Digital photos

I

imamartian

Is anyone like me? wondering if i'm taking too many? i have 4500 on my laptop, and i just wonder when i'll ever get chance to view all these, let alone the rest i'll take in my life......

I think the digital phenomena has taken us all by surprise.... it's an odd situation to be in... 30 years ago, 24 images would cost you £2 (?) for the film, and then processing.... but these days, you can take 1000 images for free, everyday....
 
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No. The rest of us curate our picture collections to keep the best stuff and just get on with our lives.
 
No. The rest of us curate our picture collections to keep the best stuff and just get on with our lives.

crikey didn't expect that :eek: there aren't many people who don't have at least one camera.... (and they take no pics!), but most other people tend to have at least one camera and many other hobby's which they tend to photgraph.... then there's those interested in photography... who will probably photograph everything else in their lives... plus its their hobby!!!

you say you "curate" your pictures (what a nice word)... but that means organise as opposed to cull? i assume?

Which is the hub of my question... how do you "curate" your pics?
 
Isnt it all about just keep snapping, upload them & delete the sh*****.
Then dont look at them again.
I thnk as long as you name the directories , it dosnt matter how many you take, but when you want to view them looking at crap aint no fun.
 
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Isnt it all about just keep snapping, upload them & delete the sh*****.
Then dont look at them again.
I thnk as long as you name the directories , it dosnt matter how many you take, but when you want to view them looking at crap aint no fun.

if you take 10 photos a month, then yes, that's all it is... but if you take 1000 photos a week, then going through them and deciding what to delete or trying to name them is virtually impossible!!... plus if you take pics AND store raw..... you have to decide what's worth keeping...THEN... how do you view the pics you've taken? and when do you get time to view them all?
 
but if you take 1000 photos a week, then going through them and deciding what to delete or trying to name them is virtually impossible!!...

Wow! I wish my life was interesting enough to justify 1000 photos a week.
I think you may have Photo Hyperactivity Disorder - have a word with your GP.

Why not limit yourself to the number of snaps that you can properly 'manage'. Surely 10 excellent, well-edited and logically stored photos are worth a thousand so-so ones that you never get to view anyway?
 
I use curate in the broader sense. To select and organise and maintain a collection.

There's nothing wrong with taking lots of shots, but be ruthless. Don't keep the stuff that's merely okay. Set a higher standard for yourself. If it doesn't capture something of the moment then think carefully if you'll ever give it more than a passing glance.

If you simply can't bear to part with many of those also-ran shots then archive then to data storage rather than let them clutter your drive. You want to look back on your collection and see a progression and development of technique and style.
 
Step one is I set my camera to create a new folder every day. Then once I transfer to the hard drive I keep the folder auto date stamp but include a note as to what is in it.

I have found I do return and use new skills with old photos so tend to keep the RAW photos unless out of focus or something.

I have some what I consider stock images with good sky etc. which I will use with other images.

But much depends on the software you use. I am told light room is about the best to organise pictures but it does not have many of the features found with Photoshop CS4 so I use Bridge to organise my photos.

As you say viewing is also a problem so I tend to produce AV's to view pictures and Pictures2exe seems to be best. However since I only have the evaluation copy I have also looked at Slide Show Creator which is easier to use and does not write produced with evaluation copy of Pictures2exe on the slide show.

Not sure as to music to go with the pictures. Clearly if you want to pass on the AV then copy write free music is needed but for home use then I will use any music that's on my PC.

I have been surprised when going to lectures to hear the best photographers say how few photos they take. A land scape photographer may wait 5 hours until the light is just right before making just one exposure and may take 1/2 an hour setting up the camera.

I was invited to watch some tree felling and I did take around 40 images of that as I was uncertain as to when the tree would fall. Most were after deleted.

The big debate is do you do corrections before or after exposure? The purist will spend a lot of time attaching filters to the lens so the single image is spot on. I however will bracket my shots not only for exposure but also focus then using layers and masks with apply combine them together. Although my camera takes a picture at around 10M by time one has combined the images together 100M is not unusual and one has to consider is there really any point when my HDTV needs approx 1M for maximum resolution.

At the moment I have the RAW images but I wonder if there is any point with most of the run of the mill images.

This example of my AV's shows how I collect my photos of any shoot together. There will likely be specials in every shoot this
ibwUJJ9MX9EhCW.jpg
for example took some time to develop to be able to obtain the depth of field so I will give it a higher star rating in Bridge. Also using the contact sheet allows one to see far quicker what is in the folder
iCblYYuSJIMGj.jpg
as you can see that lets me see a good range.
 
I take several shots on most days. I keep an online diary for friends and family and this is a quick way to remind myself what I was doing, as well as to illustrate it!

The photos that I use are copied, edited and renamed but keeping the original number like Warrington_16-2-12_DSC4971. Then, if I need to locate the original (or others in the same "day" folder), I search my archive drive for _DSC4971.

This method has come in handy a few times when someone asked me a question and I needed to find a similar shot of the object, only full resolution and/or a different angle.

I could use "iPhoto" or "Lightroom" or similar but I prefer simply to keep images in "day" folders. Sometimes I add a word or two to the folder name "16-2-2012" to make it easier to find something special.

I hasten to add that I'm not a professional photographer!
 

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