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Tracking what you've reviewed

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rustyLr

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Mar 6, 2019
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111
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Intermediate
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Classic 8.4.1
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  1. macOS 10.13 High Sierra
I photograph large public events as a social documentarian and can end up with thousands of photos to review. Sometimes a project won't be fully reviewed for months. I'm wondering if anyone has techniques on how to keep track of what you've reviewed so you can quickly navigate to where you last stopped. Colour coding reviewed images is one idea but what are others I could utilize?
 
I have requested that Adobe remember the position in a folder which last had the main focus. To me that would be a major usability feature. It got very mixed reaction if I remember correctly.
 
I have requested that Adobe remember the position in a folder which last had the main focus. To me that would be a major usability feature. It got very mixed reaction if I remember correctly.
I think that idea has merit. I'd certainly like to know where I last was in any collection.
 
I've used a modified version of John Beardsworth's Workflow Smart Collections I also use a Label set the assigned color depending upon the state of an image in my workflow . I can see by color lane which images remain in the "Needs Further Review" And which are "Complete and Not in a Published Collection" or and other of my color labels.
Work floe Smart Collection also automatically identifies images that need keywords, cropping, Titles and Captions.

In summary, I find that Color labels. work well in my workflow to keep me on track
 
There are several tools for marking images. (Flags, stars, colors) I suggest you use the Flag. Once you set the filter to flag, when closed, the Flag attribute remains set for the next time you open the Attribute filter.

The simplest solution is when ready to close your work in that folder, press P, putting a flag on last image selected. When returning to that folder open and then close the Attribute filter . If left set to filter on Flag, the result will be to locate the flagged image and then take you back to the full folder with that image selected. Then press U to remove the flag and start your work at that location. When ready to close the folder again press P before you do. Each time you return to that folder open and then close the Attribute filter to reposition on last image worked.

PS If the Fliers are not showing use the “\” to toggle it back to a visible state.
 
As you review images, I assume you are making some sort of qualitative determination about each one as you go. This may be a "value" metric, content metric or anything else. I also assume that you are "marking" each image to reflect that decision, observation or assessment. This could be Stars, Flags, keywords or adding them to one collection or another. So you could use whatever method you use to indicate your assessment in a smart collection such that the smart collection contains images which have not had the assesment done to it yet. For example, Rating = 0 stars, or Flag=unflagged, or Keyword doesn't contain "Reviewed". BTW, on that last one, you can specify a parent keyword. For example if you have a parent KW called "Reviewed" which has children of "Reject", "Possible", "Pretty Good" and "Selected", your smart collection only needs to look for "Reviewed".
 
I use the purple label color on the last reviewed image in a folder. When I go back to start reviewing I remove the color on that one and start rolling on my reviews/culls. Simple, but manual
 
how to keep track of what you've reviewed so you can quickly navigate to where you last stopped
Several good suggestions here (which I may use) but I suspect that you want to go back to where you left off after doing other work. LRc (at least for me) always takes me back to where I last was when I shut it down.

So, if you are bouncing around to different workflow items, one approach is to create a '_To Review' Collection. When you Import new images, you can select them all and add them to the '_To Review' collection. Simpler if you also make it the Target Collection. As you finish a picture, drop it from the collection.

Note I have not try this approach.
 
There are several tools for marking images. (Flags, stars, colors) I suggest you use the Flag. Once you set the filter to flag, when closed, the Flag attribute remains set for the next time you open the Attribute filter.

The simplest solution is when ready to close your work in that folder, press P, putting a flag on last image selected. When returning to that folder open and then close the Attribute filter . If left set to filter on Flag, the result will be to locate the flagged image and then take you back to the full folder with that image selected. Then press U to remove the flag and start your work at that location. When ready to close the folder again press P before you do. Each time you return to that folder open and then close the Attribute filter to reposition on last image worked.

PS If the Fliers are not showing use the “\” to toggle it back to a visible state.
That's an interesting idea. I'll do a trial.
 
As you review images, I assume you are making some sort of qualitative determination about each one as you go. This may be a "value" metric, content metric or anything else. I also assume that you are "marking" each image to reflect that decision, observation or assessment. This could be Stars, Flags, keywords or adding them to one collection or another. So you could use whatever method you use to indicate your assessment in a smart collection such that the smart collection contains images which have not had the assesment done to it yet. For example, Rating = 0 stars, or Flag=unflagged, or Keyword doesn't contain "Reviewed". BTW, on that last one, you can specify a parent keyword. For example if you have a parent KW called "Reviewed" which has children of "Reject", "Possible", "Pretty Good" and "Selected", your smart collection only needs to look for "Reviewed".
To date I've not been tagging every image, just ones that receive 2 or more stars, so perhaps I should use zero or flag as minimum. So many images I just rapidly right-arrow through them. I can roughly see where I've been from the trail of star ratings, but I need to improve my method of review.
 
. . . So many images I just rapidly right-arrow through them. I can roughly see where I've been from the trail of star ratings, but I need to improve my method of review.
A useful Shortcut - If you set the Caps Lock on, any assignment of a Star, Color or Flag, will AUTOMATICALLY advance to the next image , WITHOUT having to press the arrow key.
 
A useful Shortcut - If you set the Caps Lock on, any assignment of a Star, Color or Flag, will AUTOMATICALLY advance to the next image , WITHOUT having to press the arrow key.
That's a killer tip Bob. That clinches it for me, as I shoot a lot of night events and many images are either fully/partially out of focus or limbs in the way etc I need to do a lot of quick scrolling to find the working images, so doing this without need to juggle the keyboard will make it much simpler. Except of course when I add keywords in all caps!
 
The Auto Advance can be implemented three ways, All three work in all modules. But the first can only be set in the Library module.
  • 1) In the Library Module, follow the dropdown menu under Photo (in the upper left) to Auto Advance, clicking on that line will set a check mark to indicate that that feature is active. Click again to turn off.
  • 2) Hold down the shift key.
  • 3) Set the Cap Lock on.
 
If you use the Dropdown menu to turn the feature on, both the Shift and Cap Lock can be used to temporarily turn it off the feature.

Enjoy, it does let you fly through a lot of images quickly.
 
T
If you use the Dropdown menu to turn the feature on, both the Shift and Cap Lock can be used to temporarily turn it off the feature.

Enjoy, it does let you fly through a lot of images quickly.
Thanks again Bob. I think you've saved me a lot of fiddle time.
 
In response to the suggestions above, here is my new workflow. Primarily I wanted to create a snail trail to show where I've been. As the blue label is the closest to default grey I chose that. It subtly denotes that I've reviewed all images labelled blue as I scroll down the thumbnails to find where I last left that catalogue.

So the process is;
1. Press Caps Lock to enable the auto-advance function
2. Temporarily press shift key (to pause advance) while applying a rating number, flag or other marker, eg shift 3 for three star rating
3. Press 9 to mark as blue. (If no rating needed, just press 9)

So basically the 9 key doubles as a colour marker and advancing key. I just keep my fingers hovered over the shift key in case I need to add a rating.
 
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