How to manage it all. I can´t delete enough

wheresdavid · April 18, 2007

i am currently traveling and taking "travel photos" hoping that one day I can sell a few of the photos I took. I ahve a huge problem right now - TIME! It seems that I spend all day (ok a few hours a day or more) just going to internet cafes to look at the photos i took the day before and delete the "bad" ones. I have about 12gig worth of card with me and i shoot in raw and JPEG. the probelm is i can shoot about that many photos at one market. I ususally take 3-5 photos of the same shot because often times it is in low light conditions.

I try to review the photos right after i take them but soemtimes i cant tell if a photo is sharp or not on my LCD (rebel xti). what should i do? take fewer photos? is there a trick to reviewing photos on the rebel that would save me a lot of time? do i need to delete more photos? I have been averaging about DVD a week worth of photos. Speaking of DVDs, i havent heard of the "brands" of DVDs they use here. should i be concerned that they will impact my photos negatively? every now and then you can find Sony DVDs. should i try to buy some of these and keep them in stock?

I enjoy people shots. should i just stick to the really old people and babies? and a few interesting characters here and there?

here is a link to some people photos i took in the last two weeks (some are from several months ago). are there any type of photos that you wouldnt take given my goals?

http://fotosbydavid.smugmug.com/gallery/2707849

i have no time to go out and have a beer (that isnt a bad thing sometimes).

wow, i think I ask a few questions here (sorry about that)

ps - i havent even touched one photo in photoshop, so that is another heap of time to be spent. speaking of which, should i even be putting my photos on smugmug since they havent been "sharpened" or finished. I havent even had time to crop my photos!

Shay Stephens · April 18, 2007

You have all the time in the world to sort and post process after you get back from traveling. Don't waste it while traveling unless you have nothing better to do. When I am out traveling shooting weddings, I download and archive only. It's not until I get back that I edit and post process.

And editing (weeding out) is a skill you will learn and get faster at the more experience you get doing it. The important job when traveling is getting the material to edit from.

gluwater · April 19, 2007

Shay Stephens wrote:

You have all the time in the world to sort and post process after you get back from traveling. Don't waste it while traveling unless you have nothing better to do. When I am out traveling shooting weddings, I download and archive only. It's not until I get back that I edit and post process.

And editing (weeding out) is a skill you will learn and get faster at the more experience you get doing it. The important job when traveling is getting the material to edit from.

The OP forgot to mention that his laptop got stolen so I maybe wrong but the DVD's are his only copy, not a backup. If that is the case than make sure you at least make multiple copies of the DVD's. Maybe make three copies, keep two with you and mail one back home incase the copies on you get lost, damaged or stolen. You will kick yourself forever if you lose your images or your DVD's become corrupt. I agree with Shay though, enjoy your time shooting and seeing the country, worry about culling your shots later.

claudermilk · April 19, 2007

Definitely worry about managing after the trip. I never try cataloging on the road, I just make sure I have a copy of the shot on the drive. After the trip, they all get dumped to the main PC into my DAM--then I'll spend a few evenings going through them. Using the LCD on the camera is not recommended, it's only a small JPEG preview and not a good representation of the image quality. I've had many shots lat looked like deletable doodoo on the LCD only to find they were pretty good once the full image got onto the PC monitor. Like Shay said, the more you do it the more efficient you will get at it.

As for the DVDs, I don't like using them after some issues with reliability. If you must, use the best you can, make several copies, and don't depend on them to last too very long (i.e., get the files backed up to another media as soon as you can).

wheresdavid · April 20, 2007

how to manage it all on the road (part II)?
I posted a somewhat similar question but i think i was a little vague in what i was asking. I am currently outside the country and have been traveling for a year. i have about 5 weeks ledt to travel and i am running into a major time problem. first i dont have a laptop with (it was stolen). An example of my time problem may help. yesterday i went to a small village in peru and shot about 8 gigs worth of photos in about 4 hours. most of the shots were of people and since i dont have L series glass i usually take 3-4 photos of the same composition to make sure i got at least one in focus and two to capture a different expression. the problem is that now it will take me about 4-5 hours to review the photos at and internet cafe and delete the non keepers and then burn DVDs.

The problem is that i am spending 4-5 hours a day (well it seems like i am) just reviewing photos (not editing or processing them). so, what should i do? take fewer photos? when i review my photos on the LCD of my rebel xti i can tell if something is out of focus and delete the on the spot but i cant tell if they are truly in focus.

this is starting to impact my "travel plans" because i have to make sure there is an internet cafe in the town i am going to or i will be arriving with full memory cards (i ahve about 12 gigis worth of cards).

I hope this makes sense

.

thanks

Dave

Shay Stephens · April 20, 2007

I merged your nearly duplicate thread with your original one.

And like I said before, if you are spending too much time reviewing, then cut the review time down and postpone it for later. Burn the images to CD or DVD. There really are not a whole lot of options open to you right now.

Mike02 · April 21, 2007

If I were you, I would stop taking 3-5 pictures of everything, I try to limit my shots to 3 max of one object.

2. Stop shooting RAW, if you dont have a pc, and you're not editing your photos, there's no point to be wasting all this extra space, jpegs are usually fine.

3. Look into buying some portable storage, either an ipod, or (preferrably a Zen) would be good for this. If you need the links feel free to pm me..
But the zen is basically an ipod with a built in card reader :P

And best of luck

!

wheresdavid · April 21, 2007

I want to edit and finish the photos later in photoshop so i want to shoot in Raw. I came to the same conclusion to cut down on the number of shots. I guess i really need to concntrate on the compostion, light ... to make shure that the shot i am taking will probably come out. but since a lot of my photos are of kids and they dont stay put i am a little "concerned" about missing a shot.

