Shutter Speed Blues - suggestions on how to cope with so many files

[Henry Domke]

Only recently have I started to embrace high shutter speeds when photographing birds in flight.
One problem I realized immediately is that I'm overwhelmed with files.
In the last 9-days on Sanibel I've taken over 7,000 exposures.
It's going to take me forever to do the basic workup!

I shoot raw files and that I do my processing and cataloging with Lightroom 5.
Typically I quickly go through my files to find those that are defective. Those I delete.
All other files are marked as 2-stars.
My preference is to name each species with it's common name. I often apply keywords for things like location and scientific names.

I am familiar with bulk editing and bulk renaming and I do that. But this is still a tremendous amount of time.
Zooming in to see "is the eyeball tack sharp?"

How do you cope with the files you get from high shutter speeds?
How many do you delete?
Any tips you could share would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[DickLudwig]

Henry, I'd suggest that not all 7,000 images are worth keeping.
Long ago I learned to critically evaluate every image and only keep those that are truly worth keeping:
tack sharp is just the beginning
exposure nailed
composition nailed
beautiful light are all important criteria
and then does the image say something.
As time goes on I go over some of my older images and get rid quite a few as my standards keep improving as my skill improves.

[Barry Ekstrand]

Dick has said it very well. When I first started photographing birds in flight I took way too many shots, often starting when the bird was still too far away. I would end up with many shots taking up space on the hard drive that would never be shown to anyone as they weren't good shots at all. The other problem for me is exactly what you highlight - I would have too many to process for the amount of time I had available. I realized that having 5 very similar shots of a particular bird doesn't really gain any advantage for me unless I only kept the very best of the group (assuming any were worth keeping).

Since that beginning I've learned to be a lot more selective and hold off of the shutter button until the bird fills enough of the viewfinder and appears to be a good overall composition. I also have learned not to just keep firing away longer than I need to as the bird flew by, which also reduced the number of shots I would take in an outing. Finally, I try to do as much culling in the field as I can and right away eliminate any that are not sharp or have a bad composition so they will never reside on the hard drive. In the end it comes down to having the patience to wait for a good shot and then limiting the keepers to what you honestly believe are worth keeping. I hope this helps, good luck with it!

Barry

[David Stephens]

I think a reasonable goal is to select the top 70 and only keep and process those. For the times when you have 5 or 10 similar shot, look for the light in the, head angle, general pose and pick the best. If they're all just as good (they're likely not) then delete all but one.

Shooting lots of shots is not a guarantee of catching the peak of action. Do you feel like you are, or are you unhappy? If unhappy, then you need to be more selective and looking for things in the VF, such as the eye-light, the lift of a leg, the turn of the head, etc. and then only do a short burst (two or three) when the subject is near optimal.

[Don Lacy]

Be very brutal when you cull your images only keep the very best if you only keep the best 2% you ae looking at 140 images still a lot but much more manageable .

[Doug West]

Also, be more selective when being out in the field as far as when to and when not to
pull the trigger. By learning the birds behavior, you'll know when to pull the trigger,
especially if you have a machine gun trigger.

When I'm out in the field I establish 'zones'. If a bird is in a zone that I'm 100% sure
that won't result in a keeper, I don't click the shutter.

I think practicing those two things will lower your shutter count tremendously.

Doug

[Henry Domke]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! I can see now that waiting to press the shutter is critical. Then, as Don said "Be very brutal when you cull your images"
Thanks!

[Don Lacy]

Henry,As an example I just did my first edit from my recent Bosque trip and out of 4,000.00 frames I kept 180 and out of those I might keep 90

[Dan Brown]

All has been pretty well covered here but I will add to the list of "why to delete" BIF's. If the wing position is not pleasing, delete. If the bird is even slightly flying away from me, delete, unless all else is great and I don't have better shots. As for the file management, culling never ends! I add new images into folders of the same species and then look at the whole bunch and if the new stuff isn't as good or better than the old, DELETE. Don't get emotionally attached to the images also. Go back to a shoot a few months down the road and you will be surprised at how many DELETES you will find.

All being said, BUY MORE STORAGE!! :=)

[John Chardine]

Hi Henry- By "high shutter speeds" I assume you mean using high frames to second. I'll add a couple of things to the excellent advice above.

I would Pick (the P key in Lr5) the images you want to keep rather than selecting and dumping the ones you don't. You will end up with far fewer, and better images kept. Both processes should work the same but I have found that human nature steps affects the process. Also I learned quite a while ago from an exceptional, professional nature photographer friend, not to dump an otherwise excellent image if it is not perfectly sharp. IMO far too many people are too hung up on sharpness, although of course if an image is sharp, all the better.

To speed up the process of reviewing images in Lr I would have it build full-sized previews, which you can of course dump later on either manually or automatically. The previews will load very quickly and you can go from one image to the next, right index finger on right arrow key and left index finger on P, blasting through 7000 images in no time.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Henry,

Greetings. Disk is cheap or I should say disks are cheap. A lot of folks focus on what I think is the wrong end of the filter, that is, deleting. I think it is a real time saver to focus on the other end, the keepers. You should be able to see many keepers from thumbnails, pick the best of a string from the fit to window loupe view and choose between a couple with 100%. The idea is to spend as little time as possible on the unusable, don't bother marking, labeling, or deleting. Just ignore them. Usually takes a brief glance to pass on it. Mark those that are usable and move on. If you miss a keeper it will still be there, to be found on a second glance. Anyway that's the theory, the cost of keeping unusable images is small... if you limit the time you spend on them they can cost you less than a second.

In regards to technique, two monitors with Lightroom is a good idea. Thumbnails on one screen, fit to screen loupe for the other screen. Scroll the thumbnail, pick the ones for a closer look, 100% with a click on the loupe view, quick mark to process on the grid (I use one star to process later, two stars for converted from raw to tiff, 4 stars for final (3 stars for demoted fully processed when there is another that is better... 5 stars are rare).

Anyway. My 2 cents. Course I only have 180,000 images, 14,000 with at least 1 star, and a few thousand processed to final. I might feel different with 10x the images. Then again, I don't shoot enough to outrun the disk size increases ;-)

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Jim Neiger]

Henry,

Try using BreezeBrowser Pro to review and cull your images. It is much faster than lightroom. Using HQ mode in slideshow I can go thru 2000 images in about 30 minutes. I go thru them while they are on the flash card and then I download only the keepers.

[John Chardine]

Using another piece of software at the beginner of workflow is a good idea. I used Photo Mechanic (PM) before I started using Lr and I still use PM for "ingestion" of images, file naming, tagging, file removal and key wording (PM has a fantastic keyword lookup feature). However, if set up properly (correct previews made), Lr can be very fast too. Had I not been a PM owner before Lr I doubt it would be worth investing in yet more software- I would just concentrate on making Lr perform.

Mr. Breeze of Breezebrowser fame inveterately refuses to produce a Mac version so that's of course a non-starter if Henry is a Mac user (yes you can run Windows on a Mac but who really would want to).

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Henry,

my solution is I try no to take bad photos. When the sun is not behind you, bird is far or the post is bad there is really no point in wasting electrons ;) I only start making photos that have a chance of becoming a keeper. With more experience it will be easier for you to make this call in the field

[Henry Domke]

When the sun is not behind you, bird is far or the post is bad there is really no point in wasting electrons ;) I only start making photos that have a chance of becoming a keeper.

Thanks Ari, and thanks everyone else. I wish I had realized this earlier! In the beginning it was just exciting to be able to bet the bird in the frame. Just think of all those electrons I wasted! (Hah!)