How do you handle the rating/selection of similar shots ?

[rjalex]

Here's roughly my flow:
Begin with quick scan and mark with X the ones I don't want to spend any further time with and also rate from 1 to 5 the others (1 means no other photo value but a reminder, 2 is a photo that is not bad but neither valuable and will probably not further develop it, 3 are the first level for developing, after which sometimes they become 4's and 4 is what usually gets shown to friends, colleagues, forums with the 5s being quite rare and in the league of photos candidate to large prints and be hung or enter contests.

Now I might end up with at least 4 cases of similar shots.

The first three cases are stacks (panoramas, HDRs, focus stacks).

The latter is more common and is a number of similar shots such as a subject with slightly different expressions or lighting, or background differences.

What I do in this case is fire up the comparison mode with C and go through the shots and elect the best one.

Now I'm interested in what would you do to express the fact this is the best shot out of N.

In the past I sometimes flagged the shot in the series which remained in the left pane with a (P)ick but this leads to only the best of a series to be flagged with P and not other "unique" good photos.

I also tried downgrading by one star all non selected photos in the sequence but also this is not fair since if the shot was judged a 3 it has a meaning to me and should not become a 2.

So any ideas on how do you whittle down the best shot in a series would be very welcome.

Thanks

 

[AMG]

Bob, the way I read your rating it seems that you're possibly wasting 1star and 2 star ratings as you mention that they're most likely not to be processed further, so no need to 'star' them.
tbh I barely make use of stars.
Maybe use 1 = to develop 2 = developed. 3-5 good,better, best of show.

 

[Jimmsp]

Bob, the way I read your rating it seems that you're possibly wasting 1star and 2 star ratings as you mention that they're most likely not to be processed further, so no need to 'star' them.
tbh I barely make use of stars.
Maybe use 1 = to develop 2 = developed. 3-5 good,better, best of show.

My initial x's get deleted after a quick review. They are not worth keeping.
I am very similar with stars - I use 0 to keep, but not develop. All 1's get developed, most of which become 2s. However some stay 1's if I find I judged them wrong. Then my 2-5 are something like good, very good, excellent, best (top 100). EVery so often I review my 5s and downgrade some to 4s; and some 4s to 3s.

 

[Roelof Moorlag]

There are as many methods as people i think
But here is mine:

Every one of my images is getting a rating, a positive one ore a negative one (X).
New images (with no rating) i can recognise because the lack off any rating. I made a smart collection of it so i can rate them when i want.

1 star: Keeper. This does not have to be a good image. Only good enough to not delete it
2 star: Present to client (this can be myself). All material that is good enough to show
3 star: The best of the set. My choice
4 star: Portfolio candidate and/or client choice master file
5 star: Belongs to the best of my collection

So i distinguish every differt shot. One image can get the same rating as another but not because it's part of the same series. If one is better than the other, it gets a higer rating.
A edited version (PSD from a DNG original) does get the same rating as the original.

Roelof

 

[tspear]

Here are the basics of my process:
-- Pick one picture per scene I like. Spend no more then 5 seconds picking.
-- The one I like, I put two starts.
-- If I think I might want to review and redo the picture later, I give it one star.
-- If I have trouble picking, randomly assign two stars to one, and one star to the others I like.

Three stars is post processing and is one of my favorite pictures.
I have not found a need for four/five stars yet.

Tim

 

[rjalex]

Ok thank you all.
While I understand the intelligence and I appreciate all the comments about your own rating methods I was not really seeking wisdom on THAT aspect since as flawed my own method may appear it is now my established reliable routine (and btw there's a slight difference between 1 and 2 for me since they both won't get developed but 1s are like "X on probation" meaning I could easily then decide to X and delete them).

What I still feel I'm not addressing well is as Tim understood your process in electing the "keeper" in a sequence of very similar shots and assuming you have rated all of the candidates before your pick, if and how your rating/flagging changes after.

Depending on the situation I usually use the N or the C views after selecting the range of the scene's shots and then select the keeper.

At that point would you delete or downgrade the non selected ones ? Other strategies ?

Thank a lot to you all for your very interesting comments and possibly sorry for my English not being up to par on explaining myself clearly.

Bob

 

[tspear]

Bob,

Sometimes you cannot make a choice when doing the quick sort. At that point, you just want to flag them and come back later.
You may need to put in some effort to "develop" the picture first. I actually have had that happen before, the better picture was the underexposed which I was able to get more out of then the proper exposure for the individual in focus.

Tim

 

[rjalex]

Thanks Tim, I see your point. I'll usually select the "keeper" based on focus, crop, background, expression, exposure etc. and although I understand what you write in reality I rarely change afterwards.
Take care.