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.
