Culling tips?

[Dmitri]

I feel my current method is so not right, and it's downright annoying and time wasting.

I go through them once, get rid of the obviously bad ones. Then do the same in a second pass. Then I get down to comparing each photo side by side (which smile is better, are the eyes better in this one, etc).

It works well, but I feel there has to be a simpler, better way. Anyone have any tips, or can explain their own - better - cull-flow?

 

[Dave442]

I often don't bother spending the time to remove bad shots. I just mark the best with one star and then filter to only those and do the basic processing and then two stars for the final photos. If I only need to deliver a couple from that then may give those couple images three stars.

 

[Designer]

Well, whether you are removing them or grading them, it is still a time-consuming one-at-a-time process.

Maybe you cut out the second pass through. That would save a step.

 

[Trever1t]

you don't mention what software you're using. I use Lightroom. I'll cull 300 frames in 30 minutes. This is my method and it works for me; your results may vary.

1) I will view 4 frames at a time and flag the one (if any) that pop. I go thru all the frames. Then I will look at all the similar frames (flagged ones) and unflag the ones I like least. Now I'm down to about 10-15% of everything shot. I'll compare closely for what I want to edit. If I end up with 5 good frames I'm happy (glamour shoots). Occasionally I do return and find a missed gem but usually a quick review works best, just go with my instinct.

 

[chuasam]

Shoot more slowly and deliberately, this way you'll have less when it is time to cull.

 

[Derrel]

Shoot less.

Stop "culling", and start picking the BEST few frames, by raising your standards.

Stop wasting time on "culling" and spend more time SELECTING. Stop wasting time on "comparing", and spend more time SELECTING.

Wait at least ten days before making important decisions. Just archive everything except the utter, total junk. You might be surprised at just how poor your choices can be when you shoot, import, and then start the selecting process immediately. Wait some time before doing your edits!

I mean this sincerely: stop culling! Hard drive space is mere pennies per megabyte. You're throwing way,way too much energy into the LEAST important part, which is the culling out of many images, when what you'd be better off doing is spending effort on selecting just a few images, and leaving the others wherever they land. And again--it's much easier to do a good selection process only AFTER the shoot is well,well behind you in the rearview mirror.

There are two ways to cull: throwing away the worst images, or selecting only the BEST. Sounds like you've mixed the two styles into one terribly inefficient and unsatisfying method. ONE method, the first way, the culling method, leaves you with a folder with 75 to 150 images; the other method, the selecting the best method, leaves you with five to perhaps 10 images.

 

[Dmitri]

I often don't bother spending the time to remove bad shots. I just mark the best with one star and then filter to only those and do the basic processing and then two stars for the final photos. If I only need to deliver a couple from that then may give those couple images three stars.

I think I will try this today. This seems to make absolute sense!

 

[table1349]

Generally we tend to cull out the best looking little bulls and most promising heifers for breeding. The rest usually go to the sale barn once they have been fattened up nicely. We generally cull out a couple of really nice looking steers to be fattened and slaughtered for beef for the family.

 

[JacaRanda]

Really useful responses above. Lightroom makes the process so easy using any of the methods shared.

I sometimes cull just prior to import, sometimes just after, and sometimes a week or so afterwards. I also have thousands of images I will never do anything with. Oh well...I'm too lazy, and too distracted too do much about it.

 

[Dmitri]

I've played a bit (in LR) and found that the Dave422s way is working wonderfully so far. Saving me a lot of time.

 

[vintagesnaps]

So you aren't going to listen to Chuasam? That was the best advice.

Instead of shooting so many bad photos learn to see what's in your viewfinder before you release the shutter.

 

[table1349]

 

[chuasam]

So you aren't going to listen to Chuasam? That was the best advice.

Instead of shooting so many bad photos learn to see what's in your viewfinder before you release the shutter.

I'm going to contradict myself and say that quite often I take a picture just to see what it would look like in a photograph.
The files from my camera are about 75MB a picture.
I can squeeze the images to about 50MB by converting to DNG.
I cull the obvious rubbish ASAP and then I let it sit if possible (sometimes assignments are time sensitive)
Final answer: Use Lightroom, when shooting an assignment, think before shooting.