Delete Photos Often: How To Absolutely Organize Like A Boss
Delete photos often. Tree stump and leaves after fire, Wilsons Promontory, Australia.
I’m a photographer who likes to delete photos I’m not happy with. It’s a practice I’ve developed over time and one I recommend you seriously consider implementing on a regular basis.
If you regularly delete photos from your computer or external storage device you’ll eliminate poor quality and uninteresting images, maximize the time you spend looking at your best photos; allow you to better manage your image storage and ensure quicker and more efficient file organization.
File organization is, after all, an organic process and, over time, we should all explore new ways to organize our files so that they can be more easily accessed.
Deleting files is, to my way of thinking, a really important part of the editing process, and the less files we have to deal with the easier it is to organize and locate them for future retrieval.
I try to reorganize large amounts of folders and files on my computer several times a year. Part of this process involves the deletion of image files which is achieved with the use of Lightroom.
It's amazing what I find by undertaking this simple yet helpful process. Let’s take a look at the photo at the top of this post as an example.
It’s a close up pic of a tree stump and leaves which I created along the Lighthouse Walk shortly after a fire had ravaged much of Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria, Australia.
I was still a film-based photographer back then, but was loaned a Canon 20D for the trip. (Yep! it's that long ago). Soon after that particular adventure I purchased my first digital camera, a Canon 5D.
Despite the age of this image, I was able to find it and the other photos published in this post in just a few moments in Lightroom. It’s such a fantastic application for photographers to manage their files, which is why I recommend it.
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Delete Photos And Surround Yourself With Your Best Images
When it comes to digital images the act of deleting files is particularly important.
You see, as it’s so much easier and cheaper to take pictures than was the case in the days of film-based photography, it’s become increasingly difficult to manage and locate specific images from within much larger photo collections.
Why hold onto poor quality images, particularly if there’s no emotional value in those photos?
There’s a simple truth I’ve discovered over the years that’s highly relevant to this discussion. Put simply, your photography will improve more quickly when you surround yourself with your best pictures.
Unless you have a strong, emotional attachment to a technically poor image, and you don’t believe you’ll be able to improve it with new skills and/or technology down the road, it might be best to delete it.
In saying that I’m aware of software applications that utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) to quite significantly sharpen images that were originally quite soft.
Likewise, photos displaying unacceptably high levels of visible grain or digital noise can now be processed to produce much more acceptable results.
Ultimately, whether you delete photos or not is a choice you need to make for yourself.
But, at the very least, you should look to delete photos that are almost identical, such as the majority of images from a sequence made with your camera set to burst mode, whenever you can.
There’s just no benefit in filling your hard drive up with images that are technically inadequate and/or visually uninteresting.
Feel better about your photography by taking the time to delete photos that simply don’t meet your current technical and aesthetic standards. It’s what I do.
Overtime, you’ll find this approach will result in a less explosive growth to the amount of images you’ll have to manage. What’s more, if you regularly delete photos from your storage system you’ll end up with a catalog of images with a higher percentage of photos you’ll deem successful.
That can only increase your confidence in your ability to create great photos and you’re likelihood to embrace future photography projects and challenges.
How Deleting Photos Results In Better Photos
If you surround yourself with your best images you'll begin to absorb the way you approached the making of those images, both technically and compositionally, into your current workflow when making new pictures.
This approach should deliver more interesting images, more often.
Without wanting to labor the point, may I suggest that the best way to make boring images, more often, is to surround yourself with similarly boring images.
How to delete photos. New plant growth following fire, Wilsons Promontory, Australia.
How to Delete Your Photos
I made this photo on the slopes of Mount Oberon in Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria, Australia. It was made with what, by today’s standards, would be considered a pretty average quality DSLR camera.
Nonetheless, it’s a useful image in that it illustrates the devasting effect bushfire has on the Australian landscape while, at the same time, speaks to the ability of certain native plants to withstand the ravages of fire.
I discovered the images in this post while deleting photos from my Lightroom catalog. I don’t expect to keep these pictures longer term, but they’ve proved helpful in illustrating this post.
You see, at the time they were made, they seemed relevant to the ongoing discussion about fire prevention strategies in National Parks.
What’s more, the destruction caused by the fire was very much in my mind at that time. But now, with that destruction only a distant memory, the emotional power of the images, for me personally, has diminished substantially.
Adobe Lightroom is the platform from which my image organization and basic image processing is conducted. I’II outline the workflow I utilize within Lightroom to delete photos, on a regular basis.
The first step is to get those boring and technically poor images out of my Lightroom Library, by which I mean delete them.
At the very least, use a star rating system (e.g., 1 or 2 star) to signify that these images have been marked for, though not yet sent to, the Trash can.
You can then instruct Lightroom to display only the images you've rated as 3 stars and above. The other images haven't gone, they're just hidden from view.
Don’t worry you can change your mind and re-rate any of your images in Lightroom at any time.
That is, of course, until you delete them. Then they’re gone from Lightroom and from your hard drive.
Take a look at this post to better understand the exact process I go through each and every time I rate photos in Lightroom. I’m sure you’ll find it really helpful as you look to take control of your own image management system by undertaking to delete photos frequently and efficiently.
Rainy Days and Sundays: Time To Delete Photos
While I have very fond memories of film, darkrooms and analogue cameras I much prefer working with digital images.
I can tell you that managing many thousands of digital images on the computer is so much easier with Adobe Lightroom than cohesively managing the thirty or more three ring binders I have full of negatives and slides.
Do you live in or around Melbourne, Australia and are interested in learning how to use Lightroom to organize, develop and delete photos on your computer?
Then consider contacting me for information about my special, one to one, 3 hour Lightroom training courses. I can conduct these courses at your home or work, whatever works best for you.
