Three Steps to Curing Picture Vomit

Social networking has permanently changed the way that most of today's society interact. Where I still marvel at how two people on opposite sides of the planet can meaningfully share their thoughts with each other in as little time as it takes to type up the content of the emails being exchanged, today's youngsters youth is gifted (or cursed) with what is essentially a real-time bombardment update of the current emotion, position, meal or beverage, companion, and unfinished sentence from nearly everyone in their contact list (which roughly averages in the hundreds per individual).

Most of a social networking site's resources and their subscribers' time is spent on hosting and viewing pictures respectively. Nothing quite proves that you're about to watch The Avengers in 3D than actual pictures of you (with your 3D glasses on) inside the theater. And with most people heavily favoring sight and sound over their other senses, one can see why this is so. I appreciate how family and friends can share their treasured moments with each other at the click of a button. What I despise find alarming is the prevalence of picture vomit, which is what happens when a full memory card 'explodes' all of its contents onto your album page, and results in something that resembles the image below.

Fortunately, this ailment can easily be remedied. If you are a chronic sufferer, don't worry, as a cure is just three steps away.

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Step 1. Do the cleanse.

Once you've downloaded the image files onto your computer, view your pictures as large as they can be displayed on your screen (you may use the default viewer that comes with your OS or a third-party app of your choice).  And with a discerning eye, purge delete the files that do not give you a usable image.


So, what counts as being usable?

Personally, I would say a picture is deemed a keeper when it shows its intended subject while being properly exposed and reasonably in focus. An image that does not meet the aforementioned criteria is then promptly sent to the bin. Harsh? Probably a little. But, in many ways, it will help you develop a sense for what makes a good picture and allow you to improve the way you shoot images to yield better results in the future.

Allow me to use my failed experiment in photographing this past weekend's perigee of the moon. A review of the images on a larger screen yielded very few keepers, so much so that I hardly took my finger off the delete key.

Out of focus. Delete.

A little blurry and underexposed at the same time. Delete!

Next one. Del... okay, this one I can use.

It's not an easy thing to do, especially at the beginning; but, consider the following facts when you find your finger straying from the delete button:

1. There is essentially no way to fix an out-of-focus image after the fact, unless you're trying to pass it off as a '3D rendering'.
2. An underexposed (often comes out as too dark) image can be remedied in post; but if it is grossly so, it will either take too much time and effort to fix or the resulting image will not be as pleasant.
3. No one wants to see blurry and/or dark pictures of your cat, or a part of his tail for that matter. Spare your loved ones the torture trouble of going through an album that not even your own cat would appreciate. Okay, so this is more of an opinion rather than a fact, but you know what I mean.

And before any form of remorse sets in, format your memory card (always in the camera) and empty your recycle bin or trash folders. With that, you're well on your way to picture perfect health.

Step 2 of 3 to follow.