New camera - what else?

[Switched]

So if I shoot a wedding and fill up three of my 8GB CF cards, I'm going to have 24GB worth of files. If only 60-75% of those are keepers, then if I doing one wedding a weekend I'm going to have 100GB a month worth of storage needed that will never diminish.

Deleting bad photos is a good idea.

OP's needs for storage is way less than that, but not everyone has a 1.5TB server sitting around that's expandable.

oooooohhhhhhh sorry we all shoot weddings and fill up 3x8 gig cards? we are talking about recreational shooting. and i said it was my opinion.

 

[Village Idiot]

oooooohhhhhhh sorry we all shoot weddings and fill up 3x8 gig cards? we are talking about recreational shooting. and i said it was my opinion.

No, but not everyone has over 1.5TB of expandable server space. Some one with a 250GB MBP is probably going to have about 100GB's of space to fill with pictures. I know how easy it is to go blow through 300 pictures at something like a motorcycle track day. At 12mb photos, that's 3.6GB's of space. I know I did when I was shooting with a 30D and two 4GB cards.

I remember the first time I tried panning. I ended up with probably 15 keepers out of over 300. Blurry, OOF, and just plain bad shots were definitely not worth keeping.

 

[bobtomay]

Yep, that's mine. Even with IS, still being a newbie I find that at least a 3rd of my pictures are blurry and oof, i.e. just plain bad. Especially shooting at 250mm and 12-18" away from the subject. Right now I tend to take about 3 of those just to make sure I have 1 when I get home. Sometimes I still don't have 1 that's even worth the storage space.

 

[Nethfel]

I pretty much have to agree with VI here.

I can see keeping *some* of your not great shots to help you remember what you didn't like and what you would like to change for things like framing (or possibly what didn't work for certain creative exposure techniques) - but straight out blurry, no subject, etc. pics just tend to not be very helpful - using VI's example of panning photography, having the non-keepers won't help much if the entire photo is blurry - I could only see keeping some that were in focus but you didn't like the shutter speed so you could have a reference of what you did like and why (so you don't waste time in the future re-trying something you have an example of why you don't like it).

Keeping everything just absorbs too much space. I know I have a lot of storage space, and honestly, with everything else I do, I don't want to use it all for photos that provide me nothing to help me in the future. I usually only keep those that either I deem a decent photo, one that I want to keep for sentimental reasons (like some crappy photos I have of some pets that have since passed on), or give me quality info to help me take a better photo in the future.

just my $0.02

 

[Nighthawk4]

I tried iPhoto and it seems good, apart from making so many copies of every photo - it is going to fill up my hard disk in no time.

I also tried using RAW and the only problem is that I have to use the SilkyPix software that came with the camera to convert the pictures to JPGs - which seems to defeat the object. Unfortunately, iPhoto does not recognise the Panasonic RAW format. I downloaded the trial of Aperture2 - with the same result. From the Aperture Forums, it seems that this format is still not supported by Aperture or iPhoto, not even by the full version of Aperture.

Does anyone know if the Panasonic format of RAW is supported by Photoshop Elements please? If not, then I am stuck with converting the pictures with SilkyPix - thus losing all the versatility granted by using RAW format in any of the other software (Elements, Aperture, iPhoto, etc.). In that case, it seems I might as well go back to JPGs.

One last question. My camera gives a number of options for format of pictures. However, most of them use a small icon instead of a description and I am not sure which is which. RAW obviously is clear as it is called 'RAW', but the others use either 3 small dots in a line or 6 dots in two lines of 3. Which of these is the better resolution please?

 

[Nighthawk4]

Bobtomay - remember you should be able to review your pictures on the LCD screen before you leave the scene - although I do find this to be misleading. Sometimes I take a picture, use the screen to see if it looks right and am unsure if it was in focus. Usually, once I get home and use the computer, I find it was in focus after all - although some pictures of squirrels I took recently were blurred so much it actually makes a fun picture - a wavy streak of movement instead of the squirrel. He was only bounding across the lawn.


I usually delete the really bad ones, but keep lots which are not really of any interest - just experiments in focus, close-up, depth of field, etc.

 

[Nethfel]

I currently use lightroom to manage my photos - makes it really easy to maintain either a single database w/ non-destructive edits for your photos or you can have multiple databases to group your photos (ie: let's say, using the wedding example by VI, that you have 3 weddings in a given month - it's easier to organize your photos if you keep the weddings isolated, and you can create a db for each wedding related to that weddings photos).

I'm sure aperture is just as capable, but since I had a license for Lightroom from my windows days that applied to the Mac version, I didn't see a reason to spend extra money on Aperture right now.

 

[MacUser_88905]

The More you take photos the more you will get to know your camera and by the time you know it, you will be pro! but for now with starting out, all you really need is your DSLR the original lens it came with and a UV Filter and a bag. and the more you become with your camera, collect your accessories for it and gain a kit and some new glass. and for Help and question and tips, Seriously YOUTUBE!!!!!!!!!!! Heres a great Guy With Very very Helpful tips!!!!

YouTube - cameralabs's Channel