In the previous post in the series, we discussed how to apply flags and star ratings to your photos, and how to filter them… but when you’re faced with thousands of photos, where do you start? How do you decide which photos deserve which ratings… and how do you keep the meaning of the ratings consistent over time?
There are lots of different ways of sorting through photos. Some photographers use Grid view and others prefer Loupe. Some like to rate their photos in a single pass, and others like multiple passes. Some like flags and some prefer stars. Some only use 1-3 stars and some use all 5. Some pick out their favorite photos and others just reject the bad ones. It really is up to you.
Flexibility is a wonderful thing, but so much choice can be confusing, so here’s my tried and tested rating workflow, which you’re welcome to use. Feel free to share it with others too.
(Infographic may take a moment to download)
Hi Victoria, your system makes a lot of sense, thanks for sharing. Curious about what you do when you have several similar photos that you like and you know you will only use one of them but you might not be sure immediately which one is the best. Do you take the time to compare them in the first pass and only flag one of them or do you flag them all and then choose your favourite when you’re assigning the 2/3/4 star rating (and perhaps downgrade the others then to 1 star)? Many thanks!
I’d flag them all on first pass and then reassess on the second pass. I might even do a mini pass in between, just for those groups of photos.
Makes sense, thanks heaps!
Thanks! That is a straightforward workflow, that sped up my process significantly.
Before, I was trying out different systems, what is the worst thing you can do. I had a complete mess later, because I couldn’t remember, which system I have been using on a certain project.
So one piece of advice from me to everyone: Choose your system wisely and early and then stick to it. Victorias system is a good bet.
Glad we could help Heinz! Excellent advice to stick to one system.
Great information. Just to bad it took me almost a year to find it. I have been trying to figure out a workflow, read several, and this makes the most sense.
Thanks again.
Glad to help! It’s found in my Missing FAQ and Edit Like a Pro books too, if you want to save yourself some hunting for other situations like this!
Thanks!
I love this system! One question – what would you do when you have a few near-duplicate four star photos? Do you do anything to highlight one as the “select”? For example, I was playing around with apertures and shutter speeds taking photos of a sunset and ended up with a bunch of equally nice shots, but it feels weird looking at 5 subtly different photos of the same scene in my 4* list.
Thanks!
I’d still pick the best and downgrade the others, as varying the aperture and shutter speed will have had slightly different effects. For example, you might decide the one with the larger depth of field is best for this type of shot.
Thanks – nice clear explanation here! A problem I find is that sometimes a photo will fit in various projects and have a different rating in each one. Supposing, for example, I have collections on Cuba, on Havana and on my friend Yoel taken in Havana. A photo might be a 5* of Yoel, a 3* of Havana and only a 2* of Cuba. Any suggestions as to how to manage that?
Best you could do in that situation is create virtual copies, as they can have different ratings and other metadata.
For the 2 star and 3 star ratings, I’d like to keep the JPEGs only (at the moment, I am shooting RAW+JPEG). Is there a way to achieve this? To delete the RAW file and “turn” the sidecar file into the original one. Or something similiar?
Thanks, Thomas
There’s no easy solution. Best you can do is temporarily switch the preference to import raw+jpeg photos as separate photos, then import the folder that has both, then use John Beardsworth’s Syncomatic plug-in to copy the star ratings from the raw files to the JPEGs (and any other metadata), so you can then filter for raw files with 2-3 stars and delete them. It’s not a perfect solution, but should get you most of the way there.
Hi thanks for that, I can never settle on a system which drives me crazy.
I’d love to know how you use the colour labels in your workflow.
For me, color labels are fairly temporary, because they don’t sync to Lightroom mobile. I use Red and Yellow to mark up photos I want to retouch further in PS or LR. Blue and Green mark up HDR/Pano elements so I don’t delete them (as they look really bad as photos in their own right!). Purple are used for “finished” photos, because it doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut, and therefore can’t get disabled quite as easily.
Victoria!!!!
Thanks so much!!! You explain it so brilliant that even I, a Beginner in Lightroom , can do it!!!!
You make it so much easier !!!!
Appreciate!!
Petra!
I’ve found this infographic very useful.
It formalises something close to what I’ve tried to do. so very helpful.
I’d like to print it out on A4 to keep by my PC. Do you by any chance have it as an A4 PDF?
Thanks for your help
Sure, here’s a link to a PDF. Your printer driver should be able to automatically fit to A4.
Thanks. That’s so much easier to print and keep near the PC. Thanks again
Sorry to ask what may well be a question that has a very obvious answer but other than right-clicking on the Infographic and saving the image is there any other way of downloading it? The caption “Infographic may take a moment to download” suggests there is.
Hi Wendy
That’s the way to save it – and it’s quite a small file, only takes a couple of moments
Thanks
If I reject a photo and then delete the rejects, will LR try to re-import the rejected (and deleted) photo on the next import? Thanks
If the photo’s still on the card, then yes, it would try to reimport any you deleted. In that case, you’re better off leaving them rejected but in the catalog until you reformat the card next.
I like this flow, mine is similar where my first pass is with the flags for similar criteria (except rejects can also include duplicatives).
Then I also filter the picks but don’t give stars until after they’re edited – I don’t really feel like I know what I’ve really got until after editing.
Then, star rating is 1 or 5 – both are shared socially but 5’s go into 5 star smart collection for super favorites.
I personally hold off on deleting the rejects until after editing in case one of the duplicatives ended up being better for some reason.
Nice work flow, and nice approach. Thanks for posting.
I love to hear how others use flags and ratings. Some great ideas here–thank you!
I like the workflow. Let us suppose you choose and process a five star photo and leave it for a later project. Do you mark that photo in some way so you distinguish between all five star photos and the one(s) you have processed? Do you, for example, assign a color to the processed photo? Then, once that photo has been used somewhere do you do something else to show that it has been used, uncheck the color assignment, for example?
Yes, using a color label for that would work very nicely.
Does Photo menu > Delete Rejected Photos really delete them from the hard drive, or just from the catalog? I thought “Splat Delete” (Command-Option-Shift-Delete on Mac) was the only way to actually delete photo files from the hard drive.
When you Delete Rejected Photos, you are offered two delete options. Choosing the Delete from Disk option really deletes them from their folder(s) on the hard drive but moves them to the Trash or Recycle Bin. Choosing the Remove option just removes them from the catalog and makes no changes on disk.
Yes, the Delete option really deletes them from the hard drive… as long as you’re viewing All Photographs or a folder. If you’re viewing a collection or a smart collection, then it only lets you remove from the catalog unless you do a Splat Delete.
Ahhh… that explains my confusion. I’ve been working exclusively in Collections because I felt most comfortable there after moving from Apple Aperture a couple of years ago. Thanks for the clarifications.