So Many Pictures, Need to Whittle
July 8, 2014 5:58 AM Subscribe
Give your best strategies, tips, software, etc to whittle down a ton of pictures to reasonable, shareable amount.
We just received the 1,600 pictures from our wedding. I want to cut this down for Fbook sharing where I end up with the best 300 or so. Best means whatever, but criteria includes as many people as possible, best colors/composition, getting all the 'events'.
I've done similar for vacations or weekends, but that's easier since I'm not a pro photographer and there are a lot different venues/events for diversity. I just delete pictures (in Picasa) then until I get to the best (usually end up with 1/3rd the pictures I started with).
We just received the 1,600 pictures from our wedding. I want to cut this down for Fbook sharing where I end up with the best 300 or so. Best means whatever, but criteria includes as many people as possible, best colors/composition, getting all the 'events'.
I've done similar for vacations or weekends, but that's easier since I'm not a pro photographer and there are a lot different venues/events for diversity. I just delete pictures (in Picasa) then until I get to the best (usually end up with 1/3rd the pictures I started with).
Do what tonylord said, picking the best shots of each event you want included. When you're done with that, see what people are left out of those shots whom you want to include, and find the best photo of them.
Agree with others that 300 is way too many. I recommend 30.
posted by metasarah at 6:17 AM on July 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Agree with others that 300 is way too many. I recommend 30.
posted by metasarah at 6:17 AM on July 8, 2014 [1 favorite]
Best answer: 1600 pictures won't actually take as long to go through as you may think. Be ruthless.
First off, archive all of them somewhere.
I use Aperture on a Mac, but use whatever photo app you prefer. Learn the rating hot keys. Scan through them quickly, giving a 1 star (or if there's a "reject" rating, use that) to anything obviously bad. Bad lighting, composition, boring, people blinking, etc. Don't spend more than a second or two on each shot during this pass.
It should take you maybe 20 minutes for this first pass and when you're done you should have eliminated at least 80% of them.
Now go through the rest, giving 3 stars to anything "ok" that you want to keep, 4 to any "I might want to share this" and 5 to "I'm sharing this!"
Now filter down so just the 4 and 5 stars are visible. Go through them and change any 4s to 5s that you decide you want to keep and change any others to 3s that you decide you don't want to share.
Filter down to the 5 stars. These are the ones you want to share.
Look through them to make sure you have pictures of anyone you want a picture of. If not, go through the rejects and find the best pictures you can of those people. Re-rate any you're adding.
Now go through them all, adjust the colors, straighten and crop if you need to.
Tag pictures by events, add labels, titles, and descriptions if you want.
Upload and tag people, if you feel that's appropriate to do.
Don't worry about the number of shots you're uploading. The good thing about Facebook is nobody is forced to look at something they don't want to. People who won't go through 300 won't go through 30 anyway. Your dear aunt Mary will be happy as shit to go through them and write "LOOKING GOOD" and "HAPPY COUPLE!!!!1" to all 300 of them. If you want, you could create a wedding album of the 300 or so and then just share a couple choice ones to your timeline separately.
posted by bondcliff at 6:25 AM on July 8, 2014 [4 favorites]
First off, archive all of them somewhere.
I use Aperture on a Mac, but use whatever photo app you prefer. Learn the rating hot keys. Scan through them quickly, giving a 1 star (or if there's a "reject" rating, use that) to anything obviously bad. Bad lighting, composition, boring, people blinking, etc. Don't spend more than a second or two on each shot during this pass.
It should take you maybe 20 minutes for this first pass and when you're done you should have eliminated at least 80% of them.
Now go through the rest, giving 3 stars to anything "ok" that you want to keep, 4 to any "I might want to share this" and 5 to "I'm sharing this!"
Now filter down so just the 4 and 5 stars are visible. Go through them and change any 4s to 5s that you decide you want to keep and change any others to 3s that you decide you don't want to share.
Filter down to the 5 stars. These are the ones you want to share.
Look through them to make sure you have pictures of anyone you want a picture of. If not, go through the rejects and find the best pictures you can of those people. Re-rate any you're adding.
Now go through them all, adjust the colors, straighten and crop if you need to.
Tag pictures by events, add labels, titles, and descriptions if you want.
Upload and tag people, if you feel that's appropriate to do.
Don't worry about the number of shots you're uploading. The good thing about Facebook is nobody is forced to look at something they don't want to. People who won't go through 300 won't go through 30 anyway. Your dear aunt Mary will be happy as shit to go through them and write "LOOKING GOOD" and "HAPPY COUPLE!!!!1" to all 300 of them. If you want, you could create a wedding album of the 300 or so and then just share a couple choice ones to your timeline separately.
posted by bondcliff at 6:25 AM on July 8, 2014 [4 favorites]
Doesn't Google Photos have a feature to select highlights from an album? You can upload all 1600, pending space constraints, and let the machines choose. Not sure if there's an easy way to download highlights only.
posted by batter_my_heart at 1:05 PM on August 21, 2014
posted by batter_my_heart at 1:05 PM on August 21, 2014
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I suspect that most of your friends who came to the wedding will want to see some (like 10) while those who didn't will want to see like 2. Max.
If I were you I would go through each "event" in my photos and pick the best photo for each. Then pick the best 10 of those.
Then pick the best 5 of those.
Then upload 3 of them.
posted by tonylord at 6:08 AM on July 8, 2014 [4 favorites]