What to save what to delete?

[tom beard]

I'm still learning my D-90, am shooting in jpeg, my computer screen isn't calibrated and I don't have post yet. I'm shooting mostly still subjects and shooting multiple frames of the same shot. Tweaking exposure a little to each side. Then trying three frames in vivid, then three with a polarizer. That's 15 frames per shot. I down load them all and maybe two look okay. Should I save them all until I get post and learn how to use it, or junk all but the two or three that look okay? My eye is getting better (more critical) as I go along, but there is so much to learn and I wonder if I'm making a mistake by junking a frame with good composition but marginal exposure values. Some savers look great, but the histograms are a mess. What is your experience when you were a total noob? I'd kill for just one worthy of posting. So many opportunities...So little time.

Thanks as always, Tom Beard

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I'd save the ones that are at least close to good exposure.
You may be able to save them, or 'help' them.
I junk the obvious bad ones.
I do save the ones that don't have the best composition. Cuz, ya never know. LOL.

I junk multiples of the same thing and keep the best.
Sounds like you are having fun experimenting.

Get Gimp, it's free (gimp.org) and look for tutorials.
Cropping is the easiest way to make many images better, composition-wise.
Playing with cropping on your experimental images will help teach you what to try to get in the camera, for less cropping later. Then I'd learn sharpening, and how to tweak your exposure.

Don't worry about calibrating your monitor for now. Wait till you start wanting to print stuff.

Soon, you should probably start getting comfortable with shooting RAW files, because they are more forgiving than jpegs when post processing.