How many of you do this? Or is it just me?

Ok, here goes...

I go out and shoot a ton of shots of whatever the case may be: family, landscape, pets, etc.

As I am flipping through my pictures, I sort out which ones I find are worthy of keeping and get rid of those I find not worthy of keeping.

I edit/manipulate/modify as needed via Photoshop. After looking at the picture after it is done, I am pretty much satisfied with it. BUT...it seems that as days go by, I start to get really critical of myself and my work, and start to question "Is this picture any good?". Well it was yesterday, but today I just get a different feel from it? Is it me? Or is this common among just "artists" in general. Or is it the girlie emotional side of me?

Don't edit any pictures in evenings after shooting. Wait until the morning to sort them

Seriously, I think it happens to everybody. May be not as much to pros: they are doing their job.

Since I got into photography a year ago, I printed and framed many picture I took. They all still hang on the walls in our apartment, but I don't like most of them anymore.

I'm guilty of that too. What's worse is looking at a picture taken several years prior and trying to be as happy with it as the day I took it. But, I find that I am becoming relatively less critical of my past photos with time. I'd like to think this is because my technical/artistic learning curve is less vertical now.

It may also have something to do with being able to look at your own work more objectively once you are more distant from the emotions experienced while taking the photograph.

No this doesn't happens to me.

Ro1

I don't see anything wrong with editing a pic two or three times to try to
improve it. As long as you're having fun.

I generally go through 3 "weeding" sessions:

1) The "complete junk" weeding - out of focus, glare, whatever. Instantly noticable trash gets deleted. (This often involves "Oh Cool I've just GOT to post this one NOW!")

2) The "comparison/keeper" weeding - Is this one any good? Can I save it? Is it worth saving? These two are almost identical but which one do I keep? I thought that was good but there's a bug on the flower... (This often involves "Hey, that's not bad. I think I'll post it.")

3) The "very critical" weeding - sometimes days or even weeks later. Is this picture *really* any good? Really? I mean, look at it! C'Mon, I've got 156 red-winged blackbirds already - what's so good about this one? (This sometimes involves - but rarely - "Did I take that picture? Why don't I remember it?? I should post it.")

4) Some time in the future I go through the "what was I thinking?" weeding out. Often this involves the fact that I have gotten 30 better pictures of a red-winged blackbird, so this one is no longer in my "Top 100" shots, so it gets deleted. Or I've just gotten much better, and I finally realize that this picture stinks. (This has not yet involved "Can you believe I took this picture? I should post it! They'll laugh their butts off!")

What do you mean by that?

To answer your original question...yeah, I do it sometimes. Mostly with older pictures though.

Hopefully I've become better at choosing which ones to put in my gallery. I still find myself worrying more about sharpness than emotion, though. So I do second guess myself when I put up a sharp shot instead of one that has more action or emotion to it.

[QUOTE="The Photo Tuell"]

What do you mean by that?

quote]

I get rid of those I know I will never use because of bad lighting, out of focus, etc.

I'm afraid to...

I figure that I'll end up without any pictures.

I think everyone does it.

I edit wedding pictures and look at them the next day. Sometimes I wonder why I thought the color looked good the day before. Now, i try to look at them the day after editing to see if I'm still pleased with them. I'm always amazed at how many I change. Sometimes, I wonder whether I was asleep the first time I edited them. I'm not sure why this phenomenom occurs but it does with me. I then send them into my lab online for proofing.

I am a packrat, or packbunny, when it comes to data. I keep all photos regardless of quality (poor lighting, out of focus, uninteresting composition). Space on a hard drive, CDR or DVDR is pretty cheap these days. I make copies of the original files for the photos that I wish to post process and possibly print or post online. I place those copies in a separate folder/directory.

I keep my originals separate because I hope to improve my remedial skills in Photoshop.

I am pretty close to Scottes;

Short answer me too.

Long Answer:
After doing a photo shoot. I have three runs through to eliminate pictures.

The first run is just to eliminate the junk (out of fucus, bad light, makes model look real bad, etc..) I will occasionally find one or two really great shots at this point and edit them in PS for printing (but I don't print yet).
In the first run, each picture gets about 4 seconds. (for example I will run a total of 829 images down to 133)

The second run is the "is this a good shot" run. I eliminate anything that is not as good as the whole of the set. In the second Run each picture gets about 8 seconds. Unless I have to, I never do the second run on the same day as the first run. I am also very vicsious in getting rid of pictures (or at least I try to be). I almost never edit a picture during this run. (at this point those 133 go down to 55 images left)

The thrid run is the ugly run, at this point I try to choose the best 24-30 shots for doing a portfolio print book up. (on the example shoot I ended up with 12 I printed with about 29 total I spent time editing), three of which I used artistic filters on. The rest were just crop, contrast and sharpen. In the third run I take as long as it takes to get to the desired number.

After the third run I go into photo shop and take them one at a time, I will usually eliminate 4-6 images at this point because the full resolution shot shows something I missed in the previous three runs and just don't like.

When done the best 9-12 shots go on my web site and up to 30 get printed if we did a TFP session. (in the example I printed about 6 (since it was a me paying shoot and 9 went on the web site, but only 3 images did I both print and post.)

Later (like months later) I go back and start critizing some of my work I did earlier. (in my example done in March, so far, I can't fault any of my final prints or images I posted. They may not be perfect, but they are some of my best wrok SO FAR.

Bit long, but that explains my way of thinking.

After editing them, wait 2-3 days and go back and look at them again. You need a break from them to really get your ideas moving in the direction you want them to go.

DieselGirl ~~Hello.

I always save just about all the photo's I take. Unless they are really out of focus. My thinking runs along this theory. I burn them all to a Cd for my kids or my grandkids to look at. Just maybe it will be something of interest to them many years from now. Plus the software 20 years from now may make that terrible "now" photo look like a masterpiece. Many days I use my stock photo's of Sky's and animals to photo shop onto another photo, and I find little bits and pieces of a old photo that I might crop print and frame. Great question and I have enjoyed reading everyones thoughts.

I think most creative people experience this phenomenon. i get it with music too. I work on a tune until the small hours of the morning trying to get it to sound good. eventually I get something I'm pleased with and go to bed

I listen to it the next day and find that it sounds crap (well, not always, but at least very different to how I thought it was).

I don't think this has much to do with time of day etc, it has more do do with the fact that the longer you spend working on something without a break the more familiar it becomes. in the case of music this is known as ear fatigue and your ear compensates for any changes you make and it becomes very difficult to hear what you are really doing. come back to it the next day with fresh ears and it's amazing how different it sounds.

similar thing with photos and your eyes.

of course this is just my personal experience, but many seem to have the same experience.