Don't Start at the Beginning...

[ShaneS]

So, this was a big year for me from a photography perspective and I thought that a good way to round out the year was to create a collection of my best/favorite shots of the year so I started at the beginning...

I started the year with my trusty but old D40x with kit lenses and was (wait, still am) working on my compositional and PP skills. By the end of the year I had purchased a refurbished D7000, a 50mm prime lens, the NIK suite of plugins and a new tripod. I also took a photography class and shot whenever I had the chance. I tried all sorts of things from night shots, long exposures at the fair, people shots, baseball action shots, big landscapes and tighter compositions and most recently still life.

Back to my efforts to create a record of the years best shots. I literally got stuck after my first image and thought (yet again) what the heck am I doing trying to be a photographer? I don't think I can even pull a shot per month out of all this mess! Every shot I looked at wasn't right, needed to be reworked in some way or just didn't make the cut anymore

So, I spent the better part of the weekend trying to get over a nasty little stomach bug but my stomach was getting more queasy looking at my work from the year

Then, I decided to just stop with the nonsense and start from the most recent shots and go back. My 'Best of 2013' folder is now expanding at a reasonable pace (I don't think I'm ready to sell the camera yet) and I have reset my expectations for the earlier part of the year to allow for my learning curve and not set the bar unreasonably high for myself (a bad habit that I have to kick).

For anyone else at a similar stage in their development I highly recommend this approach as it is much easier on the tummy (and the ego, if I am completely honest)

Does anyone else out there have similar issues with creating their 'best of' collections? How do you go about organizing the shots? Do you just drop them in a folder and then eliminate some later? Would you rework an image before you decide or just collect them and then systematically work on editing before making the final call?

[Stagecoach]

Shane,

I have a very simple method. Immediately after I have had a session I download all the images into a folder and title it appropriately. Underneath it I put a subdirectory named 'Finals' and as I work through the images (that are worth working on) once completed they are put in the 'Finals' directory.

Using this method any image that ends in the Finals areas I consider my best for each stage of learning I'm at this year

Changing the subject what did you find was the greatest benefit in upgrading to the D7000, in no more than one sentence?

Grahame

[ShaneS]

Grahame,

My method is actually similar (I create a dated folder for each outing and a sub folder called edits) but I learned so much this year that I see PP improvements to be made in many of the earlier shots and I also wanted to review the others to see if I missed anything. I going to go through the edit folders first and then, if time permits, I can peruse the rest

As far as the D7000 upgrade in a sentence...that's tough! Overall the camera produces noticeably better quality (and larger) images than the the six year old D40X and the additional functionality (live view, easier menu access, bracketing, better handling of noise in low light or with high ISO) is great once you get used to it. I am not sorry that I made the switch and am happy with the decision to save some money by buying a refurbished unit.

[Shadowman]

Nice summary. Usually there are a series of bests from each particular event, season, or use of a particular lens. You should easily remember which ones caught your eye, you usually print or exhibit those, so going back to your yearly best should be cataloged somewhere.

[tclune]

<snip>I decided to just stop with the nonsense and start from the most recent shots and go back. <snip>

For anyone else at a similar stage in their development I highly recommend this approach...<snip>

Does anyone else out there have similar issues with creating their 'best of' collections? How do you go about organizing the shots? Do you just drop them in a folder and then eliminate some later? Would you rework an image before you decide or just collect them and then systematically work on editing before making the final call?

I guess everybody has their own set of limitations. For me, I am completely unable to judge a shot that I have taken until I've more or less forgotten that I took it. When I get to a point that I don't feel "invested" in the shot, I can decide whther it works for me or not. I can cull a particular shoot down to a reasonable number of shots -- I may take a hundred or more shots in an outing, and cull them down to the half-dozen to a dozen that I think have potential. I will typically do a quick processing of them to have some JPEGs for later review.

I should say that what counts as working for me has very little to do with what a knowledgeable observer might choose. But what I am looking for in a photo is something that I respond to positively, not something that I expect that others would say is a good shot. You'd think I could do that right away, but my stupid ego gets in the way of acknowledging the truth about my own work for a while. I find that six months or more is pretty much a required distance for me to be able to be honest with myself about what I have done. Once I decide that I really do find value in a shot, I will often rework it to accentuate the things that attract me to it.

