how do you use rating & labels in LR

[draco]

mods, don't really know where to post this so please feel free to move it...

hi... am trying out lightroom 2 and want to ask how do you guys set your criteria for assigning ratings and color labels to a photo?

[kiwi]

I use the quick short cuts when Im in library mode viewing the grid

I just use "5" stars typically to rate the shots that I will go back to again as the best for that session

I use colours to filter based on pictures to be printed etc using shortcuts again.

I keep it pretty simple

[clcollins]

I do everything with keyboard shortcuts
I use the:
- 'pick' flag (p) to select the images I will go back to later and edit.
- 'reject' flag (x) for images to delete entirely out of catalog
(anything that is not picked and not rejected stays in the catalog but doesn't get a 2nd look until later)

I then sort by picked images - do appropriate edits and give very best a 5 star rating (5). Sometimes I also use other star ratings when 'reviewing my 5 stars' I might go back and say "that's not really a 5, but it is still pretty good so I change it to a 4 etc.

The colour flags I personally use for prints - I use one colour for prints requested by clients, and another colour for prints I am going to make (for portfolio etc). I also use another colour for images I may want to include in our business web gallery (I also use keywords metadata for this as well).

It may sound complicated but it really is a simple system - the Scott Kelby Lightroom book has some ideas on how to "workflow" lightroom. Basically just decide on a system that works for you... and stick with it!

[bigdazzler]

I use the quick short cuts when Im in library mode viewing the grid

I just use "5" stars typically to rate the shots that I will go back to again as the best for that session



I do exactly the same thing in Aperture , and add a few basic keywords like landscape, portrait, flash, night, sunrise, sunset etc. Works well for me. :th3:

[arthurking83]

View and Capture NX have a 'similar' rating system too.
Each rating number or star allocation is user definable(which I assume is the case in other software too).

I generally use them to rate my files in a manner where highest is always best, and anything below a number 5 is deleted.
I have it in mind on what a rating is, and I should really take the time to define each rating as they can be defined! :D
I also then use star ratings feature according to whether an image has met certain criteria, and all these ratings are confined to a specific folder. when I shoot multiple versions of a scene for variations in exposure and depending on what I was trying to do, it's a very handy tool to familiarize yourself with, when you're trying to assess the merits of particular image when there are many versions of that image in the same folder.

generally I use lowest to highest as my means of quality assessment.

anything rated 5(out of 10) or lower gets dumped(and a simple press of the keyboard does the rating for 'ya! :th3:).
I start from 6(which means the image has some merit, but is OOF or focus has been missed). They almost invariably get deleted at the end of the year, when I do my yearly clean up, but I like to refer back to them sometimes as there was an idea that I had there that I want to revisit.
7 through to 9 means that the image is focused, but the quality of the image with respect to sharpness(camera shake) and exposure is assessed.

then I use my star rating to assess whether a scene works better than another version of something similar, and that's applicable only within that folder.
So if an image comes up with a star rating or 5(highest) and another in separate folder(ie. different days shooting) comes up only with a 1, that doesn't necessarily mean that the image with 5 stars is better than the image with 1 star from a different session. My star rating is only a reference to the folder that it's contained within.

All that just makes it easy to separate the garbage from the gold within my many hundreds of folders of images.

Don't know how this relates to you draco, but if you separate all your images into separate and dedicated folders, say by date, location, reason etc... and you have lots of images to sift through, but little time to do it, if you come back to them, and you have to reassess them all over again(tedious), then you probably need to be able to work out your rating system to suit your needs.

[AdamR]

I initially go through and rate all the photos I like or the photos I feel complete the story or have information important to the trip (ie who i went with) a 1. I then go through and begin to edit those shots. My top pictures get awarded a 2. So that way if i wanted to make a slide show of my best blue mountain shots I could just put all my 2s from the blue mountains or if i wanted to show pictures to people who came with me on a particular trip I would show them the 1 and 2s from that trip.

As far as labels. I try put as much metadata words as I can to make sorting and finding easier. For example, Blue Mountains NP, National Park, Mountains, Sunset etc.

I only use colours to differentiate particular shots such as ones that will be made into panos are red and ones that I didnt take are yellow.

Oh and to add to that I have an extremely obsessive system of making folders. Always Year_Month_date and as many key words as possible sorted into different folders. Though I can keep finding improvements.