I hoard photos -- how do you decide which to keep/delete?

LV Moose wrote in post #17007701
^ that's good thinkin'

My thoughts exactly.
For me too keeping just the very best is not a matter of space, but of common sense. What on earth would I do with all the images if I kept them? With dozens of duplicates, of the same bird that sits on the same branch, head left, head right, head down, head up, eye closed, singing, you name it.

Just pick the best and dump the rest.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #17007828
My thoughts exactly.
For me too keeping just the very best is not a matter of space, but of common sense. What on earth would I do with all the images if I kept them? With dozens of duplicates, of the same bird that sits on the same branch, head left, head right, head down, head up, eye closed, singing, you name it.

Just pick the best and dump the rest.

Now, you just made me feel bad about the 14 pics I took of a little bird with my 100-400 lens and a 1.4x TC and still, cropped to 100%, only one pic shows a little bit of detail, but not something I'd ever want to "share" with anyone, except just for fun...

You're saying I should just scrub them all?

Your personality and available space are the main factors to decide about the rest.

tonylong wrote in post #17007953
Now, you just made me feel bad about the 14 pics I took of a little bird with my 100-400 lens and a 1.4x TC and still, cropped to 100%, only one pic shows a little bit of detail, but not something I'd ever want to "share" with anyone, except just for fun...

You're saying I should just scrub them all?

No, of course not, Tony. I too have images that aren't fit to show to the world but that have meaning for me for this or that reason and are therefore not deleted.

EDIT: I wrote the above with my main subject (birds) in mind. But I started participating in the World Wide Photo Week thread a while ago and for that thread I take an awful lot of bad shots that I cheerfully post here and that is great fun indeed. But from the images I shoot for a given week for that thread, I will keep only the one or two that I process and post here. Everything else is deleted.

revisit your photos in a couple of months, you may realize that some shots are not worth keeping

I have two conflicting approaches.

For the first few years, I stored everything because storage is cheap.

Then I realized that for personal stuff, I don't really need that much stuff and started keeping one-two dozen pictures per outing. For example, if I go camping I end up with 15 shots and delete the rest. Those pictures are enough to tell a story of a weekend and the adventure that was had. (is that proper english? )

I lose the opportunity to go back and pick the "perfect shot" out of 10 similar ones, but I end up with a coherent package describing an outing.

What's interesting is that if you have watched the show 'hoarders' the therapists often bring out the fact that hoarders are often keeping things because those things have memories associated with them--whether it be a weathered photo or an empty chip bag. Hoarders often equate the tossing away of these things with the tossing away of what for them are important memories.

I point this out mainly because I definitely have many many images with no photographic worth, but which do act as triggers to remember things about experiences I have had (particularly with my girlfriend) that are important to me.

I think there are a lot of photographers who also don't want to forget things and who use photography and storage of photographs as a way to address this fear.

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #17009380
What's interesting is that if you have watched the show 'hoarders' the therapists often bring out the fact that hoarders are often keeping things because those things have memories associated with them--whether it be a weathered photo or an empty chip bag. Hoarders often equate the tossing away of these things with the tossing away of what for them are important memories.

I point this out mainly because I definitely have many many images with no photographic worth, but which do act as triggers to remember things about experiences I have had (particularly with my girlfriend) that are important to me.

I think there are a lot of photographers who also don't want to forget things and who use photography and storage of photographs as a way to address this fear.

I use the photos the same way. It's only the law enforcement and continuity polaroids which are not connected to nostalgia.

But when you're remembering your vacation, how many pictures do you want to browse through to remember a weekend of your life? 20 or a thousand? Nicely framed, 20 shots will capture it as well as a larger amount.

What I'm trying to find is a compilation software for album creation. My cellphone has an excellent piece where albums are created automatically as a collage and I was very pleasantly surprised by how good they come out. If I can find similar for a computer, it would be great to print out 8x10 or 8x12 collages to toss into albums.

1st round, I delete everything I know I will never use. My software also allows me to rate photos 1 to 5. So my first pass through the shots, from a particular event, is primarily: rating and deleting.

If I have what I need from the rated/processed shots, I go through again and cut deeper, this time deleted some good shots as long as I have a similar better one. Sometimes I also find that I don't have any 'good' shots of something I want, so I will rate something that didn't initially strike me as a keeper.