By review the shots i mean check to make sure they are in focus. i guess i could just bite the bullet and burn a ton of DVDS. what i do currently is after doing a shoot say at a market , i´ll go to an internet cafe to look at the pictures and if i have say 8 gigs of photos try to get it down to about 4gigs to fit on one DVD and then burn 3 copies. I guess if i didnt edit it down to one DVD (3 copies) i would end up with 2 DVDs (2x3=6). maybe that is better, just buck up the extra $6 each time i burn DVDS. that would save a lot of time.

But a big concern is this : if i am in a small village and i go out on a shoot and take some landscape (i only take one photo since the landscape isnt mving around and i have a tripod) and people shots and i fill up my memory cards and there is no intnernet cafe to burn DVDS i cant take any more photos until i get to a town where i can burn DVDs.

i am in peru so it is not possible to buy any kind of device such as an ipod ... to back the photos up on to. I did have a video ipod but i was drugged and robbed and so i lost my ipod, cameras, computer .... luckily i was able to replace the camera equipment.

Mike02 wrote:

If I were you, I would stop taking 3-5 pictures of everything, I try to limit my shots to 3 max of one object.

2. Stop shooting RAW, if you dont have a pc, and you're not editing your photos, there's no point to be wasting all this extra space, jpegs are usually fine.

3. Look into buying some portable storage, either an ipod, or (preferrably a Zen) would be good for this. If you need the links feel free to pm me..
But the zen is basically an ipod with a built in card reader :P

And best of luck !

W.W. Webster · April 21, 2007

wheresdavid wrote:

I want to edit and finish the photos later in photoshop so i want to shoot in Raw.

Why are you bothering with JPEGs, then? Aren't they just causing unnecessary storage overhead?

You don't need reminding that the time to plan your off-line storage strategy and acquire any equipment required is, of course, before you get to an underdeveloped country, and that you need to be completely self-sufficient. But, hopefully, others will learn from your unfortunate experience.

wheresdavid · April 21, 2007

KEEP in mind that I was drugged and robbed of all my equipmet

so yes the time to plan is ahead of time but when you dont have your equipment you dont have your equipment. the reason i am bothering with jpegs is so can look at my photos at internet cafes since the majority of them dont have software for opening up RAW files.

W.W. Webster wrote:

Why are you bothering with JPEGs, then? Aren't they just causing unnecessary storage overhead?

You don't need reminding that the time to plan your off-line storage strategy and acquire any equipment required is, of course, before you get to an underdeveloped country, and that you need to be completely self-sufficient. But, hopefully, others will learn from your unfortunate experience.

claudermilk · April 23, 2007

First of all, that really sucks. I guess it's fortunate that you have ANY gear to keep working with at this point. All I can say is slow down a bit, use the DOF preview button and limit the number of shots of any one subject.

Mike02 · April 23, 2007

wheresdavid wrote:

KEEP in mind that I was drugged and robbed of all my equipmet so yes the time to plan is ahead of time but when you dont have your equipment you dont have your equipment. the reason i am bothering with jpegs is so can look at my photos at internet cafes since the majority of them dont have software for opening up RAW files.

I think once you've been drugged and robbed, it's time to call it a day =P/.

DavidTO · April 23, 2007

wheresdavid wrote:

I guess i really need to concntrate on the compostion, light ... to make shure that the shot i am taking will probably come out.

Sounds like a great learning opportunity.

wheresdavid · April 24, 2007

Cant call it a day after that happens. luckily i had insurance with state farm and nomads travel insurance and i got my money quickly and had a friend who had a friend who is a flight attendent so i was able to replace the camer gear. I can tell you first hand that the date rape drug works. i was sitting on a bus and the next thing i remembered i woke up in a hotel almost a day later.

enough about the story. what i have done is slowed down with taking some photos and swithed to JPEG exccept when i think i have an important shot, like yesterday when i had the honor to take some photos of a gentleman who was 105 years old.

is there a link anywhere explaining exactly how to use the DOf button on a canon XTi?

as always many thanks for your help

Dave

Mike02 wrote:

I think once you've been drugged and robbed, it's time to call it a day =P/.

Art Scott · April 25, 2007

Just shoot and burn!

wheresdavid wrote:

Cant call it a day after that happens. luckily i had insurance with state farm and nomads travel insurance and i got my money quickly and had a friend who had a friend who is a flight attendent so i was able to replace the camer gear. I can tell you first hand that the date rape drug works. i was sitting on a bus and the next thing i remembered i woke up in a hotel almost a day later.

enough about the story. what i have done is slowed down with taking some photos and swithed to JPEG exccept when i think i have an important shot, like yesterday when i had the honor to take some photos of a gentleman who was 105 years old.

is there a link anywhere explaining exactly how to use the DOf button on a canon XTi?

as always many thanks for your help

Dave

Here is my take on your situation.....

1- your in a foreign country...every shot is an important one...every shot...shoot everyting in RAW ONLY....

2- burn your disks...do not look at the pics...just burn your copies...

now you just gained a few more hours shooting time...go shoot more and keep buring disks.....worry about the editing of any sort later...as when you look at them later you might decide to keep shots you might have deleted before.....

Something to remember, that I read somewhere .....every shot even the out of ocus ones should be keepers....as there is always a way to make it into a piece of artwork at a later date......then this photog gave examples of landscapes and wildlife shots that technically were terrible...but after photoshop and plug in magic he made them into wonderfull salable works of art printed large......

SO JUST SHOOT AND BURN!!!!

How to manage it all. I can´t delete enough

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