Not so good photos

[Terry Thomas]

For some time now I have been reviewing my collection of wildlife photos. There were many that I decided to get rid of, taken over the last few years, locally, as well as in several different countries.
Some had not-too- good backgrounds, others a bit out of focus, poor lighting, poor positions etc..
I was a bit surprised to find that I had deleted over twenty one thousand shots!
Still have several thousands to go.

 

[Lafone]

I do the same and I think as a photographer I've got more ruthless or at least less tolerant over time. Shots I might have used or kept get culled or removed now and not only not processed but also not saved at all. I used to dump the whole lot into storage which meant there were tonnes of HDDs hanging about. I did the same thing recently and, having had a brief review, found myself just formatting things. I had already saved what I wanted. Helps with storage space too!

I guess also that it depends on the 'why' of the shot, so if it's something I might only get once but it's not useable I might keep it (but not process it). Mostly however I am trying to get a good shot vs a record of something.

I cull as I go now and rank everything 1-5, then re rank the 4/5 in case I missed something and then only process the 5's - the rest go. I end up with fewer shots from most days out, but I like them more. The nice thing about shooting digital with big memory cards is you can take a shot on a 'chance' without running out of film like in the old days! So in a way you end up having to be more disciplined.

I admire the history culling though, it's like having a really good tidy up!

 

[Terry Thomas]

I do the same and I think as a photographer I've got more ruthless or at least less tolerant over time. Shots I might have used or kept get culled or removed now and not only not processed but also not saved at all. I used to dump the whole lot into storage which meant there were tonnes of HDDs hanging about. I did the same thing recently and, having had a brief review, found myself just formatting things. I had already saved what I wanted. Helps with storage space too!

I guess also that it depends on the 'why' of the shot, so if it's something I might only get once but it's not useable I might keep it (but not process it). Mostly however I am trying to get a good shot vs a record of something.

I cull as I go now and rank everything 1-5, then re rank the 4/5 in case I missed something and then only process the 5's - the rest go. I end up with fewer shots from most days out, but I like them more. The nice thing about shooting digital with big memory cards is you can take a shot on a 'chance' without running out of film like in the old days! So in a way you end up having to be more disciplined.

I admire the history culling though, it's like having a really good tidy up!

I also keep some not-too -good shots of species I have not been able to get decent shots of. Yes,- digital photography is much easier than the old 35mm was. No more waiting for photos to arrive only to find that most were no good anyway! I still have my old black and white negatives, as well as my old enlarger etc.. None have been used for some years, and probably not a lot of good any longer.