TIPS FOR CULLING DOWN YOUR PHOTOS

What does it mean to cull your images? It means to sort through and take out all of the “bad” images and keep all of the “good” ones. In this case good and bad don’t necessarily have to refer to the quality of the photo. Sometimes an old blurry photo taken on your first flip phone in middle school is your favorite image in your camera roll. We consider this to be a good photo.

So how do you cull down your images? We have a few simple tips to make it easy for you to start.

Delete mistakes

1.) Get rid of any “oops” photos. These are the images where you accidentally hit the take photo button, or the pile of accidental screenshots you’ve taken while trying to lock your phone (thanks for making that so easy to do Apple!) “Oops” photos are the images that have no real context or meaning and are the easiest to start getting rid of on your culling journey.

Narrow it down

2.) After you’ve omitted all of your “oops” photos, it is time to start narrowing it down. Look for the useless images in your camera roll. For example, photos of old receipts you sent to a friend so they could pay you back for dinner, or images of your parking spot so you wouldn’t forget where you parked after your grocery store run. These are the photos that have no emotional attachment and are of no use anymore.

Get picky

3.) Now it’s time to get pickier. Start deleting images of people or places that were the bad images of the bunch. Let’s say you took 15 photos of your cat sleeping and in five of those photos your thumb was in half of the image. Get rid of those five photos! You can still keep the other ten good ones (although we recommend culling it down even further).

Favorite your favorites

4.) Favorite your favorites! Go through your remaining images and favorite all of the ones that bring you joy or hold a special memory for you. You don’t have to delete any of the photos that you’ve left unfavorited, but by marking some of the images as your favorites, it makes it easier to find those really special photos later on.

Culling your images can feel like a daunting task, but in the same way cleaning out your closet can bring you some peace, cleaning out your camera roll can do the same.