Don't Delete That Image!

I used to keep everything but recently I've become much more ruthless. I have literally thousands of pictures that are of no photographic. historical or sentimental merit whatsoever so what is the point of keeping them? They are just eating up disk space and making backups take far too long. I do tend to wait until I've seen the camera pictures on the computer screen before binning the "bad" ones though.
If I ever get to the level of post processing where I need a blurred layer I can always take another crap picture ( that really isn't that difficult for me....) or blur a good one.
I'm slowly going back through a couple of years of mostly mediocre ( at best) shots and destroying the evidence.

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.........all the gear, no idea!
Me super, MX, LX, K5,DA 18-55WR, DA 17-70, DA 55-300, DA40 Ltd, FA50 1.4, Samsung D-Xenon 12-24,Samsung 100mm macro M50 1.7(x3), M28 3.5, M35 2.8, M100macro f4, M135 3.5(+others)

I don't use the machine gun approach, but is it not true that the ordinary man now has the opportunity to do preciely what professionals used to do, waste film.

I had a friend who was a photo journalist who told me once that he would shoot off 10 rolls (reels?)of 36x because his editor wanted a shot of ...... and didn't care how many shots he took to get it. So as far as he was concerned film was free.
I at the time (and for many years after) had to BUY my own film then PAY to have it developped and PAY to have it printed. Now I can blast away to my hearts content.

regards
Bernard

I think digital has created the opposite effect of using film. People shoot way more on digital. This takes longer to edit etc.

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PPG Portfolio Flickr
Equipment Pentax K-5 mk1 & mkii
Pentax: DA* 16-50mm 2.8 : DA* 50-135mm 2.8 : F 50mm 1.4 : DA 35mm 2.4
Tamron SP 400mm f/4 (65b) : Tokina AT-X SD 100-300mm f4

Yep I'm lazy and sometimes I rattle of a lot of shoots but not in the hope of recucuing something but it the hope I learn from the bad shots. Thats the theroy but often the reasons for the mistakes take along time to sink in.
I started in digital with a 2mp camera purely to capture images I could use in Art work as going digital seemed an ideal way to paint in the small space I had then. The photography has taken over some what but the hoarding just in case stuck.
I actualy get more prints now than I ever did as I was very good at throwing exposed film into a cupboard untill I had money to develope which often didnt happen lol.

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All roads roam to Leeds
linklink

Pentax K-5 18-55mm Tamron 70-300mm
Pentax 35mm
a few filters Manfrotto tripod and monopod Silk tripod and a bumbling approach on how to use them

I think that in the fullness of time, a lot of photographers may come to realise that less might well be more.

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Best wishes,

Andrew

"These places mean something and it's the job of a photographer to figure-out what the hell it is."
Robert Adams
My website: http://www.ephotozine.com/user/bwlchmawr-199050 http://s927.photobucket.com/home/ADC3440/index
http://www.flickr.com/photos/78898196@N05/

what he said ^^^

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Mike

Pentax K5 / Pentax K5 11/ Pentax K200D / Canon Rebel T1 i / /Panasonic Lumix GX1/ Canon G10/ Pentax Q / Olympus OM1n

Interesting comment.

Here's a little personal anecdote.

Back in the 1980s I had a few years where I took lots of pics. Probably about 10,000 in total. I sent the films off and the negs and prints were returned. I picked the good shots and and put them in those big albums that had sticky clear film wrappe around each page to protect the prints from sticky fingers. I made little paper labels and put the date and location and other comments under each pic in the album.

The negs came back in strips of 4 or 5. Obviously no one is goign to bother snipping out the duff negs and throwing them away so I just filed away the strips if negs.

Then from about 1990 to 2009 I stupidly neglected photography, but I got back into it and one of the first things I did was to buy a film scanner and start scanning my old negs.

One of the first things that struck me was that those frames which I had discarded as being mediocre or even rubbish pics, and didn't put in the albums, now had a great nostalgic and historical ( For me ) value

Your RAWs, DNGs, PEFs are your negatives. Throw them away at your loss.

Don't come crying back to us in 25 years time when you are looking back at your old pics and just wish you'd kept the lot.

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Bodies: 2x K-5, Sony TX-5, Nokia 808
Lenses: Pentax DA 10-17mm ED(IF) Fish Eye, Pentax DA 14mm f/2.8, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8, Pentax-A 28mm f/2.8, Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.2, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-FA 50mm f/1.4, Pentax-A 50mm f/1.7, Pentax DA* 50-135mm f/2.8, Sigma 135-400mm APO DG, and more ..
Flash: AF-540FGZ, Vivitar 283
Smeggy's Forum and Pics

I'm currently trawling through 1000+ images from the Jubilee weekend in london.

The best will go on display somewhere, the rest will be cut to DVD, stored on several hard drives and, most probably not be visited again.

As for the OP, I'm a hoarder, so I keep nearly all my shots..

..as for 'spider's comment, I like film for the very fact that it makes me think more before shooting. Thus I get fewer duff shoots and can keep them all

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Cheers, HG

K110+DA40, K200+DA35, K5+Tammy 18-250, a bag of lenses, bodies and other bits.

Mustn't forget the Zenits, or folders, or...

I've some gallerieshere CLICKY LINK! and my PPG entries.

I think some are taking me too literally, perhaps I should have been more specific, I'm not saying don't experiment or walk around a subject and take many shots from various angles etc, what I am saying is we should be taking a little more care over composition, exposure etc, just what we would have done with only 36 exposures to play with.


I totally agree, especially future generations who may have the task of going through someones collection, Grandad may well have taken some very good pictures but finding them amongst the thousands stored on hundreds of discs would soon become tiresome, especially if all the duds were there with them too

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My Names Alan, and I'm a lensaholic.
My PPG link
My Flckr link

I'm so pleased to read it's not just me who keeps everything 'just in case'
What I do find useful on 'dustbin shots' is to try different things in photoshop to improve the image or parts of it and if successful try and remember what I did

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Regards
Stan

To My Snaps...

PPG

I delete my rubbish and also-rans, if I've lost something that might be of value in many years time then it's 'c'est la vie!'

Much as I enjoy photography I find it useful to take the camera away from the eye, look at the scene and memorise - so many times I see people who don't look at the bigger picture and miss out on other things....

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AKA Welshwizard/PWynneJ
Assorted Pentax/Nikon/Mamiya stuff