Sometimes Deleting Can Be Good: The Concept of Culling in Digital Photography

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,9740' target='_blank'>http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,9740</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Answer me this my fellow digital photographers: when you come back from shooting a bunch of photos with your camera, do you keep them all? Or do you delete some of them? I'm not talking about the blurry ones, or the ones that are too dark to be rescued. I'm asking if you delete photos that turned out well. Does the thought of that scare you? Do you believe that the real benefit of digital photography is the ability to shoot as many pictures as you want of the same thing, and keep them all? Then this article is for you."</i><br /><br />This is a bit off-topic, but since many Windows Mobile devices now come with a camera, and a huge percentage of people who own Pocket PCs and Smartphones also own digital cameras, this topic is applicable to almost everyone. Give the article a read and share your comments, I'm genuinely interested in hearing them!

[randalllewis]

With the cameras on various phone I've owned, I have taken only a handful of pictures. I've saved maybe 10 on the computer and others are used as wallpaper. With my digital cameras it has been a different story. I've taken thousands of shots over the years and I always delete a third to half (not counting fuzzy or just really bad shots). Even with that, I still think I keep too many snaps that are similar to one another. I guess at a certain point, I just can't delete any more.

[Mike Temporale]

From my camera phone - I have kept made 2 or 3 pictures. Most of the time these get deleted. The quality just isn't there for memories. But it's good for quick things.

From my digital camera - I almost never delete pictures, unless they are really really bad. I just mark them with a 1 star rating and tag them with a keyword of "Crap". The reason I keep so many pictures, is that I have found that everyone has a different preference on what is good and what isn't. So when my mother in-law looks at the pictures, she almost always picks a different picture than I would have. Also, I have found that images that may look a little fuzzy on the computer screen turn out fine when printed at 4x6. With disk space being as cheap as it is, I would rather keep them all than find out I deleted something that was of value to another.

[Kris Kumar]

I am trying to improve myself. I do delete the bad ones and some redundant ones, but I know I can do better.

Will have to try out the acdsee software, if it can edit the EXIF info, it can help me organize the photos better. Then again, I think I should wait for Windows Vista. ;-)

[Mike Temporale]

You'll be waiting a while. It's still got 10 months or so before release. :roll:

[Kris Kumar]

You'll be waiting a while. It's still got 10 months or so before release. :roll:

I know the Beta keeps torturing me. I wish I didn't have access to the Beta.

[Jorge Galindo]

I'm not a rat pack in physical life, but I've been guilty of being a digital pictures rat pack. This article has motivated me to do better.

It is true that less GREAT pictures do a better job than a BUNCH. I use my pictures as screen savers on my living room and having only great pictures show up will make for a better experience.

just thoughts....