Do you LOOK at your photos?

Cockney

Cockney

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Brian
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After post processing and filing, how often do you go back and actually look at your photos?

I just feel I should do it more often. Every now and then google will throw up a memory collage of what its got, which is fun, but I'm conscious that I have many shots that I never go back to.
 
One of my greatest pleasures, looking back at some 45,000 pics on the cloud. I don’t do much editing apart from cropping. I rarely go out without a camera so even the most trivial photo from years ago can trigger memories and conversations. The grandkids, our worldwide travels, family events etc. all there in a digital archive that holds more than my memory alone ever will.
 
All the time.

One thing I do is pick pictures for a slideshow and leave it running so I see pictures as I'm in and out of the room.
 
woof woof said:
All the time.

One thing I do is pick pictures for a slideshow and leave it running so I see pictures as I'm in and out of the room.
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I do similar with the digital frame. I never leave a pc set up now.
 
Yes. In the process of sifting through the catalogue to pick some of our favourite shots to hang on the wall. How we'll decide what to print is anyone's guess.

I also have a folder for a slideshow screen saver on my Mac.
 
Yes and no. In many cases I don't look at my pictures twice after I've done everything I wanted to (i.e. editing, posting, sharing with friends, etc). However, lately I've started going back to my early works in order to just see if I'm progressing. Sometimes I want to re-work them (I've learned plenty of Photoworks tricks after all, so I can edit them better now!...or so I think), sometimes my older works give me inspiration or ideas on what to photograph or where to head next. I think revising your pictures is important, even if you have to make yourself do it.
 
I have pictures set up as randomly selected backgrounds.
 
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woof woof said:
All the time.

One thing I do is pick pictures for a slideshow and leave it running so I see pictures as I'm in and out of the room.
Click to expand...
I used to do that 10-15 years ago, but found I didn't see much as was never in one room doing nothing for long enough, I also found that as I had to look at the photos to pick them, I had obviously seen them, and didn't need to see them again for a while.

I often look at photos I have taken as I use them for recording like a diary, ie if I want to know when the first snow was last year, or what date I went to a place 10 years ago, or what date the first runner beans were picked, or what was in a room years ago, and other boring things
 
Sangoma said:
I used to do that 10-15 years ago, but found I didn't see much as was never in one room doing nothing for long enough, I also found that as I had to look at the photos to pick them, I had obviously seen them, and didn't need to see them again for a while.

I often look at photos I have taken as I use them for recording like a diary, ie if I want to know when the first snow was last year, or what date I went to a place 10 years ago, or what date the first runner beans were picked, or what was in a room years ago, and other boring things
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In the recent past I cared for my mam so was tied to the house a lot and being in and out of rooms and being able to focus on a screen or not were things which came and went throughout the day. Sadly my mam died but these days I do still have the slideshows on because I can be doing other things and glance at the screen for a break.

I have thought about having a digital photo frame but for me a tablet works better as I can use it for other stuff too.

For me photography is about the enjoyment and the process of course but a large part of it is capturing a moment which means something to me and of course I want to relive those feelings and memories so of course I look at my pictures.
 
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Of course I look at them - the making of them would be rather a waste of time if I didn't, wouldn't it? The trouble is, though, that there are just too many of them ;-)!

I have a couple of dozen framed & hung about the house, which takes up all the sensibly available wall space. But note that I have some work by others hung as well - because I just like photographs, they don't have to be mine.

Then there are prints in boxes waiting for a home that can be drawn on at any time for any purpose - but it's rewarding to leaf through them now & then.

Then there's the digital archive that can be mined for print or internet, that I re-explore at random.

It's a communication medium - its essence is display. Then people will see them and some will find resonances there. But in effect, at core my own images are a visual, personal diary that it would be silly to ignore. Images are like food ...
 
droj said:
It's a communication medium - its essence is display
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Agreed. I have one wall in the office done out in cork, and I pin up prints over the course of a year. In January, they all come down and I start afresh.

The Magnum photographer Constantine Manos said it best...

The Print
There are photographers who still believe that a photograph does not exist until it is a print. There remains in their memory the experience of working in a darkroom and recalling the magic of seeing an image gradually appear on a piece of paper in a tray of liquid, all this bathed in a warm golden light.

If processed and stored properly this print can last for generations. It becomes archival; it becomes vintage. It becomes a treasure to be put in a fine box between soft acid-free tissues. It can be framed and hung in a favorite spot, to become an object of daily pleasure and comfort. It is a real object we can hold in our hands, not a negative or an image floating around in space and stored in cold machines.

Whether captured on film or captured digitally, this print, this object, reflects the craft and skill and pride of its maker. Its quality is a reflection of the skill and art of its making.
Let us sign it with our name as an expression of pride and accomplishment – whether we have made it ourselves or have entrusted its making to a skilled artisan. Let us be collectors and guardians of these beautiful artifacts.

