Don't Delete

With digital cameras nowadays, it is very easy to take a picture and if you don't like it you simply delete it. If you are wanting to get better images, don't delete.

Sure, I do delete some photos, if they are badly out of focus but with the tools available today that is the only reason I will delete a photo.

After a shoot, I will sit down and go through the images I took and go to work on my "Keepers". These are the shots that I immediately like as I look through the days work. Once I am done with those I usually go to bed as it is probably very late. After a while I tend to revisit my past images and usually find some shots I overlooked on the first session. These might have been shots that I wasn't really planning on getting or a shot that didn't fit the type of image I was going for or some over or under exposed shots. I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, and I shoot in the RAW format so getting these over or under exposed images back to my liking is not much of a problem. In fact, some of my favorite images have been either over or under exposed.

Another reason not to delete your images is learning. When you go back and look at what you consider a bad photo you can read the metadata on that image and see exactly what you did right and wrong with your settings. So the next time you shoot in those situations you have the knowledge of what you did previously to adjust properly.

Photography is all about learning. Anyone who readily admits they know enough as a photographer is full of baloney. It is a process of never ending learning. Every time I shoot I learn something new. Whether it be something small like how to work my new monopod or how to shoot in a different light setting or changing my settings as a cloud covers the sun, I am still are learning as I go.

Also, with all the technology out there the "I don't have enough storage" excuse doesn't fly today either. The prices of external hard drives and backup drives have dropped and you are able to store more on these devices than you could even just a few short years ago. So there is really no good reason to delete a pic that is in focus or even out of focus, maybe you could get creative with your postprocessing on that out of focus image.

So in closing, DD, don't delete.

As usual thanks for reading,

E

Kappys Keepers