Deleting Images

[W.Y.Photo]

Am I the only person here who doesn't ever delete any pictures they take?

Seriously.. The last time I deleted an image was back when I used 4gb memory cards and needed to keep shooting. Now I have a 32gb card so I'm never worried about running out of space... I only clear the card once the all the images are on my hard drive and I never delete a single image... If I run out of harddrive space I can always buy a new harddrive but there's no way to buy back a deleted photograph.

 

[snowbear]

. . . there's no way to buy back a deleted photograph.

I don't want to "buy back" the crap that I delete.

 

[photoguy99]

I delete stuff all the time. I over shoot quite a bit, and in any sequence of similar shots there are usually 1 or 2 clear winners. The rest can be safely binned, and I do (mostly, or at least sometimes)

 

[W.Y.Photo]

Hmm okay... I've seen some amazing photographs that people have told me they would have deleted had they not taken to saving all of their shots. That's why I don't delete. Then again everyone's different.. I just know that if I were in the habit of deleting my work that I probably wouldn't have any photographs left to show as I can be very critical of myself sometimes.

 

[Buckster]

I only delete serious mistakes that are beyond saving, like blurred, over or underexposed, stuff like that, which isn't many. I don't tend to overshoot much though, compared to what I see a lot of folks these days say they shoot in terms of number of photos per session.

 

[Derrel]

I agree with Buckster's basic philosophy. I usually delete only a few shots from any particular shoot. Flash misfires, accidental discharges (almost always from the portrait release on my camera), blank frames, grave focus miscues, etc. So...not much to delete really, maybe 3 or 4 frames out of say every 500 frames. I look at my photoshoots as a type of historical record, a permanent record of what I saw. Additionally, looking through my "takes" from various locations shows me something: I can SEE where the worst locations and views are found; I can SEE what did NOT work...in my opinion the real lessons are mostly in the MISTAKES.

 

[Overread]

My process:

1) I generally do not delete anything in the field. Generally this is because its really hard to review even off the best LCD in the best lighting (for viewing the LCD). Zoomed out is too forgiving and even zoomed in it can be hard to judge overall sharpness and quality.
I will tend to delete only if I get an utter disaster of a shot or if I'm running out of card space. In both cases I'll only do that if I've got a lull in the event/action/shooting so that I'm not missing shots (that doesn't always mean that nothing is happening, just that I know that what is happening won't give me a shot I want).

2) In the computer I tend to err on the side of not deleting; sometimes a shot might be rubbishy technically but has redeeming features or just records something you did or saw. I also tend to avoid deleting anything along this line unless its been a good few days since the shoot. I find that right after its very easy to be hyper-critical and if you're not careful you can, in that mood, end up throwing away good shots that had only minor imperfections; or which would be perfectly viable when displayed at a smaller size (eg online).


I would always say aim to over-provide for storage. Have more cards than you need with you when shooting - have more harddrive space spare (I would say you want to have around 1/4 of whatever your current storage size is free and when you start to have less than 1/4 look to upgrade/add more).

 

[smithdan]

Yup. Dump out the obviously useless ones from the camera first then review the downloads which I now tend to keep . Save edits for comparison in separate files and weed them from time to time. File away all negs and keep all the initial scans as well. Storage is more reliable and cheap now so why not. Once they're gone they're gone.

 

[CygnusStudios]

I guess that I'm the odd man out, I delete constantly if the image isn't heading the direction that I want. Most of this because I so rarely edit any image that I take. 99% of our clients use professional retouchers so we only give them useable images to work with. Because of that, I've developed the habit of just keeping what I want to work with and deleting everything else.

 

[Dave442]

I do not delete anything in camera. I delete OOF or other obvious mistakes on first check of the shoot in post. What I plan to work on is flagged or rated and the rest is just there as a reference or junk pile.

 

[runnah]

I normally dump all the ones with unfixable errors, then all the ones that are just plain bad and boring. I'll keep a bunch of the "meh" ones to reevaluate a bit later. If after a month or so the "meh" ones aren't doing anything for me they get zapped.

 

[ronlane]

I delete the ones that are OOF or are duplicates (from using high speed burst mode). I try to do this in the first run, but there are times, when I am cleaning up or reviewing photos that I may delete others that I notice issues with or that I come back to and realize that the photo is just wasting space and will never be even a decent "snapshot".

 

[W.Y.Photo]

The Artist in me cringes hearing that you all delete OOF images

 

[Trever1t]

I'm with the few that only delete unusable images. Who knows, I've gone back and found gems I passed over previously

 

[Kane Adams]

I never delete when shooting because it takes too much time and battery. However, once I put the photos on the computer I usually delete a lot of them. Probably an old habit from back in the day when I had a smaller Hard drive on my computer.