[magkelly]

I have two sets of pictures. The ones I am particularly proud of and the ones that aren't as good that I keep to look at and learn from. You don't keep some of your less than perfect work you'll never know how far you've come. I look back at most of my earliest pics I'm not too happy with them. But even in the midst of total crap there were a few gems. It's looking at the not so great photos though that shows me the difference.

[CTR01]

I guess I forgot to mention that I sort of do that as well. Basically each day or event has its own folder and within that folder is another copy of a few particular pics that I chose to edit and post for people to see. Thus, leaving me with an untouched original and edited copy. Thanks for your input too!

[Mike Cash]

I think in addition to the widely used term "keeper" we need another term for the ones that we both keep and make available for public viewing.

I seldom delete in-camera, as I have learned that a computer monitor is much better for making a judgment about the merits of a photo than is the LCD review screen on the camera. There have been a couple of times my thumb was poised to hit "delete" when I stopped and later was glad I did. Not a lot of those, but then it doesn't take a whole lot of those for one to realize that the culling process could just as well be carried out at home. (Plus, it doesn't eat up the camera battery).

I transfer my photos from SD card to a hard drive before doing the culling. The reason for that is there have been a couple of times I went and retrieved something from the trash bin and used it. Culling from the SD card doesn't allow for that. I usually cull about 1/3 to 1/2 of my shots. Typically for extraneous elements that interfere with the subject, missed focus, just not interesting, etc. I shoot a lot, so even this still leaves me with a lot of shots.

At this point, I rename all the shots in a YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS format. This keeps them in order and makes it easy to see at a glance when a shot was taken. Upon importing them into Lightroom I move them into folders, one folder for each month, with the folder also named to clearly show the year and month, and with those as subfolders under year, and that as a subfolder under which camera I used. So the hierarchy will look like: "Pentax_K5 / 2011 / 2011-06". I never have to bother these again, as it is merely a repository for the original photos and all work on them is done in Lightroom.

When exporting, I use a similar hierarchy, but with all photos exported in a given month going into a folder for that month, regardless of when the photo was taken. So it will look like: "Lightroom Exports / Lightroom Exports 2011-06". I export to a subfolder called "Batch" within the month folder. I then do my noise reduction, saving with a " _filtered" tacked onto the file name so I know which ones have been filtered. I then batch resize those with IrfanView, adding "rs" (resized) onto the file name, so I know which have been through that process and which files to send up to the web. When I get that all done (including the uploading) I then move the files up from the "batch" folder into the main folder for that month's exports. At this point the original non-filtered file and the resized file can be deleted, as they can be regenerated if needed (it seldom comes up) and any prints I might want to make will be done from the full-sized and filtered version. If I have a buttload of photos from an event, I will often toss them into their own folder, just to make things easier.

That's all the administrative crap as far as file handling goes. But it is important to remember that in addition to photo editing, Lightroom also shines at photo management. Adding keywords to photos (location, lens/equipment used, etc) also makes it easier to go back and hunt for stuff later on, if necessary. I also add a color marker while working on photos. I mark the ones that I have processed and which are ready for export "green", and when I have finished exporting them I mark them "red". This really helps a lot when going back through tons of back catalog, instead of trying to remember what I have already worked up and exported and what I haven't. Sometimes I will go through and mark "yellow" files I want to work up. Then when I go to the "Develop" module I just apply the "yellow" filter and I don't have to strain my eyes on the small previews at the bottom of the screen trying to pick out the ones I want to work on. I mark them "green" when I finish working on them, as mentioned above. Good file management software will do a lot to make your post-processing life a lot easier, if you make use of it.

But more to the point of your question. Out of the 1/2 to 2/3 that I keep, I probably end up actually processing and sharing only about one or two percent. And not all of those are actually any good or interesting. I try never to use the word "good" to describe my own photos. I call them "pictures I don't mind showing to people". Whether a photo is "good" or not is entirely up to the person viewing it, so what I may or may not think of a particular photo is really sort of irrelevant.

[CTR01]

But more to the point of your question. Out of the 1/2 to 2/3 that I keep, I probably end up actually processing and sharing only about one or two percent. And not all of those are actually any good or interesting. I try never to use the word "good" to describe my own photos. I call them "pictures I don't mind showing to people". Whether a photo is "good" or not is entirely up to the person viewing it, so what I may or may not think of a particular photo is really sort of irrelevant.

I try to take this kind of attitude in that the few I choose the edit and share, I don't say they are all 'good' but would only choose even fewer if they really piqued my interest, then maybe just maybe I say they are good.

[Venturi]

But who knows, he might have actually photographed PEOPLE if he'd had a 645D, eh?

Actually he did photograph people regularly. He was an accomplished commercial portraitist; we just don't see or hear much about that in the shadow of his landscape works.

I doubt he would have been a high volume shooter had digital come to fruition before he died. If you give a master craftsman or artist a new chisel or brush they won't necessarily work faster, they'll simply work with greater ease.