If you have a digital camera this is a question you have likely asked many, many times. I am in the midst of preparing for my family’s annual trip to Hawaii and recently sat down to purge photos from my camera that have been in there since last spring. As you can tell this task was a long time coming. The exercise proved to be time consuming, but productive.
I can’t say that I came away with any earth-shattering revelations (besides not waiting 10 months to go through your shots); however, I know that I am not the only snap happy parent who has had to sort through hundreds of backlogged shots. Subsequently, I thought it might be interesting to discuss what criteria you have in determining which shots to keep and which to obliterate.
Obviously, if your subject is blurred, missing body parts, or not looking at the camera it makes your job a bit easier. My problem comes when I have a picture like the one below.
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It was taken outside the State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin (the only State Capitol ever built on an isthmus). The lighting is fine, but my daughter is not looking at the camera (not that would necessarily precipitate an automatic deletion), and I should have angled her body slightly to her right. I have it on my delete list for those reasons.
This other shot I contemplated deleting because my flash didn’t go off and this picture was taken in the early evening and could have been lit better.
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However, parents of young children know it is a rare occasion when an offspring will smile on cue and at least in this shot my daughter is grimacing as she sits in front of one of the landmark buildings on the campus of my alma mater the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
There are some who might suggest you simply transfer all of your shots to your computer, print the ones you feel are frameworthy, and either save or delete the rest. After all, if your main goal is to clear out your memory card this is about the easiest option (though potentially time consuming if you have months’ worth of shots to sift through).
What is your criterion for deleting shots? Do you save all of them except for the ones that are completely obscured or do you have a trigger-happy finger that eliminates all shots save for the ones that are postcard ready?
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