Throwing away bad digital pictures

[WilsonFlyer]

OK. I admit it. I have a VERY bad habit. I think a lot of it comes from the days of slides and prints. You see, when I use to shoot slides and prints (admittedly, mostly slides once I really got into it), I never threw ANYTHING away. No matter how bad the photo was, I kept it. I just couldn't bear the thought of throwing something away and later wishing I hadn't.

Does that make any sense? At all?

I find myself in exactly the same situation in the digital age. Maybe even worse! I keep EVERYTHING. I have 2 terabytes RAIDed on my server so I can't use space as an excuse. Problem is, it's all getting so huge that I can't find anything anymore! It's all organized, for the most part, by date and the camera that I took the shots with. In hindsight, I wish I had put a little more depth and thought into my folder organization. Maybe one day I'll come up with a way to organize it better and spend a month or two doing it.

So I guess my question is two-fold, really.

1) How do you make yourself throw away a shot, especially when there really isn't a storage reason to do so like there use to be in the olden days? Do you just pack-rat them like I do?

2) What's your organizional structure for keeping your pictures organized? I mean, REALLY! If you'd be willing to share, I could sure use some advice.

My current plans aren't working so well! LOL

Thanks! Maybe some of the advice given here will help others too. I hope I'm the only one but I'm betting I'm not.

 

[ukcatfan]

I was really bad back when I first got a digital camera. Now I get rid of the junk as part of my RAW processing.

 

[frzndaqiri]

I must say - my workflow drastically improved once I got a copy of Lightroom - and can't fathom how I did without it.

I have everything organized into folders (with a structure that works for me) on the HD - and then all are imported into Lightroom.

All photos are then tagged with keywords for easier locating / filtering in the future.

I do a quick pass using the "reject" option to get rid of all the truly unusable ones. Lightroom has a filter to hide rejected photos - so they're instantly out of sight.

A second pass to flag all the really good ones.

Now I'm viewing all the "picks" and neutral (neither flagged nor rejected) photos.

After going through and editing them all (sometimes using the neutral ones if there isn't a "good" one) and adding flags as needed I then view just the rejects. Confirm that there definitely aren't any keepers and permanently delete them on the spot.

There's a rare time where I feel one is just "artistic" looking enough and I move it to a portfolio type folder of images I keep just for use in other projects (ones that I wouldn't print and put in an album as they stand).

As someone who is into the TB realm of digital images I have to be that quick and brutal with my decision - but the portfolio folder gives me a single chance to hold any that I'm on the fence with. I find it keeps me from hoarding too many bad ones. "Would you print it and show it off right this second OR can you think of any REALISTIC way to use it later?" If not - off it goes.

 

[zackiedawg]

I started out that way too - but over the years I've learned to start culling out the unneeded shots more often, and I always feel so much better about it. It's like anything else people tend to 'hoard' - once you learn to let go, clean house, etc, it becomes addictive and pleasurable.

Typically, my first process after having loading photos from my camera to my computer is to immediately go through and cull the blurry, missed focus, duplicate, poor color, etc shots that I'd consider too far to be worth saving. If in doubt, I'll keep it so I can see how savable it might be. Right off the bat, I'm pulling out probably 20% of the shots.

Then, I go through and slideshow all the shots full size - zooming in for details - to cull the lesser of duplicate shots or ones that passed first muster but weren't all that great when I looked close. That might cull another 20%.

Once I start processing, or resizing, or organizing, I start to develop the story, flow, or best-of in the folder for that topic/trip. Some shots might get culled out that are just as good, but I got something twice and picked only one, or was technically fine, but didn't jump at me. Sometimes I'll keep some of those, but not process or work on them - so I'll only have the original. Often a year or two later, I'll go back through my folders and compare the processed shots to the originals - looking for those ones I decided not to process - if inspiration doesn't hit me that second time, I'll delete those - if I see them in a new light or still feel they migh tbe worth working on someday, I'll keep them.

I'm always taking new photos, so it's hard to dwell on what I've deleted - I don't find myself missing anything.

 

[C&B Young]

I must say - my workflow drastically improved once I got a copy of Lightroom - and can't fathom how I did without it.

I have everything organized into folders (with a structure that works for me) on the HD - and then all are imported into Lightroom.

All photos are then tagged with keywords for easier locating / filtering in the future.

I do a quick pass using the "reject" option to get rid of all the truly unusable ones. Lightroom has a filter to hide rejected photos - so they're instantly out of sight.

A second pass to flag all the really good ones.

This is what I do also. Prior to Lightroom I kept almost everything, apart from blurry photos. I culled a lot when initially setting up Lightroom, and now I keyword, flag & delete upon importing.

