(workflow question) Do you delete all your crapped out shots?

Question

quick survey for experienced photographers. What is your workflow like?
do you delete all of the photos that you believe will be useless? How do you optimize space and backup in your workflow?

what kind or organization system do you use? and sync it with programs like lightroom etc.

Answer 1

If I am at an event and have some down time, I might review on the LCD and get rid of the obvious duds. I have plenty of battery power, though, so that is not a concern.



Yes, storage is cheap, but time is not. If you ever go back to a shoot and want to find something, it is helpful to have the obvious duds gone. I've got too many where I thought I might use them one day,but I reallize now that it's never gonna happen. I mean, something that I thought might be useful as a texture or something turns out to be something that I can't even remember where I saved it.



I now make a folder for each shoot and then sub-folders for various purposes. For instance, I have one for archive and prints and a different one for editorial submissions under the same shoot. I title the shoot folders with a code for date and a very brief description so I can find it later.



Example: 20110225 Snow Geese



If you put the date in that format, yyyymmdd, the folders will sort in chronological order for you.

Answer 2

I used to. I now use Adobe Lightroom, and Photos that are not selected are removed from the catalog, but I usually do not delete them from the hard drives because storage is so cheap these days. My Drobo holds 6TB and automatically backs everything up in case hard drive fails, and only costs about $1,000. If you figure that each photo is about 50MB on average, the 6TB drive holds 120,000 photos and storage costs less than a penny per image.

Answer 3

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