Garbage In Gold Out

 

I'm sure that Google knows more about choices I'm about to make than I do.  It certainly knows what I'm thinking.  I'm always amazed when I google an original  spur of the moment idea and find that google knows the question before I finish entering it.

The old expression was Garbage in - Garbage out.  Google has proven that if you put enough garbage in, gold will come out.  Data mining allows google to match users to advertisements better than any other media.

I add images to Lightroom on a regular basis throughout the year.  They are organized sequentially by time.  I try to minimize Lightroom entries by culling as much junk and duplicates as possible before I use Lightroom.  As a result, the images in Lightroom are a subset of the total number of images I shoot.  I might shoot 500 images at Fontenelle Forest and put 50 in Lightroom.  Later that day, I may shoot 50 images of my granddaughter and put 50 in Lightroom. I try to enter more gold than garbage.

The metadata in my light room photos can be mined.  It can tell me things about my habits that differ from how I believe I work.  This information can help me make decisions.  I may want to purchase Canon' s new 200-400mm lens.  My lightroom metadata tells me that I use 24mm - 70mm much more often than 200mm - 400mm.  It would be prudent to make sure I have good glass in that range before I buy something more exotic. 

Now that 2012 is nearly over, I looked at the metadata for the year in Lightroom 

I took photographs that ended up in Lightroom on 122 different days.

I took over 18000 images that ended up in Lightroom.

 I used full frame for 82 percent of my photos.  3/4 of the full frame photos were with my new 5D Mark III. 

I preferred my 24mm zoom.  I took 37% of the shots with the 24-70mm f 2.8 lens  I took 20% more of the shots with the 24-105mm f4 lens.

My 24mm was my favorite focal length  - 13% of the images. 70mm was second - 11%. 35mm was third - 10%.  1120mm (800mm + 1.4 extender) was fourth - 10%.

My favorite shutter speed was 1/200 followed by 1/160 and by 1/100

My favorite aperture was f2.8 closely followed by f4.  12% of my images used an aperture larger than f2.8

I used flash 16% of the time

I used ISO 400 the most,  followed by ISO 200 and ISO 100.

I shot nearly everything in RAW. 

I used video on 35 different days.

Now that I know this information about my habits, I can use it to my advantage.

1.   I now know that I can triple the number of day I use my camera.  I'm missing many opportunities.

2.   I would like to cull my images more in 2013.  18,000 in 2012 resulted in too much overhead and not enough gold.

3.  I definitely prefer full frame.  I should keep this in mind if I decide to buy another camera.

4.  I take over 1/2 my photos using a zoom in the 24mm -70mm - 105mm range.  If Canon brings out a 24-70 f2.8 lens with IS, I should consider it.

5.  I like to use zooms for everyday things.  I turn to primes when I need extra speed.  12% of my images were under f2.8.  If I buy another Prime lens, it should be fast.

6.  I only used flash 16% of the time.  If Canon makes a camera with a better high ISO, I should consider that.  I should make sure I have flash available when it will improve the image.

7.  I used video 1/4 of the times I used the camera.  Video needs to be more than an afterthought in 2013.