 Holly Abidi |
Organizing Photos Hi, As I get more into photography I find I take more and more pictures. Some I can delete right away, but most I don't want to delete necessarily, even if they aren't all that great. Thus, I quickly am filling drives worth of pictures. Any suggestions? How do professional photographers tackle this? Do they delete and keep only the best... maybe it's just a matter of thinning down my horde of photos. LOL! Please help! Cheers
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W. |
Some pare it down to a couple dozen per event. Others keep just about everything. Both types of 'archivers' pay a price.
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Holly Abidi |
Hi, Well yeah I agree both would pay the price in the end. err... I keep too much I guess. LOL! Thanks,
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John P. Sandstedt |
The major trouble with digital is the fact that one can lots of pictures very quickly and, more often than not, forget to "smell the roses." Take more time to scope your images, check things carefully with the viewfinder. Don't take a lot of "simple pictures," consider what it is you want to shoot and save. Since I rarely print a 4X6, I'm choosy about which images I edit in the first place and, therefore, I try to ruthlessly delete aevery marginal image I take. If a picture isn't all that great, delete it. What's the differeence between a professional photographer and an amateur? The amateur shows all his/her images. The professional shows his great ones.
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W. |
"The difference between a professional photographer and an amateur? The amateur shows all his/her images. The professional shows [only] his great ones." Hear, hear!
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Holly Abidi |
Hi John S. Thanks for your advice. I agree I need to thin ranks. I just started about two years ago learning and in that I took a lot of stupid pictures. But some turned out great. :) I never print my pictures I keep them on my drives. I only printed a photo book once of my best pictures. That was a great gift, and it looked awesome. I was proud of it. :) Any advice as to how I could organize maybe the folders should I do it by year or something?
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W. |
I use year/month/event (each photo's EXIF data contains exact date and time references). But storing your archive(s) on only your drive(s) is dangerous. Harddisks crash. I therefore backup on DVDs (2 copies of each), which I burn to new DVDs every 2 years (to preempt chemical degradation of the DVD's materials). If, in a few years, a new storage technology comes along, I will (have to) transfer everything to that new storage technology, of course. Secure archiving takes attention and effort.
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Stephanie M. Stevens |
I'm a packrat by nature and can't stand to throw away my files! I now have thousands of them, all titled in a yyyy/mm/dd/### format to keep them in order. I store everything on an external hard drive for easy access and two copies on DVDs for archiving. Very few of them are actually on my computer.
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Holly Abidi |
Hi, Thanks for the advice. Yeah I do keep too many photos. But I feel that some are good and others I might be able to use later. It's a process to keep them in order. :) I'm still learning. However, I figured I should consult others that know more than me and are in the business so have probably tons more photos than I do. I'm going to go back and order mine proper. Otherwise I fear I could get in trouble. LOL! I also don't keep much on my computer. I am paranoid about security and others getting a hold of my work. I write too so I have to keep everything off the computer. Like Stephanie mentioned I keep mine on external hard drives. I wish that they come up with better storage technology. It's all about space really. Thanks everyone for your help,
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Pat Harry |
I keep way too many of my photos, but I've found that as my Photoshop skills improve, I'm able to make something from a few of those photos that I thought I wouldn't use. I store them on my hard drive, which I backup to an online service each night. When I get enough to fill a CD, I move them to a CD, twice. One CD I store at my Dad's in his fireproof safe. The other I keep here as my working copy. I use archival gold CDs. Once on CDs, I delete from the hard drive which also deletes from the online service. But my heart skips a beat each time I delete my master folder on the hard drive! I think I may be a bit obsessive. :)
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john smith |
Hi Holly, The only area in my life that where I'm a packrat is my photography. I've gone so far as to scan every slide and negative that I had from my original days 20 years ago. This amounted to 3K plus images. I don't generally print anything unless it's going to be displayed on my wall or in a coffee table portfolio, or to give to someone else. I have a dedicated hard drive where I store the "base" images coming off the camera. When I have enough to fill a CD, I burn the CD, but retain the copy of the base on my drive for easy access. If I choose to edit a photo, I copy it to separate location. Once it is considered final, I have yet another directory to store all final images. These are the ones that I consider suitable for display and I also burn them to a CD. I think I've got Pat beat for obsessiveness. Nothing gets deleted because there might be some part of the image I can use.
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W. |
That sounds like an excellent backup scheme, Pat! Two points:
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Holly Abidi |
Hi everyone, Wow thanks for the advice. I think I'll maybe make CD's of my best shots or copy them to DVD as mentioned above since I'd need less. I guess most of us when they have countless pictures do keep many of them. I feel like I could possibly, maybe use it. hehe:) Like Glen said it's like you might use it some day... or not. hehe:) But, I'm trying to delete total useless ones though. Some turn out blurry or just aren't great. But the so so ones I keep too! I haven't got an SLR yet. I was thinking of getting the Canon Rebel XTi what do you think or recommend? I'm looking for a smaller SLR since I'm just getting started in my photography. Most are pretty heavy and big... any suggestions. I think the Cannon one is smaller. It looks like it's decent enough and I would get great shots. Any advice there? :)
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john smith |
Hi Holly, It's really personal preference, but one thing I learned was to get a feel for each of the brands/models first. When I was looking last year I had narrowed my choice down to either the Canon Rebel and the Olympus eVolt. I found that for me personally the Rebel didn't fit in my larger hands. I've also heard this complaint from a number of men; however, women seem to like the feel for them.
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Sharon Day |
I have small hands and handle the Nikon D200 just fine. It is heavy but you get used to it.
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Holly Abidi |
Hi Everyone, Yeah I'm going to go shopping and just pick up a few of the cameras to see which one fits better in my hands. Thanks for the advice. :) Up until now I've only looked more than picked up and seen which feels better. Who knows I might change my mind. hehe:) But I think the Rebel XTi would be a good choice for a starter SLR... I guess. I was looking at the D200 that's a nice camera. But it is heavier. Cheers
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