When you delete pictures, does it make you feel guilty?
Back in the day, when you had to buy film and send it off to get developed, we were a lot pickier about what considered picture worthy. It almost hurt when just one picture turned out crappy.
Today, though, I can easily take 100 or more pictures during a 4 hour outing with my kids and grandkids, like I did yesterday.
I down load them, then my method is to go through them all at least 4 times, forcing myself to delete and delete, until I’m down to maybe 50 pictures (which is still a whole freaking lot!)
But invariably, unless a picture is really obviously bad, I feel a twinge of guilt over deleting pictures of my family.
Do you feel guilty deleting pictures?
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28 Answers
Never ever. You’re not deleting the people, the event or the memories, just leaving more space for the next event.
I know..but each face is so precious to me!
Yes, I take too many pictures and then I don’t delete enough. It isn’t guilt exactly it’s I just don’t want these precious moments to be lost in the hurricane of time.
I want to say no, and most of my behavior would support that answer. But it turns out I haven’t deleted a single picture that I have taken of my son yet.
Maybe he’s just that adorable, though.
This go ‘round was more labor intensive than usual because Rick took most of the pics. He tends to take wide shots of a bunch of people, where as I usually focus on individual faces. He also tends to take about 20 shots of the same damn thing!
Sometimes for a few seconds… and then back into focus comes real life—you know, that thing one can actually experience moment to moment.
@Dutchess_III I have no problem with duplicates or near duplicates. I just keep the best of the bunch.
Sure, and if a picture is important I’ll take several shots and pick out the best. Rick just snaps away. 37 pictures of a trash can!
I feel more badly when I show pictures to people who are not interested in seeing them.
Why would you show pictures to people who aren’t interested in seeing them?
Not if the photo sucked.
My husband once accidently deleted one of the photos we took of our neighbor spreading his father’s ashes and I still feel badly about it and I didn’t do it!
I know what you mean though, it’s like throwing out a book, even if the book sucks I can feel badly about it. Something not right or odd about discarding certain things.
How long ago was it @JLeslie? Could it still be in your recycle bin?
It was years ago. I think we could possibly try to recover it now that I know nothing ever actually is really deleted. It was on one of the cards in a digital camera, not on a computer or phone. I should ask a fluther Q about it.
I used to take a lot of pictures, and I felt the same way. I remember especially keeping any picture I had taken that contained someone who I knew wouldn’t be in my life much longer.
I’ve never deleted a photo of my kids. I curate my family-shared albums, so they may not make the cut, but when I go back years later and view the ones that didn’t make the cut, there is always something that I didn’t notice the first time around. Most of the time, these photos do more to trigger memories and emotions than the “good” photos that made the album.
I know. But we’re talking thousands and thousands of pictures.
I sometimes have to convince myself that I’ll never need a certain photo again. I have photos on my phone from two years ago that I don’t look at, and I wouldn’t notice if they were gone, but I just can’t make myself delete them.
No. Periodically, I take my phone or camera to Walmart or another store that offers this service and put them on a cd so I can clear my phone or camera.
I tend to play the “either or” game, @Dutchess_III. Toggle between 2 pictures, delete the least, then move forward one, compare. Back. Compare and delete one.
It can be a tough choice, and I edit the pictures, but who can argue with deleting a picture that’s inferior to another one you saved, ultimately?
It works.
That’s what I do too, @ibstubro. Even tho I like them both, I make myself let one go.
@Dutchess_III I know exactly where you are coming from. I can’t even ditch bad ones. I take them from the photo file and dump them ...................................................................... .....into another file called “rejects”
And sometime later I take them out and play with them using various and sundry artistic photoshop type programs. Did you know that you can take a blurred reject photo and make it into a perfectly acceptable “watercolor” or “old master” picture that you can then use as a screen saver and people will be so impressed with your work?
I will keep that in mind, @rojo! I love playing with the pics. Here is one from my son’s wedding that I played with.
Stick with the system, @Dutchess_III. #1, it works, #2, it is already producing too may pictures!
The system works. 4 times through and I really do wind up with the best of the best.
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