital, tend to be a bit more constrained about how many digital frames they shoot.

The above is a prime example of my awesome grasp of sentence structure ;)

Tom D

Shutterbug Doug

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 19:17

I upload what I share with family and friends and burn DVD's for backups. 2 copies, one here and one off site.

michillebaker

2nd of July 2008 (Wed), 19:26

cchooks- if my children start running I think I would be in trouble but I am guessing by that time I will get sick of taking so many pictures they will start also not liking to have there pics taken.

Now after going out and buying 100 brand new cd-r to use I started to take some advice from all of you. I went through and was able to shave down at least a third of my 80G of pics (yes I know 80G :) ) and made sure to only keep the keepers, but it was really hard as i am someone who tends to hoard things a lot. Anyways after doing that I decided that what the hay the weather looked nice lets go take more pics and out we went.I came back with only 55 pics, but of course I wasn't out but about 20 minutes. Any ways I should have told myself NO HANDS OFF THE CAMERA but could not help it. They are so gosh darn cute and I'm loving taken pics of them I just had to.

I also recently just built a new pc (had to because my laptop couldn't handle photoshop) and made sure that I purchased a 300G hard drive so that I could store all of my extra photos until I decided to burn them.

Thanks,

Michille