I like to display the final shots and get people's responses once I have finished my process. At that point, I can hear people's criticism and take it for what it is worth to me -- sometimes it rings true and I will change what I look for in the future. Sometimes, it strikes me as pap that somebody read in a book or fortune cookie years ago and has repeated blindly ever since. But, either way, I am better able to take it for what value it has to me once I have some time between me and the photo shoot. FWIW

[Downrigger]

I'm somewhere near your (early) developmental stage and I keep repeating to myself: "the delete key is your friend, the delete key is your friend, the delete key...."
It works.

[dan marchant]

Does anyone else out there have similar issues with creating their 'best of' collections? How do you go about organizing the shots? Do you just drop them in a folder and then eliminate some later? Would you rework an image before you decide or just collect them and then systematically work on editing before making the final call?

I use Lightroom - I bin the bad images on first import and do an initial rating of my images with stars (1 to 5). As I process the good ones I adjust the star rating and then apply a "Pick" flag to the top shots. Going back and finding my best is then easy as I just need to filter my images based on their star rating and flag.

[mknittle]

I'm somewhere near your (early) developmental stage and I keep repeating to myself: "the delete key is your friend, the delete key is your friend, the delete key...."
It works.

I am in the process of wearing the lettering off my Delete key I am finding quite a bit that I can't remember what I was doing at the time stuff that is maybe three years old.

[ShaneS]

John,

I am just getting into printing now - most of my images live in my computer and I am working up to printing more and possibly exhibiting in 2014. The culling process is well underway for 2013 based on what I edited around the time of shooting.

Tom,

I guess everybody has their own set of limitations. For me, I am completely unable to judge a shot that I have taken until I've more or less forgotten that I took it. When I get to a point that I don't feel "invested" in the shot, I can decide whether it works for me or not....

You'd think I could do that right away, but my stupid ego gets in the way of acknowledging the truth about my own work for a while. I find that six months or more is pretty much a required distance for me to be able to be honest with myself about what I have done. Once I decide that I really do find value in a shot, I will often rework it to accentuate the things that attract me to it.

I can relate to what you experience with your own work. After looking through the edits that I made at the time of shooting I decided to poke around a bit to see what else I had and I found a couple of little gems

I am not focusing on reworking the shots at this point and will do so once the selection process is complete. When I am done I hope to put together a slide show that I can display on my website which hasn't been updated for some time.

Thanks again to everyone who responded.

[jcuknz]

Tom ... I normally do not need to work on a shot immediately so I just download them and forget about them for as long as possible to approach them for what they are rather than what I thought they might be when I took them I quite like working through the files of shots taken perhaps five or six years ago ... allbeit with only a 5Mp camera in those days ... and get a few fresh ideas to work up.

[dan marchant]

I usually find I download shots from a trip and then immediately hate them all and get depressed. After several days of sulking and not looking at them I return to them and see them with fresh eyes. At that point I can see the good ones and start visualising how I want to process them.

[ShaneS]

I usually find I download shots from a trip and then immediately hate them all and get depressed. After several days of sulking and not looking at them I return to them and see them with fresh eyes. At that point I can see the good ones and start visualising how I want to process them.

It's really nice to know I am not alone in this feeling Dan (and jcuknz) and must admit that I chuckled and read your response out loud to my husband just to prove that I am completely normal Thanks for the confirmation!

[Brownbear]

Hi Shane,

Thanks for sharing... I'm not very organized yet. In fact cleaning up my photos has been on my to-do list for about a year now.

When I upload my photos I delete the worst of the worst, and I'm becoming quite adept at deleting blurry bird photos even if they are cute. I post photos here for feedback which I've found very helpful in learning to analyze my own photos objectively, and also to learn more about post processing, and I save it for a later day to revisit once more.

Sometimes I adore a photo immediately, usually because it is cute... but I'm learning that if I set the photo aside for a little while and revisit it at a later date I can analyze it more objectively. Sometimes, after the fact I will decide that it needs to be trashed and find another overlooked photo that is better. Other times I decide that the entire batch needs to be trashed.

Thank you for sharing a great idea that I should try and will try, when I manage to find time (I should say make time) to go through all my photos.