Too Many Pictures

Recently someone asked me to read a NY Times article Stop Them Before They Shoot Again. And just to ward off any misconceptions, this is a photography related article, not about gun control. In any case, this is a short response to that article.

Digital cameras allow us to take a nearly infinite number of pictures for nearly no cost. Film based cameras required us to at least pay for film and the development process. When we look at the differences between digital and film based photography, the sheer number of images, can be both an advantage and disadvantage. I would never recommend to someone with a digital camera, to start taking fewer pictures. I would caution a digital camera owner to carefully think about what they do with the pictures they capture.

If you tell someone you went to Hawaii, they might ask if you have any pictures. If you’re a digital camera owner, you might have over 1000 pictures from your vacation. Now just because you have 1000 pictures AND someone asked to see pictures, does not mean you should immediately show them all 1000 pictures. Chances are if you show them all 1000, they will get bored very quickly. If, however, you pick out the 50 best pictures and share those, chances are all 50 pictures will be looked at. Choosing what pictures you share, is an important responsibility of a digital photographer. If you ignore this responsibility, you’ll most likely cause people to start ignoring your pictures as well.

Here are several easy suggestions to help you share digital pictures better. One option is to pick only the best pictures, and upload only these best pictures to a photo sharing web site like Flickr or Picasa. Another option is to create a book with your best digital images. Creating a book allows you to narrate the pictures you select. Narrating the pictures is a great way to save even more about the memory the picture has captured, as well as tell the viewer information that might not be visible (for example, where the picture was taken). Websites like MyPublisher can help someone make a book from their photos.

There is a difference between sharing and archiving pictures. You should only share your best pictures. You should archive all the pictures you take. You never know if a picture you didn’t label as great today, will become interesting. If you’re willing to take the time you can archive your photos with additional metadata. Metadata is information about information. In this context, metadata is information about your pictures. Some programs allow you to add keywords to your pictures. For example you might add the keyword family to all pictures taken of your family. If you leave this keyword OFF of any pictures not taken of your family, then you’ve immediately provided yourself with a way to filter your photo collection, whenever you want to search for a particular family picture.

Finally, neither archiving nor sharing, should take the place of a good backup process. In the days of film based photography, great care was given to the storage of negatives. An equal amount of care should be given to backing up your digital images. Just like it’s easy to take digital images, it’s also easy to delete digital images. A backup is your only hope if you accidentally delete a digital image. I personally have begun using Mozy as a backup strategy, so not only do my pictures get backed up, they get backed up to a location that is not in the same place as my original (something kind of handy if you experience some kind of catastrophe, like a fire).

I know normally I blog about something like Portlets or Spring, but I've personally experienced a lot of growth in the area of digital photography this year and thought it was important to share this article and my opinions on it. By the way, be sure to check out the latest group of pictures I've uploaded from the recent Sakai Conference at Newport Beach.

---- Cris J H