What to do with alternate photos in Lightroom?

[eatstickyrice]

Hi, I'm curious what the rest of you are doing with alternate photos in your Adobe Lightroom workflow. Like many, I typically shoot more than one shot of a particular subject. Then, I go through a process of elimination to narrow down to about 2-3 options. I choose one of those to submit to stock photography, but typically hang on to the other two options as alternatives in case a client ever comes back and asks if I might have additional shots of a certain subject. So, my question is, am I just clogging up my hard drives with unnecessary photos, or is it worth hanging on to these? If so, should I put them in same folder with the top photo I choose to submit? I'm asking this based on Adobe Lightroom's workflow. I have been keeping the alternates in a separate folder, but then I can't stack the photos anymore. However, for whenever the day comes again to migrate softwares, it would seem wise to have a non-software way to know which photos I've submitted or like best.

Your thoughts?
Rick

 

[Brad Snyder]

Perhaps add keywords for:
submitted
stock agency name

That info should survive a software migration, and then you can stack your alternates together with the keeper.

 

[Sean McCormack]

I agree with Brad, use Keywords, or use an IPTC metadata field. Use Control S to save it out. I recommend leaving the alternates stacked with the best one on top. Give the top one a rating or label as these do travel with XMP info.