Use or Delete

yupman · January 10, 2010

Question may be a little off the wall for this forum but hope someone may be able to give me some good advise.

I did a birthday party and I fubbed up 3 shots out of almost 300.

I was shooting with a low depth of field and a couple of shots my angles were wrong.

Bottom line, a few shots that had couples in it came out with one person out of focus.

The question and advise I am looking for is, do I leave it in the gallery or do I simply delete it?

fortunately the couples were not main guests and when I did my rounds with the main guest she did not stop for the pose with these couples.

I was hoping that I had the couples with the main guest of honor but, unfortunately they were passed over. It would not have been bad if they were in a different group or setting but I just don't have anything on them.

Thank you for your advise, does this happen to any one else?

Sam · January 10, 2010

If you can shoot an event, birthday party etc and have a 99% keeper rate you need to be running workshops. This is not said in jest.

3 out 300 shots out of focus, bad angles etc. would be spectacular in my book.

I would love to see some of these.

Sam

PS: I would just toss them.

FatNakedGuy · January 10, 2010

I shoot 300 and delete 287..

http://rickweller.com

yupman · January 10, 2010

FatNakedGuy wrote:

I shoot 300 and delete 287..

http://rickweller.com

Thank you for your comments and it makes me feel much better about losing the few that I did.

My photos are not spectacular but I had managed to get the moments that I needed. I have a lot of work to do as far as composition, lighting and artistic value.

I would have to say that I am not better than the uncle fester with the bright new fancy gizmo of a camera shooting everything that he can.

Really thank you for making me feel a little better about my odds.

I am thinking that your opinions would be to delete them as the number of keepers are high?

here is the link and would welcome the feedback.

http://808photo.net/Other/Jan-9th/10903471_SeYoP#761254105_DC7bP

I am still working on the pictures that I will put in a gallery for the viewing by the guests as I don't feel all the pics are of printing value for one reason or another.

The guest of honor will of course get all the sots. Including the ones that got messed up. Or does anyone feel this is detrimental to ones work and progress as a photographer? The guest of honor is well aware of the fact that this is something new for me and I do have a lot to learn.

Thank you for your input

Aloha
Roland

Dogdots · January 10, 2010

I took a look at your photos and I thought they looked good and sharp.

May I ask what lens you used

yupman · January 10, 2010

Dogdots wrote:

I took a look at your photos and I thought they looked good and sharp.

May I ask what lens you used

I used a Nikon 24-70 f2.8.

It is an amazing lens.

I am not able to afford this lens so I rented it from a local shop here in Hawaii.

It does make the world of difference. It is so fast with focusing and the shots are so sharp.

Hopefully one day I will be able to afford it.

Thank you kindly

Dogdots · January 10, 2010

yupman wrote:

I used a Nikon 24-70 f2.8.

It is an amazing lens.

I am not able to afford this lens so I rented it from a local shop here in Hawaii.

It does make the world of difference. It is so fast with focusing and the shots are so sharp.

Hopefully one day I will be able to afford it.

Thank you kindly

Dang-it -- it's a Nikon and I shoot Canon

D'Buggs · January 11, 2010

I wouldn't pass out any of my works if I felt they didn't merit hanging on a wall... If they don't pass your standards, I say toss em.

Scott_Quier · January 11, 2010

If you #24 (DSC_1513.jpg) is an example of one of the three - then I would toss them. Number 24 is a definite candidate for the dust bin.

As others have said, if you're not pleased with a shot, if it's something you would rather the world not see ... toss it. In this case, what the client doesn't know will not hurt them.

Sam · January 11, 2010

OK, here are my thoughts:

A lot of the images have technical issues with exposure, focus, low shutter speeds, depth of field, (a lot shot at 2.8), composition, lighting.

I believe in this environment you really need to use flash.

While I would cull a lot more out, I don't think there is any problem with giving most of them to the birthday person. You were able to capture the event and the people. As snapshot memories they are fine. A good learning experience.

I would however hesitate to charge for these.

Don't beat yourself up, but do be critical of your images and work to understand how to make them better.

I like your attitude and know this is just the beginning for you.

Good luck!

Sam

FatNakedGuy · January 11, 2010

I think your images could have used a little flash to make them pop more but that's just my opinion (which doesn't count for very much!!)

I import my gazillions of images into Lightroom 3 beta

The first pass I mark all images that I think are keepers with a 3

Next pass I filter on 3> and then mark the keepers with a 4

Next pass I filter on 4> and then mark the keepers with a 5

Last pass I filter on 5 and then work on those images (color correction, cropping, etc) and those are what I show.

It doesn't take much time at all to go through hundreds of images and whittle them down with Lightroom (I love that app!)

