You Really Can Have Too Many Pictures

Posted on December 12, 2007 1:17 PM

I recently got a new Canon Digital Rebel XT. I got the new camera to replace the old Digital Rebel that bit the dust the day before we went on vacation this year. My favorite thing about these SLR cameras is how responsive they are. Every time I had to use my old Canon G1 on our trip I was painfully reminded of how great an SLR camera is. With most point-and-shoot cameras, you push the button to take the picture and some amount of time afterward, the camera captures the image. I can't speak for all point-and-shoot cameras, but with my old G1 the delay is unbearably long. When you are trying to take pictures of kids, that delay means that a lot of the time you don't get the picture that you meant to take.

Digital cameras in general are pretty cool, because you can take all the pictures that you want, and the pictures don't cost you anything until you get them printed. Using my website, I've shared just about every picture that I've ever taken. The last time I checked there were around 16,000 pictures.

My Rebel XT can take 3 pictures per second. That's pretty handy when you have a toddler that refuses to sit still for more than a couple shots. The problem I have is that I get a lot of pictures that are essentially duplicates. They are not exactly the same, but they're close enough that for most purposes it doesn't make a difference. This subject comes up now because it is getting very close to Christmas and if there is a time of the year to use the pictures that I've been taking all year, then this is the time. There are so many things that I would like to do with my pictures, but the idea of sifting through thousands of digital pictures to find the ones that are worthy of printing is daunting. I've also been studying some post-processing techniques for making my pictures look better. But when you have 500 pictures in one month to choose from it gets harder to figure out which pictures you want to spend some time on.

In the past I've had the attitude that it doesn't hurt to take a lot of pictures or to have duplicates but from now on I will start doing a better job of weeding out the less favorable pictures. If anything, I will make a point of showcasing the best ones of each batch. I've been working on rewriting the photos area of the site, and one of the changes that I will be adding is the ability to hide pictures, either because they are duplicates or they are unfavorable for some reason. Add/View Comments

Tags: Digital Rebel, Photography, cameras