I’ll keep it
How do you decide to either keep a photo or delete it?
First and most important, stay objective. Whatever you do, don’t even think about letting sentiment enter into your thought process.
For example, when I’m shooting pictures of all my kids and grandchildren, if an image doesn’t meet the criteria I’ve long ago set for myself, I have no problem deleting it…but deleting where is the question.
There is deleting, and then there’s deleting. This is a topic that frequently comes up in either my online classes with the BPSOP or in my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” I conduct all over the place.
If the shot really sucks, then it immediately goes in the trash bin lost forever somewhere in the digital cosmos, a.k.a. “the new gender-free intellectual cosmos”. If it represents a timeline, as in photographing them growing up, but not the yardstick that measures creativity, it goes into a folder marked ‘The family’.
That folder is saved for the day when one of my kids gets engaged and during the reception or engagement party those photos hopefully, one of them, is a shot of them naked as a small child is shown in a digital slideshow….always good for a laugh!!!!
Now, if it does meet the personal benchmark I’ve set up for myself, then it just might make it to my website, a future post on my blog, or in some teaching capacity.
Whatever standards you’ve set up for yourself, stick with it no matter what. Editing is a huge part of the process and can be as relaxing or frustrating as you make it.
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