After I'm done working on that days work, it usually just sits on the disk; but every time I visit that work again, I normally deleted some more, especially if I find myself wasting time stepping through a lot of pictures I don't really need.

Truth is, though, I don't delete nearly enough. I have hundreds or thousands of shots that I literally have no need for (and nobody else will want either).

I used to be one of the "I don't delete anything" people, but I find that that just wastes time when revisiting old pictures. It has happened, only occasionally, that I have gone back to a set of old pictures and found a gem that I missed during the first set of passes through the work.

groundloop wrote in post #17007632
Delete Delete Delete.

Here's the way I look at it.... if I keel over dead tomorrow and my wife and kids are going through my hard drive looking at everything I'd want them to realize what great shots I had instead of thinking 'why the hell does he still have those crappy photos?'. NOBODY cares about seeing 23 shots of my dog in the back yard from any given day, but they might be impressed with the 1 or 2 best photos from that group.

^^
also my strategy

On a professional level, if I shoot an event other than a wedding, if it's in focus and exposed properly, I keep it. You wouldn't believe what people purchase. Photos that I wouldn't look at twice are sold every day.
Personally however, I keep my best and can the rest of the junk.

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #17009380
What's interesting is that if you have watched the show 'hoarders' the therapists often bring out the fact that hoarders are often keeping things because those things have memories associated with them--whether it be a weathered photo or an empty chip bag. Hoarders often equate the tossing away of these things with the tossing away of what for them are important memories.

I point this out mainly because I definitely have many many images with no photographic worth, but which do act as triggers to remember things about experiences I have had (particularly with my girlfriend) that are important to me.

I think there are a lot of photographers who also don't want to forget things and who use photography and storage of photographs as a way to address this fear.

For me it has absolutely nothing to do with that. I personally see my library of work as an educational tool. There's a lot that one can learn from the work that they shoot, and that goes right down the drain if I delete everything but the best. When reviewing my work, I need to see what I did wrong, not just what I did right, because people learn the most from their failures.

stanwelks wrote in post #17004456
I take lots of photos that I never end up doing anything with. I just took a few hundred photos of my dog running/playing that ended up being over 2GB. I end up storing everything into my Light Room catalog, and I tag the photos so I can find them easily later. This had me thinking, how do you decide which photos you keep and those that you get rid of? I immediately delete blurry pics, or those of people with eyes closed, not smiling, etc.

I'm referring to photos that I seem to hoard that I likely do not need. I understand that everyone has their own criteria, I'm just curious to hear what yours is, and the thought process that you go through when deciding to keep/delete photos.

Thanks.

For something like that, I'd pick the absolute best 2 or 3, then dump the rest. YOu have to be tough with yourself or you end up with a mess.

I use Lightroom, and make liberal use of the x key. Shooting with a 7D also often means I have 5 or more photos in a string from one long burst. If it is a really interesting bit of action then I will sometimes gather the photos and make a gif, or post them as a single set together. If the continuity of the photos isn't important then I will step back and look at the series to identify a single photo that best captures the entire burst of images.

If I'm simply not happy with any of the photos from the burst, then I'm not at all worried about flagging them all as rejects and moving on to the next burst of images. I still make bad choices, shooting too wide, or deciding that the player positions and framing just really don't work the way I had hoped when I can view them on a full sized monitor.

There is nothing wrong with deleting images, especially digital, if you are not happy with them. Be hard on yourself, think as you process, and decide what works for you, what doesn't, and most importantly WHY something isn't working, especially if you're doing a lot of it.


And this reminds me, I have about 1800 images from last Sunday that I still need to sort and post. If I don't, then the derby girls may lynch me.

groundloop wrote in post #17007632
Delete Delete Delete.

Here's the way I look at it.... if I keel over dead tomorrow and my wife and kids are going through my hard drive looking at everything I'd want them to realize what great shots I had instead of thinking 'why the hell does he still have those crappy photos?'. NOBODY cares about seeing 23 shots of my dog in the back yard from any given day, but they might be impressed with the 1 or 2 best photos from that group.

thats the way i see it to,good thinking.