Do you delete your old photos?

[vintagesnaps]

I delete shots with shutter blur, movement blur, etc. If I'm using my digital Ricoh which is DNG. Shooting film I keep my negatives.

 

[PhotoHobbyist]

When I first review pics taken, I delete 95% of them. Those left are worth keeping and I never delete them.

 

[21limited]

Feb. 2015 I got an image (well about 10 images) of barred owl near my feeders, probably hunting mice. It’s almost dark, the camera focuses poorly and the high ISO causes noise.

I got this image.
20150-02-11-Barred-Owl-1 by Norm Head, on Flickr

8 years later I get a subscription to topaz and cleaned it up.

20150-02-11-Barred-Owl-1 by Norm Head, on Flickr


The cool thing with these two images on flickr, is if you toggle back and forth between the two images, you can see the change instantly.

One of this series got close to 200 likes on facebook in it’s original form… but it looked sharper at reduced size. I always wished the image was better, so I kept it, even though it was soft. 20 years earlier a friend shot a wedding, and somehow the AF was turned off and he didn’t realize it until after the wedding, He went on line and found some software that saved the shoot. I remembered that, and I’ve been saving soft but almost useable images ever since. Right now I’m going through over 100,000 files looking for the ones I left behind that could now be worth resurecting. Starting form the year 2000, I’ve been upgrading images, the early ones need expanding in Gigapixel. The newer ones need sharpining. I’m up to 2015, and still have at least 50,000 image to go through..

SOme of my favourite “saves” (keep in mid, the earleist of these on th *ist and possibly the K100D were 6 MP files, 3,000x2,000.

Caribou on the Slate Islands in North Ontario. July 20, 2008 (Pentax K100D and SIgma 70-300)
Woodland-Caribou by Norm Head, on Flickr

May 17-2008 K100D
13 Getting closer, better have a hug by Norm Head, on Flickr

Painted Turtles - June 2004 - Pentax *ist D, SIgma 70-300)
2004-06-01-Painted_turtles-S by Norm Head, on Flickr

JUne 2010 PentaxK20D-
K20D7689-SF-PTD-S by Norm Head, on Flickr

July 17 , 2006
2006_Storm_rail_8x10-GD by Norm Head, on Flickr

I’ve probably rescued 100 photos I would have tossed if I were quicker on the “delete” button in the original PP work.