Delete in haste, repent at leisure…
One piece of advice I always dispense at the end of one of my workshops is NOT to either delete a shot off the back of the camera (unless it has gone very seriously wonky) or to open up the shots back home and delete out of disappointment.
Whilst both are important to consider the second to me is the weightier. I tend to find that when I am running a workshop we are all beavering away in a great mood of photographic sharing and bonhommie (french) and all is good with the world. Great surroundings, like minded people, happy happy days.
We then rush home to check out our latest bumper crop, only to be disappointed with the harvest. Why? I reckon we are still at the altitude we levelled out at when the workshop was in full flow yet when we come home, still excited, we may fail to realise that and judge our work too harshly.
My advice here is to leave any decisions for around a week and then, and only then, will we be more objective. This way, we are looking at our work in a more sanguine and settled fashion, and not making ourselves react in a knee jerk fashion.
This really works – trust me!
nj
🙂
Jeanie Lazenby
I totally agree with this – and I so nearly deleted some 10-stop images that I thought did not work this morning when out with the camera. Something niggled, I left them on the CF card, thinking they don’t take up that much space, then when I got home, I discovered that I did have a keeper after all! (may have more but not got as far as checking the rest yet)
..sound advice Nick.
Jeanie
Nick Jenkins
Thanks Jeanie, by pure co-incidence I was writing this up when I spotted a post of yours on Facebook, mentioning the very same thing!
John wort
Very very good advise nick with you 100%
Janet Oxenham
So very true Nick, Iam doing jus that all the time. I am always disappointed when I get back from a photographic holiday but if I leave it for a week they never seem as bad!
Paul Huddleston
Nick, good point. I review and rate all downloads then come back to them after a week. If they still do not meet the standard they are binned.
Judi Lion
Very sensible advice Nick – I only ever delete things from “back of camera” that I know are beyond redemption, i.e, a
finger right across the image – sound familiar? Then I gradually work through the ones I know I will use and leave the others for a while before deleting them.