UPDATE: If you’re reading this through a feed reader, I apologize for the repeated display of this post. I have no idea why it keeps showing up. Bad WordPress! Bad WordPress!

Here’s a topic in which I take both sides of the fence - culling. I found an interesting article about culling over at Digital Media News. While it is not a new concept, Jason summed up my thoughts own thoughts well.

It’s my belief that keeping five nearly identical photos foster a pack-rat mentality that holds a photographer back from improving. If you keep all your images, you never have to think about why one is better than the other. That means you never have to look critically at your own photography and learn what types of photos you should be striving for when you bring that camera up to your eye and press the shutter release.

I’d agree wholeheartedly that culling will make you a better photographer. While I certainly have a hard time deciding between a handful of nice shots, I’m usually happy with my final selection. I almost never wish I hadn’t deleted the lesser photos. The reduced number of photos also makes my portfolio a little better looking. Hey, anything helps. So culling is good.

BUT, one area of photography where I have a real hard time culling is with pictures of my son. If you happen to be a friend or family contact on my flickr account, you’ll see pictures of my son takes up quite a large subset of all our photos. Even the bad photos have some personal meaning to them. Sometimes I let obviously poor photos through because I just can’t seem to hit the delete button on one of his pics. Do other parents have the same problem?

So if you’re going to cull, my one time saving recommendation is to do it as soon as you download. I even do a lot of culling in-camera. If you’re a download and forget, and as busy as I am, you’ll never find the time to sort all those photos later. Do it early and often.

By the way. When did “culling” become the preferred word? Is “pruning” just as good? I need to know these things.