How do you cull your photo's?

[mackguyver]

Hi Folks.
Thank you all for your insights, I would love to buy another bit of software to make this task easier, but it is a hobby and as such one that has a limiter in the form of SWMBO. I already have Fast Stone something or other for batch resizing, so I will try their product.
It seems that the methodology is very similar between many of you and as such will be a good place to start from. Following this situation my Christmas wish list contains a couple of larger CF cards to allow me to shot JPEG and raw again. This will likely be my first and last raw only shoot as the lack of JPEG for preview has made this very slow / require faster viewing software. I will also try to limit the number of shots I take, I will find out how that goes at the Goodwood Revival next Sunday. We go to collect money for charity for a couple of hours but that gets us the rest of the day there to enjoy!
The "G" button sounds really useful, especially with the side by side comparison.
Once again thank you to all for your input, it is extremely helpful.

Cheers, Graham.

Graham, try to use Zoombrowser or if necessary, Imagebrowser. They are free . I used ZB for 10+ years and years and it served me very well. IB is its bloated crappy cousin, but it's still free.

Also, Marsu's tip is good, but you still have to wait on the previews to be done by batch. The tool I like to use that makes fast work of RAW viewing is the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack. It's only $9.99 US and works really well on Windows. It integrates right into Windows (file) Explorer and Window Photo Viewer and is very fast at rendering RAW into thumbnails and full-sized previews. It does it on the fly and doesn't generate any new files, which is nice as well.

I wouldn't recommend RAW+JPEG unless you are shooting a deadline-driven assignment. You slow down your camera and end up with twice as may files. It's a mess unless you absolutely need it.

 

[risc32]

faststone. left click to view full size for focus check, super fast, free.

 

[seattlebirdman]

Another vote for Faststone. I cull through my bird shots and try to delete as many as possible before I import them into Lightroom. If Lightroom had a fast culling mode I would use it but even adding Faststone to the workflow still makes the whole process much faster.

 

[Besisika]

I have recently forced myself to be more harsh, in Lightroom I do first pass using arrows and hitting x for garbage, but also using p when I see a good one. My objective is to only keep good usable images, not just images that turn out ok. Anything without a pick, I leave for now, but usually will go back later and erase.

When I shoot portraits, I often take multiple exposures to avoid blinking etc, so they take longer comparing for the better expression. I will usually keep variations for longer, but I try to eliminate shots that I won't use.

So far I haven't ever wished I'd kept a shot that I had erased earlier, once they are gone, they will be forgotten. My hard drives will soon fill up again anyway, so I'll be looking for more shots to eliminate and every time I go back through my shots I say to myself "shoot less".

Keep only your best is my advice. The only other reason to keep a shot is for memory or historical importance.

I think it is time for me to adopt your harsh but useful approach.
Two years ago, I didn't even know what is a good and what is a bad photo. I think, it is time to begin to trust my judgement.
Thanks for the tip.

 

[Marsu42]

faststone. left click to view full size for focus check, super fast, free.

I just tried that, it's indeed fast with embedded previews but seems to lack the xmp rating option for LR/ACR the commercial programs have?

1. PhotoMechanic for sorting & ranking. It's the #1 choice worldwide of heavy shooting professionals for good reason.
2. The Windows only Breezebrowser Pro while not quite as full featured as PM loads massive folders of .cr2 files even quicker than PM.

Thanks a lot, I didn't even know that there were viewing apps that tightly integrate with the ACR xmp system (I was using XnView so far)! Looking at the speed of these, I am going to switch rating from LR since rendering is so slow on my laptop.

 

[mackguyver]

faststone. left click to view full size for focus check, super fast, free.

I just tried that, it's indeed fast with embedded previews but seems to lack the xmp rating option for LR/ACR the commercial programs have?

1. PhotoMechanic for sorting & ranking. It's the #1 choice worldwide of heavy shooting professionals for good reason.
2. The Windows only Breezebrowser Pro while not quite as full featured as PM loads massive folders of .cr2 files even quicker than PM.

Thanks a lot, I didn't even know that there were viewing apps that tightly integrate with the ACR xmp system (I was using XnView so far)! Looking at the speed of these, I am going to switch rating from LR since rendering is so slow on my laptop.

The XMP sidecar support from Photomechanic is excellent, and the program has tons of little tools that are really helpful. Things like time correction, GPS embedding (directly via the tool or imported from a phone/GPS) and removal, batch name & resolution changes (like converting all files to 300dpi for desktop publishing are great to have and the keyword/metadata support is insane.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Folks.
I tried Fast Stone Image Viewer, so far it seems really fast, so much faster than the windows viewer I was trying to use! It is great to be able to do the side by side comparison, and one touch future to screen toggle with full size is excellent. I think this is going to really help speed things up, I haven't RTFM yet and I couldn't find a rating system but what the hey, it is free after all.
I figured it would be good as I have used their photo resizer software and it works well.

Cheers, Graham.