running out of space.....

[danchez]

I checked the forums, but didn't have any luck finding what I need, so I apologize up front if this has already been asked. As I am taking more and more pictures, my 750GB external keeps getting smaller and smaller. Do you keep every picture that you ever took? My last set when my friend Sara came over, I shot about 100 pics but only came out with a handful of keepers. Should I keep all of the non keepers??? What does anyone else do??

[ka5txl]

Depends on the subject matter but as I continue to shoot I find I'm even more critical than ever. If it is a bad shot that can't be saved in lightroom or ps then it goes in the trash can.

[toverman]

I cull out the images that don't work for some reason and keep them until I finish processing the entire batch just as a safeguard. But after I'm sure I don't have to go on a search-and-rescue mission for a particular shot in the bad pile, I trash them. That goes for all my shoots, but may be more applicable to weddings where having a particular shot is critical. Thankfully, never had to Dumpster dive because the keepers have what I need.

[dcnctx]

Dump any unidentifiable images. Delete any blurred images that contain nothing of value and if you dare, bravely eliminate all but your best florals, that can be reattempted each spring. Keep the best landscapes and delete the ordinary repeatable ones. Actually, I can't even follow my own advice so I guess the only thing I can recommend is a new and larger external harddrive or online back-up for less than a Ben Franklin per year. However, sooner or later I'm afraid one has to become skilled at deleting images of little value. I'll let you know if I discover the secret.

P.S. Keep a buffer of 10% of your hard drives empty. It used to be easy to lock up a hard drive in which compressed files were involved (eg. jpegs, or compressed archives, etc...) I still hear of it occuring now and again. Good luck with your need for memory as pixels increase you're sure to require more.


Also, if Sara ever becomes president, perhaps you'll wish that you'd kept them all... (one never knows...)

[Jeffery]

I keep everything short of the obviously crap shots. I will go back through a catalog in LR and see an old picture and reprocess it until I am get something I am happy with.

[tc95]

I keep everything except for the really...bad shots...I have two HD's...one with the edited pictures that I look thru..and one as a storage dump....off and on I go thru the storage dump...just because there is something you can fix...that you thought you could not...or you see something else out of an old image.....

My storage dump is two raided HD's both 750gig...and the other is 500gig....

[Imagebuffet]

I keep everything apart from a very few (<20 per year, I guess) that are simply hopeless. I have about 300 GB of still photos, and more than a TB of video that I've shot. Both of my external TB hard drives are full. My internal TB HDD has about 250 GB of free space.

[CaptainTom]

storage space is so cheap that I keep everything except the junk I take as a test, or to see if the camera works. Also, as I learn new PP techniques, previously discarded images can now become "art" images.....

[danchez]

"art" images, I like that. LOL!!!

the other reason I keep telling myself to hold onto all the pics is educational. I can look back at them and see how I have progressed/changed. Thanks for all the input. I will have to inve$t in $ome more hardware.

[Tom]

I guess I am the only one here that takes bad pics. I delete a lot. If it isn't sharp and cant be used OOF, its gone.

Also, whenever I let the camera fall to my side, the shutter button hits my hip and I snap a nice shot of my feet.

When processing my pics, my fiancee said I should submit a set of pics of my feet to a gallery.

[CaptainTom]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

I guess I am the only one here that takes bad pics. I delete a lot. If it isn't sharp and cant be used OOF, its gone.

Also, whenever I let the camera fall to my side, the shutter button hits my hip and I snap a nice shot of my feet.

When processing my pics, my fiancee said I should submit a set of pics of my feet to a gallery.

You never know what might be needed in the stock photography market.
It's not really OOF, it's just not focused on what you intended it to focus on.

[Tom]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

You never know what might be needed in the stock photography market.
It's not really OOF, it's just not focused on what you intended it to focus on.

I take so many pics every week that I really dont see myself ever having the time to actually go through them. I keep some OOF to use as background and turn the opacity down. But very few. I just dont have the time to deal with that with all the frame I take every week.

[photonewb]

just keep buying external hard drives, they're "cheap" in the most basic sense of the word and you can just get a new one when it's full.

[ka5txl]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

I guess I am the only one here that takes bad pics. I delete a lot. If it isn't sharp and cant be used OOF, its gone.

Also, whenever I let the camera fall to my side, the shutter button hits my hip and I snap a nice shot of my feet.

When processing my pics, my fiancee said I should submit a set of pics of my feet to a gallery.

Bright side is that feet don't smell that way

[Imagebuffet]

Originally Posted by Thomas Campbell

I take so many pics every week that I really dont see myself ever having the time to actually go through them. I keep some OOF to use as background and turn the opacity down. But very few. I just dont have the time to deal with that with all the frame I take every week.

I shoot about 40k photos a year. I edit and upload about 10% of them. The others, I keep for my records and possible future use.