 

[Code]

The first thing I do when I import new photos is go through and reject the duds.. this has become especially important now that I have a camera that does 10fps and I'm grabbing 2-3 frames for every shot. Keeping them all would just be a silly waste that would make processing take even longer.

Interested to hear others' organization methods, though.. I've kept using date based organization even though I know it's not good.. just haven't had a better way or time to switch it all.

 

[WilsonFlyer]

I think I'm catching a hint that some of you are organizing with Lightroom's interface. Maybe I didn't really say this in my original post, but I am just as much interested in how you organize your photos as how you come to throw away bad ones.

I'm really interested in how you organize because I have a severe hangup in hanging my hat on any software vendor's product, even Adobe. Personally, I have a problem with any provider having their claws in me that deep. Photographs last a lifetime. Software comes and goes. Yes, even companies as strong as Adobe. I know. I've been deeply involved in the PC industry since it's inception. I have seen the big ones drop before.

I'd like to hear from those who may have developed a unique organizational structure based on a file system only (folders and filenames). Anybody doing something they feel is really creative out there?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I'm really interested in how you organize because I have a severe hangup in hanging my hat on any software vendor's product, even Adobe. Personally, I have a problem with any provider having their claws in me that deep. Photographs last a lifetime. Software comes and goes. Yes, even companies as strong as Adobe. I know. I've been deeply involved in the PC industry since it's inception. I have seen the big ones drop before.

I'd like to hear from those who may have developed a unique organizational structure based on a file system only (folders and filenames). Anybody doing something they feel is really creative out there?

If you search around, there have been threads on this exact subject before. Some of the more technologically sophisticated among us have put together some amazing systems for organization. IIR, many believe there is no perfect/forever system, so they keep not one, but two or more copies of their work. I remember Mark B saying that he has his system set up so that right away, as in on download, his pics go to different places. I think I've also seen people say they have one set of copies at home and store one with an online storage company like Carbonite. There are many different ways that people do it, but maybe that alone might reassure you about any fears you have about relying solely on one system.

 

[cosine4]

I don't get the question. What do you mean by throwing away pictures, I have never heard of that concept?

I have a folder structure based on event and/or location. For example I have a 'Disney' folder with 15 (and growing) folders inside for date of trip. Then I have a 'Cruises' folder with individual cruise folders inside. For smaller events I do it by location, for example I have a 'Chicago' folder and a 'St. Luis' folder with dated folders inside.

Then I use Picasa to navigate my photos. I can use my folder structure, a by date view, facial recognition (I love this feature), view by tags and a GPS feature using google maps (doesn't need to be taken with GPS unit, you can add the location for a group of photos).

 

[zackiedawg]

I too stick with traditional Windows folders to organize, rather than any organizational software. A folder/subfolder architecture, with a standardized naming format, has worked for me since 1997, and can still be accessed and organized in various viewing systems like Adobe, Picasa, etc.

Similar to the above, I have main categories (Cruises, Cars, Disney, Hometown, Equipment, Wildlife, etc), each broken down to subfolders (individual cruises, individual Disney trips, etc). Subfolders are named by event and date (Cruises/Noordam 2009-10, Emerald Princess 2010-11, etc...or Disney/Disney World 2010-12, Disney World 2010-09, etc). Within each of these subfolders, I have the original photos as downloaded from the camera in an 'originals' folder (after culling the unnecessary ones!), and the processed photos in the main folder.

 

[denise]

I am finding this topic very interesting.
I too seem to never delete but this end....the more I shoot the more I can't find anything.
My idea is to install a back up drive that I will only keep my photos on. I do have a back up that backs up weekly. But I want the other to only have photos on it and not on the hard drive on my computer.
I am just beginning to use lightroom in a color photography class and have been reading Scott Kelby's book on lightroom3 and getting organized.
So my question is:
Do any of you store only your photos on an external hard drive and what are your thoughts about doing this?
Here's to being organized...
denise

 

[photo_chick]

I never chuck anything. I've used bad shots in other art type projects so I keep it all. I organize by date. A year folder then inside of that I have folders with either the date or if it's a specific occasion the name of that. It works well for me for the ten + years worth of digital images I have right now. I use Lightroom to tag things but that's more secondary navigation for me.

I keep my current year on my main drive and my complete library on my EHD so I can take it with me. It's also all backed up a few places.

With my laptop being stolen last week I did just have to rebuild my Lightroom library (I hadn't backed that up D'OH!). Because I've been using my folder system for so long and know where things are it took very little time to get things back where I wanted them on the new machine.

 

[Anewman]

I delete periodically, but I treat them kinda like tax documents... I am just now going through 2006 photos.

 

[denise]

I delete periodically, but I treat them kinda like tax documents... I am just now going through 2006 photos.

haha....as a retired tax preparer I can relate! I have boxes of clients stuff that I have to keep...in addition to my own....