[daacon]

So help a fellow out - what tricks and tips do you use to keep the number of keepers down? I can't be the only 'pack rat' in this forum when it comes to pics.

Some are easy to remove even reviewing them in the camera. What I currently do is as follows: Let's say I have 100 pics on the card. Now let's say while taking them I reviewed some of them (not all) and got rid of 10.

I will then download to a directory called A. I will fire up Bridge, peruse them full screen, let's say this gets rid of 20 more.

I now have 70 pics which will get imported into Lightroom into directory B. Eventually I will get rid of Directory A. 70 pics!!! In that group if I were cut throat I might have kept 10 or less.

These are Landscape and scenic shots - people shots are more or less keepers for me unless they are really bad.

I need to be better at eliminating shots. My Laptop has almost 1tb of HD and it's filling up. I have several external HD's and I am filling these up.

Do you save some on a drive for a later date and only process the ones you consider A++

Do you immediately get rid of 90% of them never to be seen again?

Or are you like me some really goods ones , some good ones and some well not sure why I keep them...

What do you do? What are your criteria? I think it was Ansell Adams who said if I got 12 keepers a year, it was a good year. Damn I must have some awesome days then let alone a year.

[Parallax]

I soot RAW and keep every one that isn't glaringly bad. If it is grossly blurred, out of focus, or a total "oops" with the shutter release I delete it. I may end up only converting 1 in 10 to jpeg for showing, but I keep most all of the RAW. The reason is that I have many times been able to go back and process what I had thought were loosers after learning a new technique or getting a new piece of software. After getting Focus Magic, for example I have more usable shots from my Seattle trip a few years ago than I had before I got the program.

[little laker]

I almost stopped shooting digital, it's amazing how many less shots you take while shooting film

[Mallee Boy]

Buy a bigger external drive Dave.

I tend to be a hoarder.

[GoremanX]

I'm definitely a hoarder too, I keep everything. But I've come up with a system that allows me to keep everything without having to hunt for the keepers in a sea of chaff. Of course, which system one develops depends heavily on the software being used, so this probably wouldn't work for everyone:

First, I always shoot in RAW+. I never know when a picture that looks initially crappy might turn into a gem. The more I learn about photography, the more gems I find hidden in the old crap that can be brought out through post-processing.

I use Digikam to store all my photos in albums. When I get home, I open up Digikam and create a new album to store all the pictures from one session. Under that album, I have 2 sub-directories: one called JPG and one called DNG. I put all the DNG files in the DNG folder, and the JPG files in the JPG folder (duh). Then I wade through the pictures, pick the ones I like, and process only those DNG files into a final format. That final picture gets saved to the album directory directly, not a sub-directory.

So when I want to look at pictures, I open up Digikam, pick an album, and only the good pictures are displayed there. If I want to see all the pictures from that shooting session, I can look in the JPG sub-directory. If I want to process more, all the untouched DNG files are still in the DNG directory.

Since I use UFraw to process RAW files, whenever I make a final picture, an accompanying .ufraw file gets created at the same time in the same directory as where I save the picture. This .ufraw file doesn't show up in my album view, but I can open it directly to continue processing a picture from the same place I left off previously. This is my version of "non-destructive editing". So if I find I didn't crop a picture enough, I can just open up the .ufraw file and crop it a little more (for example).

This is a system I've developed over years with previous cameras, and I've fine-tuned it now that I have a K-7. It works really well for me and saves tons of time. I've got hundreds of gigs of pictures from many years, and this helps me keep them organized. Best of all, it uses only free open source tools.

[Gene Temple]

I bought an external hard drive just for that purpose. My plan (however misguided) was to periodically go through and sift through the folders I create (by date taken) and purge.

[wildman]

I ruthlessly delete within a day or two of shooting.

I just quickly go down the files and judge by a gut reaction what's worthy and what's not. If it feels right keep it if not delete. When I'm done deleting I clear the recycle bin to avoid deleters remorse.

If I keep 1:10 that's a good day for me.

It has the advantage that what I do keep is clearly worthy and don't spend a lot of time second guessing the marginal ones. The time I save is spent taking more pics.

Sometimes I go back to my old archive shots and delete some of them also. Often I find what I thought was good two years ago is really mediocre now.

Use a rating system at every stage Dave. You should find that you should find that you get rid of more at each step.

[Sailor]

I edit ruthlessly - probably because most of my efforts stink. Generally, in addition to culling all of the technically poor stuff, I try to keep only what I believe is the best shot from each scene, so for a typical outing, I'll probably keep about 10%.

I only weaken as an editor with photos of my family - daughters and granddaughter especially - where I tend to keep about everything that I shot.

Jer

[reeftool]

I keep just about everything too. I delete the real obvious garbage shots right off but the rest stay. I look at them, maybe someday I'll go back and crop do some PP....I hardly ever do. Once in a while somebody starts a thread like " Show us your biggest mistake" and I know I'll always have a shot to contribute.

[daacon]

Some good suggestions thanks (most of which I will probably never do ) Seems a few are like me while others are very deligent.

I think I will indeed just buy more HD space heck it's so cheap now.
I think I will probably continue to keep most of it ... cause what the heck I can

What I will (try to) do is get better at the ones I import into Lightroom and rate and tag them better that's a start.

[cupic]

I am with the same boat as Dave with 28000 Raw shots I am lazy as when it comes to editing and deleting.once in LR the rating system helps but Im ONLY @ 500gb of photos so Im also with Malley boy as a hoarder,so there no help,only my thoughts keepit till ya sick of it thren cull cull cull TFS


cheers

[lithos]

I soot RAW and keep every one that isn't glaringly bad. If it is grossly blurred, out of focus, or a total "oops" with the shutter release I delete it. I may end up only converting 1 in 10 to jpeg for showing, but I keep most all of the RAW. The reason is that I have many times been able to go back and process what I had thought were loosers after learning a new technique or getting a new piece of software. After getting Focus Magic, for example I have more usable shots from my Seattle trip a few years ago than I had before I got the program.

Exactly my philosophy - there are no rejects, only defects.

[shawnxji]

Here's my approach:

For events where there are people I tend to keep more. Otherwise I slash and burn most of the photos, keeping only about 1/4-1/3 of what I took, but that varies. What I look for is 1) composition and 2) colors

When it comes to RAW vs JPEG, I mostly shoot JPEG w/ fairly heavy compression because I don't notice any difference among **, ***, or **** levels. I use RAW on some shots, esp. the more crucial ones.

[Tuner571]

For me I tend to be very judgemental of my work and whatever I think does not meet a certain standard I get rid of. Everything that is left goes on my computer hard drive and gets backed up a external drive. So in the end maybe you could just try and delete more photos in the end, it takes up less space and also sharpens your skills because you have to be extra tough when evaluating your photos.

Cory