Selecting Photographs: What Not to Show

You’re an aspiring photographer or amateur photographer and want to show the world, or maybe just your relatives what you can do with a camera and some good ol’ light. But where’s that brilliant photograph in which you’ve managed to time the shot just perfectly? Lost in the quagmire of shots that didn’t make the cut? Here’s one small tip with an illustration to help you out.

You’re an aspiring photographer or amateur photographer and want to show the world, or maybe just your relatives what you can do with a camera and some good ol’ light. But where’s that brilliant photograph in which you’ve managed to time the shot just perfectly? Lost in the quagmire of shots that didn’t make the cut? Here’s one small tip with an illustration to help you out.

Select What You Shoot

As a practice, I never used to carry more than two rolls of film on any photo shoot when I used to shoot on film. With digital, however, I’ve become a bit more careless and have found myself shooting around 200 frames on a reasonably long shoot.

At a recent photowalk, I decided to restrict myself just for the sake of old times, to seventy two frames (or two rolls of film. For those of you who don’t remember, film comes in cassettes of 24 frames and 36 frames, unless you buy some kinds of speciality film). I managed to restrict myself to around 100 frames, but I did find that I was actually watching my framing more carefully.

Here, I’m going to be sharing all the photographs that I took on that day. The shots that didn’t make it into my flickr stream as well as the ones that did make it (some that made it were included purely for sentimental reasons and not any aesthetic value).

Please do note that the pictures above are straight out of the camera and have not been processed at all. What I want you to notice is the promise of a good photograph, or the absence there-of. As you can see, I’ve milked the whole batch of photographs for all that they’re worth, and then went a bit further… with all that, and digital post production, I’ve manage to turn only 10% of the photographs that I took into pieces that may reasonably be put onto people’s walls.

Select What You Show

These photographs would never have seen the light of day if events didn’t conspire to bring this post to you today. Everyone would only have seen the pictures you see below (also on my flickr page).

See the difference?

Conclusion

You absolutely must curate your work if you want your best photographs to be viewed by people.

I throw away 90% of my photographs, and I urge you to do the same. Well, not just to throw away 90% of your photos because I say so, but to realise that only some of them have potential and recognise them for what they are: some of your best photographs.

Go through your flickr collections, your family album, your photo drawer and throw the bad pictures away.

They’re the ones you don’t show off your photography skills that have bad composition, lighting and telephone poles sticking out of uncle Joe’s head.

By all means, keep the ones that have sentiment attached, but do throw out the ones with bad composition or the ones where big uncle Ben’s butt was stuck in the lens. They’re not going to help show off your photography skills by any means.

I’d love you to share any experiences that you’ve had where a bad selection of photographs have come back later to haunt you. Even otherwise, a nice word wouldn’t hurt.

Susheel Chandradhas

Susheel Chandradhas

Susheel Chandradhas is a Product Photographer and Filmmaker based in India. He has been taking photographs (almost) all his life. He has a diploma and a bachelors degree in Visual Communication, where his classmates all believed that he would write a book on photography... Instead, he writes on this website (because - isn't a community more fun?).

His passions include photography, parkour, wide-angle lenses, blue skies, fire extinguishers, and fast computers.

In addition to writing for Beyond Photo Tips, Susheel is a staff writer for Fstoppers.com, and owns and runs ColoursAlive, a photography, and video production studio.

You can connect with Susheel on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.

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6 Comments

  1. Just the advice I want. I said the same thing to a cousin who wants to take up photography, and realised that I wasn’t following it myself.

    Thanks for this post.

  2. Was it liberating? :D

    One suggestion I’ve seen elsewhere, is if you’re using flickr, you can mark the sentimental ones private or friends and family only, thereby only showing the public your best shots.

  3. I believe this happens all the time. When I see some of the old photos from a trip or photowalk – I keep telling myself these photos suck I could have done this better, composed that one a little closer etc…

    But yes, I hate people who share everything from their camera on photo sharing websites like flickr and facebook. People should learn how to filter and show the best photos.

    P.S I just made you a contact on flickr. Some great shots in there.

  4. Hi,
    i do follow the 24-36 rule.
    Along with it i have one more golden rule which is applicable to everyone except chicks who post shoe pics on FB and get 367 likes.

    Does your picture speak atleast 750 words if not a thousand.

    it could be an emotion
    it could be a moment
    it could be a establishing place
    it could be a composition
    it could be surreal

    does it evoke a feeling???

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