Culling Photos In-Camera

I've just returned from a two week trip with my family through Italy. Although not specifically a photographic tour, you bet I had my camera and took plenty of photos. As I type this, the images are importing into my system. I hope to get started on the sorting and post-processing tonight if jet lag doesn't knock me down first.

I did not bring a laptop on this trip - it was a family vacation after all. However, I did some initial sorting in-camera while on the road. Each evening, I'd take a few minutes to review the photos taken that day and do a mini-sort on them. Shots that were obviously bad were deleted in camera. Carefully. I have a Nikon D7000 and it requires me to confirm any deletion.

For shots that look good on the LCD screen, I locked the photo. On some cameras, this may be a flag option. Why do this? First off, I won't accidentally delete the locked photos (short of formatting the memory card). Secondly, I can import the locked photos into the computer first.

My DAM of choice is Aperture and it has options to import only locked/flagged photos. I take advantage of this option when I have a large set of photos to import and I've done some pre-sorting in-camera. A few months ago, I posted a video detailing how to import locked photos into Aperture. The gist of it is to import the locked photos first, flag them in some way to easily identify them in Aperture later, then import the rest of the photos.

And a bonus "Travel MacGuyver" tip for you ... if you've purchased small paintings or drawings from local artists, roll up the artwork in a plastic bag and use two Pringles canisters as a makeshift packing tube. Worked great!