Camera Labs

I'm wondering what is a normal way to work, Because I can tell my harddisk is going to be full real quick

-Which pictures do you throw away permanently?
-What do you do with pictures that aren't eye-catchers but don't have any obvious flaws like being unsharp or way too bright? All the "in-between" quality ones?
-Which formats to save to? Save to JPG-exif only and keep the raw as backup?

Just wondering which criteria you guys use, because I'm often not so sure...

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flickr
Canon 5D + 17-40 F4L + 50 F1.4 + 70-200 F2.8L
Velbon Sherpa 200R

So far, with the fact that I have plenty of space at my disposal in mind, I only throw away the shots which are technically flawed. That is to say that they are ruined by poor focus, wrong exposure or motion blur and not for their lack of artistic or aesthetic appeal.

I tend to keep the so-so shots anyway. I find that some shots that look average or even awful can turn out quite well when post-processed(quite heavily). Sometimes when I go back and look at the images I've taken, I think of new ideas for it that I may not have thought of before so it is for this reason that I keep most of my images.

I shot in JPG originally but now shoot only in RAW and I'm still trying to find out if the merits of RAW are worth the extra space and the possible lack of future compatibility given that all of my images are for personal use only at the moment.

I've only been got 18+GB of images at the moment, I've only been taking photography seriously for about half a year. Who knows? I might adopt a more strict criteria when space really becomes an issue!

...and by "issue", I'm talking terabytes...

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Graham
Flickr

I'll admit it: I keep (almost) everything. To my wife's horror
Currently thinking about installing my first 2 terabyte-drives to mirror everything I have.
So far my 10,000+shots "only" need 130GB. As you can get 750GB for 100€ I never think about deleting anything...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I delete in several iterations.

1) When I unload my card, the ones that makes me go "eww" are delted instantly

2) When I start post-processing the next ones are deleted

3) When I later browse for enjoyment, a few more goes down the drain. Those are the ones where there are more than one similar copies.

Cheers

....... I buy drives in pairs and mirror everything...... just dump anything real bad, out of focus, not very interesting or usefull.......

at last count there were 10 drives...... I am in the process of sorting my images into groups or subjects....... wish I had started this some time ago...... but now comming together......

My current main pic storage is about 850 MB for 2000 images. I've been collecting for about 10 years and weeding out the fluff as I go. I only keep what I'm able to view within a reasonable time frame with a fast viewer, approx. 1 to 1-1/2 hours. If you keep your filenames well organized, plus any cross references, you'll be able to scan thru a segment of your images rather quickly, and eliminate the redundant or duplicate images.

Same here but I use DVDs .... I used to use CDRs with my 256meg card (fit 3 on it)... now with 2 4gig cards and one 2gig card its harder..lol

If its not totaly messed up it is kept.

I have DVD of "keepers" as well.

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Digital SLR Photographer as of Janurary 2008
NIKON D90 w/grip || D300 w/grip || D2x || NIKKOR 18-105 ED VR || NIKKOR 50mm 1.8 || NIKKOR 70-300 ED VR || NIKKOR 70-200 2.8 || SIGMA 28-70 2.8 || 2x Teleconverter || SB-900 Flash || SB-600 Flash || SLIK Tripod

Well I throw away most of the ones I think are crap lol. Whether it be, over/under exposed, (i normally bracket so there's normally at least one thats ok), out of focus (which is rare), blurred from camera shake, etc. But I have no problems with taking 50 shots and keeping only 7, as long as those 7 are 'flickr' material so to speak. That's the whole point of shooting digital right? Endless margin for error, and to learn through making mistakes and such. Glad to say i'm not the sort to stick pet photos and such in my flickr lol.

I make a dvd backup of my photos every once in a while.

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I've upped my Iso, now up yours.
Nikon D700, Nikon D80, Micro Nikkor 105 f2.8 AI-S,Nikon 85mm 1.8D, Nikon 50mm 1.8D, Nikon 35mm F2D, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 AF-S, Nikon 70-200VRII, Nikon 70-300mm VR, 300mm f2.8 AI IF ED, SB-800, SB-900. Noiseware pro,NIK Dfine, Nik Colour Effex, Nik Sharpener Pro