I used to process EVERY SINGLE IMAGE and would spend hours at a time because I thought they ALL rocked... funny, now I'll go back to my 3's to see what I first thought was good and then puke in my mouth a little.. I do that with my old work too.. look back at what I thought rocked a year ago and then get a little sick to my stomach.

So my advice to you is to ONLY SHOW YOUR BEST WORK (the 5's!). That way people will think you are a brilliant photog all of the time! A fantastic rock photog once told me to keep my galleries under 100 images as people do not have the ability to process much more than that (my galleries used to be 300+ images). Great advice I think!

Rick

http://rickweller.com

yupman · January 11, 2010

FatNakedGuy wrote:

I think your images could have used a little flash to make them pop more but that's just my opinion (which doesn't count for very much!!)

I import my gazillions of images into Lightroom 3 beta

The first pass I mark all images that I think are keepers with a 3

Next pass I filter on 3> and then mark the keepers with a 4

Next pass I filter on 4> and then mark the keepers with a 5

Last pass I filter on 5 and then work on those images (color correction, cropping, etc) and those are what I show.

It doesn't take much time at all to go through hundreds of images and whittle them down with Lightroom (I love that app!)

I used to process EVERY SINGLE IMAGE and would spend hours at a time because I thought they ALL rocked... funny, now I'll go back to my 3's to see what I first thought was good and then puke in my mouth a little.. I do that with my old work too.. look back at what I thought rocked a year ago and then get a little sick to my stomach.

So my advice to you is to ONLY SHOW YOUR BEST WORK (the 5's!). That way people will think you are a brilliant photog all of the time! A fantastic rock photog once told me to keep my galleries under 100 images as people do not have the ability to process much more than that (my galleries used to be 300+ images). Great advice I think!

Rick

http://rickweller.com

Thank you very much for the learning experience.

I agree 100% and now that I look at it I am sick and yes very disappointed with the shots
I was so much trying not to wash out the photos and I tuned down the flash too much.
I did not want the harsh skin tones or the oily skin look.

I thank you very much for the honest review and fortunately this was simply a learning experience.

I left only what I felt was somewhat adequate to at least be known as the uncle fester with the new toy gadget.

What I noticed is that what you see on the screen does not equal to what comes out in print.

I was rather disappointed in the prints and thought the same thing about the colors not standing out.

I hate that feeling that you get when you know you only have one shot at getting it right.

I so much should have invested in a diffuser but I did not want to get the Gary Fong one.

Again I really appreciate the honest words and yes I have a long way to go with handing the correct exposure and compositions.

Aloha
Roland

adbsgicom · January 12, 2010

1. Don't feel so bad.
2. If you won't want to use a diffuser, learn to bounce the light (good idea either way). Good book on this is Neil Van Niekerk's book, "On-Camera Flash Techniques...". You can find it on Amazon, easily.

Qarik · January 13, 2010

most of the shots seem undeexposed and need color correction. If you don't have aperture or light room or ACR..get one of these.

FatNakedGuy · January 13, 2010

yep, don't feel bad. it's all a learning experience! I am still learning a LOT.

download a evaluation version of Adobe Lightroom 3 here and check it out. save your money to buy it though because you'll want a copy!
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/entitlement/index.cfm?e=labs%5Flightroom3

most important, have FUN shooting!

Scott_Quier · January 14, 2010

yupman wrote:

Thank you very much for the learning experience.

I agree 100% and now that I look at it I am sick and yes very disappointed with the shots
I was so much trying not to wash out the photos and I tuned down the flash too much.
I did not want the harsh skin tones or the oily skin look.

I thank you very much for the honest review and fortunately this was simply a learning experience.

I left only what I felt was somewhat adequate to at least be known as the uncle fester with the new toy gadget.

What I noticed is that what you see on the screen does not equal to what comes out in print.

I was rather disappointed in the prints and thought the same thing about the colors not standing out.

I hate that feeling that you get when you know you only have one shot at getting it right.

I so much should have invested in a diffuser but I did not want to get the Gary Fong one.

Again I really appreciate the honest words and yes I have a long way to go with handing the correct exposure and compositions.

Aloha
Roland

If what you see on the screen does not closely resemble the print, one might ask, "Have you calibrated your monitor and did you softproof your shots before printing?" These two steps will get your screen image to much more closely match your printed results.

Diffuser - I also am not a big fan of the GF LS (or whaletail or any of the other). Instead I use either a simple piece of white foam attached to my flash with an elastic band (google Better Bounce Card for ideas for your DIY project) or a light scoop (see link in my signature). With these simple DIY items, I have been able to solve the issue of how to diffuse the light produced by my 580EX flash.

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