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How deep is your love ?

ANDY00

By ANDY00, 1733916988

No, no, it’s about images, honest! Personally, I never stop liking some of my images. Of course, from every shoot, there are always some that aren’t as good, but from every shoot I’ve ever done, there’s always at least one or two I fall in love with. I not only keep them in my portfolio, but I also revisit and improve them as time goes by. I’ve found that some models really appreciate this—even if they don’t look exactly like that anymore, they value that I still try to push my own limits.

So, do you focus more on the fun part of shooting and display images until you’re bored of them and discard them forever, or do you keep working on them? Do you keep all your images? If so, what do you do with the older folders left buried on hard drives? Are they just nice memories of great shoot days to be viewed once in a blue moon? I’m really interested in what others do with their images and how often they revisit a shot or shoot.

Obviously, I am only talking about digital images, as carbon copies are very different when it comes to storage, etc., even though I have a lot of carbon images. Plus, my favorites from my digital collection are usually printed as well.

BLA@K said, 1733917992

I have images from 8 or 9 years ago that I still cherish even the worst of the worst sadly all stored on 4 broken laptops until I can access them 

ANDY00 said, 1733918360

BLAMissKW said

I have images from 8 or 9 years ago that I still cherish even the worst of the worst sadly all stored on 4 broken laptops until I can access them 


I’ve lost images to broken HDDs as well—it sucks. My iMac actually caught fire, but to be fair, I didn’t switch it off at all for five years, so… yeah, that’s probably on me. :-D

BLA@K said, 1733918710

I couldn't leave the house knowing a computer was left on , I panic with the washing machine being on :)

Theta Aeterna said, 1733919909

I lost several drives thanks to thunderstorms, surges and what not. I also lost one from my self opened backpack on a beach.

To the original question, I shoot with emotion. The shot leaves a mark while shooting, another mark while editing and another mark while looking at it. I have shots which I still can't believe I shot them, and have some I feel happy how it turned out after post processing although it looked really bad as raw. Since I shoot mostly outdoors, each session has it's own environmental feeling to me, which i feel with my whole body, from the smell to the light, to the awe of the beauty of the scenery or the drama of the sky. If it's a model shoot, of course her beauty, creativity and interaction with me also leaves a mark.

I delete a lot of raws these days, tired of having repeat images, blurry images, subpar expressions etc. But I keep a lot of raws around and organize them whenever extra time is available.

Abbey A said, 1733923156

The best of the best get sent to Hello Canvas and end up on the wall. These are the ones that arent just "decent pics" but flippin good collaborator efforts from both sides. I can even tell you what music was playing at the time.

Most others get stored on passports/portable hard drives.

Edited by Abbey A

tandi said, 1733923206

My husband keeps every shoot even the shots that are horrible, he only shoots 24MP for hobby work so all of those RAWS and edited PS TIFS from a shoot fit on a DVD-R DL 8GB. Annoyingly to me anyway, he creates a new LR catalog for each shoot so that catalog can be kept with the RAWS, so the LR directory containing the catalog is also backed up to the DVD-R DL. This means he has individual DVD masters and a daily, weekly and monthly of everything onto HD's as well as the cloud.

Personally if it's never going to be edited I would delete it, but he says his tastes changes and often what wasn't picked in the past becomes a pick in the future once he notices something he likes and wants to try editing. He literally can edit a picture in 5 minutes so there is never much improvement in the first edit, often it gets far worse.

Gothic Image said, 1733925154

Like so many things, the answer to the original question is - it depends.

I have every single digital image that I've ever shot (and many film scans) stored in several places including offsite backups.

sd photography54 said, 1733926182

BLAMissKW said

I couldn't leave the house knowing a computer was left on , I panic with the washing machine being on :)

I never leave a washing machine on now, We had one burst into flames it was a good job we were at home at the time.

BLA@K said, 1733926449

Too many things that I worry about :) 

Mel4nie said, 1733933633

I think it is worth keeping all of your images to reflect on.

We learn, we progress, our tastes and dislikes change over the years.

For me personally,I go back and review stuff to see my progression, to spot mistakes I have made.

On the modelling side, previously I've taken my top 12 images from the year and have made them into a calendar as a keep sake.

On my photography page, I've had a phenomenal year with credited images and intend to print them as a collage and put it on my desk at work - a motivational tool so I can earn money and invest in my hobby further

Edited by Mel4nie

Timmee said, 1733935385

I'll take a trawl in my old folders of RAW files from time to time, find something I like and make an edit to post. My  Carla 'Mid-Summer' image (posted a couple of days ago) is one from a 2022 shot that I didn't pic out to edit & post at the time.

Edited by Timmee

Stu H said, 1733935940

I keep all my images ... although I keep meaning to go through them and delete the obvious misshot.

I very rarely dust them off and look at them again after I've edited the original picks. I might do the odd one or two if I'm trying a new process, but mainly they are left alone to take up space on the NAS.

With the exception of photos of the kids, I could loose them all tomorrow and I wouldn't be *that* upset.

JPea said, 1733937926

Very occasionally I go back through the raw files and find one I missed and edit it and put it up on PP to see whether I was right...I see images here differently from the way I see them any other way.

And occasionally I go through edited images and re-edit one or two.

Some time ago, for various reasons I deleted a lot of raw files from my early years on PP.

I like the fun part of shooting but I am trying to get interesting images as well.