Looking for star rating criteria suggestions

[MarkNicholas]

I would be grateful to receive any suggestions on the criteria you use for applying star ratings to your photos.

I currently only use the 5 star rating for photos that I really like and do not use the 1 to 4 star ratings at all.

What criteria do you use to apply the star ratings.

 

[breyman]

I actually do something similar. After importing, I scan through and assign a Reject flag (I later delete all rejected photos) to photos that have serious problems like blurriness, crazy composition problems, etc. During the same pass I assign a 5-star rating to those that I like the best and want to further process.

I then have a custom filter that displays all the 5's, hides the 'okay' shots and I continue editing.

I have, in a few cases, used 4 or 3 star ratings if I want to tier them just a bit more. But, personally I usually stick to just the 5.

I'm glad the options are there, but find in my workflow that too many ends up creating too many choices.

 

[Scott O]

I actually do it the other way around. I use stars to show different types of images, ie. HDR series, panorama series, etc. I use colors for processed, to do, flawed, etc. Not a better system at all, just different!

 

[Replytoken]

Peter Krogh tals a lot about assigning ratings to images in The DAM Book. While Peter's system is a bit more stringent in assigning stars, I like his basic concept which is a pyramid. Most images end up with one or two stars, thus forming the base of the pyramid. As you move up in stars, your image quality should be increasing as well. Taken to its logical conclusion, your 5-star photos, of which there should only be a small percentage of your portfolio, will be the best of the best. What I like about this arrangement is that it allows you to focus limited amounts of PP time on the best quality images. But, there are no hard and fast rules, and YMMV.

--Ken

 

[Robert T Higaki]

Personally, I use 3, 4 and 5 stars to rate my photos. I feel if you try to use all 1-5 stars- it is too tedious.
Again, like other forms of art, everything is subjective. What you think is a keeper, another person will look at it as a plain shot. The most important to remember is that you are the final judge. I give a 5 for an outstanding shot, 4 for very good one and three - a good one.

Bob- the slide shooter at heart

 

[Brad Snyder]

Mark, I detailed how I do it, in this blog post. There's also a link in that post to another blogger's methods, as well, by way of contrast.

 

[seanfin]

I am so new to this that I would almost ignore my advice on principle, but it did come from Kelby's book, which I love so far! You can use flags not only to Reject photos (X), but also to Pick photos (P). These yield Black and White flags respectively. The Rejects can be discarded immediately. The white flags are the photos that are worth working on.

Sean

 

[perottol]

This is my way:
No stars: not rated
* = Really bad photo (out of focus, cant see what it is). Will be deleted from disk.
** = A bad photo, but with maybe interesting content (shows how your house look at this time). Will be rejected from LR, but not deleted from disk.
*** = Ok photo.
**** = Good photo, give it further pp
***** = A very good photo

Flagged with "Pick" (P): Convert to BW.

Once learned, and with "Auto enhance" checked, this will go fast. I cant see why we shouldn't use all the stars when it is so easy to learn an easy system.

 

[sizzlingbadger]

' Not rated
x (the rejected flag I use to sort out / delete the images first before rating)
* Keep
** Good
*** Better
**** Portfolio Quality
***** Reserved for when I'm a better photographer

I use pick when I'm selecting images to export etc....

If you use 5 starts now then how will you assign a 'better' rating in the future when you have improved ? (unless of course your already that good)

I see no point in assigning stars to photos you are going to delete from the catalogue / disk as you would never see them once you have cleaned up.

 

[sizzlingbadger]

I actually do it the other way around. I use stars to show different types of images, ie. HDR series, panorama series, etc. I use colors for processed, to do, flawed, etc. Not a better system at all, just different!

With only 5 stars this mean you can only have 5 types of images ?? Also key words are better for this in my opinion :?

 

[Bruce J]

I use a system that's similar to many that have been described, but use slightly different words to remind me of my intent:

1 - Other (test photos, WhiBal shots, etc.)
2 - Record ('This is how the house looked when they tore the siding off')
3 - Snapshot (most family activity pictures)
4 - Print (These I'd be willing to hang on the wall)
5 - Portfolio (These are the ones I'm particularly proud of)

As to leaving the top rating until I'm a better photographer, I don't find that necessary. Not because I'm that good now, or don't expect to get better, but because I have very, very few images now that fit my current criteria. As I improve, I hope that the proportion will increase. And, if I suddenly find myself drowning in 5* images (fat chance), I can always change their ratings.

On import, I assign all images a 3* rating w/ my import preset. As I make my first pass through the images, I cull out the deletes w/ the reject flag and assign 1* and 2* to appropriate images. None of those receive further processing. The rest get initial processing appropriate for family photos. Then, I run a slide show of the 3* images to pick those for further processing and 'possible' upgrade to higher ratings. In other words, I don't initially assign 4* and 5* ratings; they have to be earned by living with and working with the images. And, after working w/ an image, I often down-rate it when I decide it just isn't as good as I initially thought. Just another, slightly different take on the subject that happens to work well for me. Cheers,

 

[MarkNicholas]

Thanks for all your ideas. Am still experimenting but have now split my 5 stars as follows.

I could not be bothered with ever increasing rating. I would be forever going back upgrading and downgrading individual photos depending on where the moon sits.

Therefore if I like it gets a star rating. Does not whether its a 1 or a 5 I like it.
* Landscapes / Views
** Miscellaneous (not people, not landscape/views)
***Group shots (more than 1 person)
**** Individual portrait (not close up)
***** Individual portrait (close up)

It may sound cumbersome but works quite well. I will see how it goes.