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mcdeltatlast Tuesday at 10:37 PM1 replyview on HN

I used to take a lot of photos and then cull them afterwards before editing. It worked, although I was often loving shooting and dreading editing, because before doing any actual editing, I'd have 200 photos to sift through.

After a lot of practice, I became better at culling in my head, before even taking the photos. This has shifted my relationship with photography to more of a cognitive exercise, with a different set of enjoyments. I take far fewer photos overall - often I go out with a camera and don't even take a single shot. Editing is more enjoyable because there's less to do and I already know what edits I want. It's less naively fun but more contently fulfilling.


Replies

arvinsimyesterday at 8:29 AM

I find it much easier to cull photos quickly now by thinking that a bad photo will unlikely become a great photo just because you edited it.

If it doesn't catch my attention on my first culling pass, I just delete without regrets.