Let us celebrate the print.
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droj said:
Of course I look at them - the making of them would be rather a waste of time if I didn't, wouldn't it? The trouble is, though, that there are just too many of them ;-)!

I have a couple of dozen framed & hung about the house, which takes up all the sensibly available wall space. But note that I have some work by others hung as well - because I just like photographs, they don't have to be mine.

Then there are prints in boxes waiting for a home that can be drawn on at any time for any purpose - but it's rewarding to leaf through them now & then.

Then there's the digital archive that can be mined for print or internet, that I re-explore at random.

It's a communication medium - its essence is display. Then people will see them and some will find resonances there. But in effect, at core my own images are a visual, personal diary that it would be silly to ignore. Images are like food ...
Click to expand...

My understanding is that, for a lot of people, the enjoyment in photography is mainly the taking and creating. For me it's about 50/50 take/look.
 
I do but most of the time it isn't just looking. Ocassionally have a look through older photos and often decide there are quite a few that aren't worth keeping, even though at the time of taking I thought they were pretty good.

Dave
 
Cockney said:
My understanding is that, for a lot of people, the enjoyment in photography is mainly the taking and creating.
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I get that impression. Along with researching and buying gear in a constant process of improvement/upgrading.

For me it's all about the pictures.
 
droj said:
... whilst equipment is just something that you passively buy - you've had no hand in its creation.
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I agree to a great extent, I also think that it's fair to say that we're not entirely disconnected from the creation of equipment. User comments on forums such as this and from professional photographers are I'm sure taken into account when new equipment is designed and created. In addition, photographers/end users create a demand for equipment, hence driving a development process.
 
A few years ago, my Wife mentioned that I should print more of my images, and her way of encouraging that was to create a feature wall in the lounge where we could hang pictures that fit the current season. So in the winter there might snowy shots or anything else that might represent the Winter season etc. and we would change the display as the season moved into the next. Ive kept it fresh by replacing prints with new ones as I take them, and its been a good exercise for me.
 
Cockney said:
After post processing and filing, how often do you go back and actually look at your photos?

I just feel I should do it more often. Every now and then google will throw up a memory collage of what its got, which is fun, but I'm conscious that I have many shots that I never go back to.
Click to expand...

If possible I try to arrange my photos by theme or project and it's within the context of these collections that I view them,
The random photos I make on the odd outing or the 'single image' photos tends to be the ones that get lost because they don't 'belong'.

Around Christmas time I bought a Canon Selphy, since then whenever the misses and I go out somewhere there's always a pretty picture or a selfie that get's printed the next day and fixed to whiteboard in the house
 
I do spend more time out taking pictures then going through them and editing than actually looking at them
I do have some favourites printed and on the wall though and also have a usb stick with them all on and plug it into the telly and look at them :)
 
Tysonator said:
I do look back a my photos for reference, and often shock my self how crap some really are !

Strangely enough I was thinking about doing some Photo Books which means I will be looking back at old photos especially holiday photos.
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I have a few that I'm really happy with and I keep thinking, "must print them". Never happens, life gets it the way.
 
Cockney said:
My understanding is that, for a lot of people, the enjoyment in photography is mainly the taking and creating. For me it's about 50/50 take/look.
Click to expand...
For some it's just a reason to get out and about, and it's a 50-50 they go out to take photos or taking photos makes them go out, if that makes any sense.
 
woof woof said:
One thing I do is pick pictures for a slideshow and leave it running so I see pictures as I'm in and out of the room.
Click to expand...
Same here! I like rewatching my previous works in a form of an automatic slideshow and stop at the ones that caught my eye for some reason. I also shoot a lot of portraits and always go back to my friends' and family photos whenever I'm doing a birthday smartshow 3d video and looking for pictures of a birthday person!
 
Cockney said:
After post processing and filing, how often do you go back and actually look at your photos?

I just feel I should do it more often. Every now and then google will throw up a memory collage of what its got, which is fun, but I'm conscious that I have many shots that I never go back to.
Click to expand...
I probably browse through my catalogue at least once a week and often end up re-editing. a file I've already edited, or edit one I didn't edit at the time. I enjoy re-connecting with older photographs.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
I have pictures set up as randomly selected backgrounds.
Click to expand...
I do the exact same. I use a programme called John's Background Switcher which I have set to change my background after 2 minutes of inactivity, and have a different image on each of my two 2560x1440 screens. Some I'll never see (because I'm working on something on that screen, covering the background), but over time it will display all my photographs. And because it's random, I never know what I'll see next.
 
Last year my wife wanted collages of photos for the hall stairs, so I decided to design it all myself on PS and get them professionally printed and framed rather than use one of those collage creator things.

I decided to create a chronological sequence of framed prints starting from when we first got together and then progress through our children growing up, with the timeline increasing as you go up the stairs. It forced me go through all my past photographs and despite being a lot of work it turned out to be a lovely experience.

I ran out of wall space and have many years left over, but that gives me the option to refresh the artwork on the walls and I can keep doing this as more years pass so it will keep me looking over my photos.
 
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