Don’t let the photos pile up on your mobile phone! So you can classify or delete them

Digital photography and the advent of mobile phone cameras have multiplied the number of photos taken and stored daily.

Very few amateur photographers erase a few. And so the jumble of images in the cloud or on the computer grows inexorably.

However, something can be done about it. “I only take certain pictures and I prefer to take a few, but all according to my requirements and quality standards,” says German photographer Daniel Wollstein. “In my work I’m oriented towards analog photography,” he says.

To control the number of pictures taken and saved, you must maintain strict photographic hygiene. “200 photos per year are usually enough for snapshots and memories,” says Thomas Gerwers. “But then they have to be of good quality,” he adds.

To avoid the accumulation of photos from the start and hours of classifying, the editor-in-chief of the German trade magazine Pro photo also recommends thinking twice before taking the photo.

Christine Bruns, from the German trade magazine do not photograph, recommends viewing the photos immediately or at least the same day after they were taken.

Camera and mobile screens are sufficient for a rough assessment. “I immediately delete the photos that went wrong and that I don’t like,” says Bruns.

Thomas Gerwers selects his photos based on technical criteria, such as lighting and sharpness, but also on instinct. “A picture has to like me and say something; So I’ll keep it.” This approach is of course very subjective: “Photos can have a very emotional effect and mean a lot to one viewer, while being meaningless to another,” explains the professional.

The basic rule, of course, is to keep only the best photos.

Gerwers explains that with portraits, for example, you have to make sure that the person photographed has his eyes open and that he generally looks good in the photo. Plus, he adds, evaluation is easier soon after the photo is taken than later.

To further structure the photo collection, it is recommended to use metadata embedded in the images in the form of a so-called Exif file. This happens partly on the camera or automatically on the mobile, at least as far as the date and time are concerned. The author’s name can also be helpful.

For people who take a lot of photos, Christine Bruns also recommends using a photo program on your computer to write keywords into the image’s metadata. These can be names of people, places, descriptions of motives or even moods.

Short keywords, such as those used as hashtags on Instagram and other social networks, are sufficient. “By sharing the photos on social platforms, these data are automatically deleted by them,” explains Thomas Gerwers.

Christine Bruns also takes the trouble to give each photo file a suitable name for the occasion and to save it in a folder of the same name. “This makes it easier for me to find the photos even years later,” he says.

Both RAW (raw) images and edited photo files are stored in subfolders. Duplicates are removed as consistently as blurry or poorly lit photos.

Procrastination and hesitation are out of the question. “I never regret deleting a photo. A consistent selection is often the best choice,” says photographer Wollstein.

Photo management programs can help with the selection process and often act as a “digital darkroom” for image enhancement as well.

With a star system, you can gradually filter the best photos with most programs. First of all, all the photos that one likes are marked with a star. In the second round, the best photos receive two stars; the rest goes to the digital trash. And so on until the fifth round only the best shots remain.

“The star system makes work much easier and is a great help in the selection process,” says Thomas Gerwers. Hobby photographers will find numerous free photo management programs on the market. Adobe Bridge, Ashampoo Photo Commander Free, XNView or the “Photos” programs built into Windows and MacOS are used to view and sort images, and in most cases can also be edited.

The metadata can also be changed. Purchasing or subscription programs that recognize content and offer more editing options can also help when searching for specific photos. These include Adobe Lightroom, Skylum Luminar Neo, Excire Photo, ACDSee Photo Studio, Cyberlink PhotoDirector 365, Zoner Photo Studio or Magix Photo Manager Deluxe.

For example, these programs allow you to recognize faces and assign them to people, so you can omit some of the metadata and instead filter the photos according to certain criteria. The free Google Photos service (up to 15 gigabytes of storage space) can also recognize people.