#Photo mechanic star rating shortcut software#
#Photo mechanic star rating shortcut professional#

An image that needs to be kept, but may not go in a book gets two stars. An image that I think should be in an album or book gets three stars. This is more about work flow than quality of the photo. I’ve used the stars to help me sort digital images using the ABC’s of photo organizing. You can read more about it in The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers by Peter Krogh.

#Photo mechanic star rating shortcut professional#

This method is popular among professional photographers and avid amateurs who take a ton of photos. Don’t be afraid to change the star rating on an image if you are using it to get to your best photos quickly. This is ok and there are other ways to note a photo was your best at one point in time. As your collection grows, you may find some images that were really great need to be dropped a level as you improve your photography skills. You may need to go through your collection of photos from time to time, say once or twice a year, to check and see if you need to move some images up or down in their star rating. As Buddy says in The Incredibles, “when everyone is special then no one will be special.” Keeping the ratio consistent between levels will help you keep a pyramid and not end up with a light bulb. You might think, ‘I have more great photos than that!’ You may, but if you don’t keep some ratio between the different levels, you will end up with many “special” photos and not be able to tell which are the truly prize winning images. You might not even have any five star images until your photo collection is over 10,000 or possibly 100,000 images. In fact I would suggest that you keep about a 10 to 1 ratio between each level. In order to do this you need to keep the highest number of stars for the truly outstanding photos! How can you do this as your collection of images continues to increase? Keep a pyramid with many one star photos, fewer two star photos, even fewer three start photos, still fewer four star photos, and only a handful of five start photos. Using the start ratings to identify your best photos is fairly popular. Let’s look at three ways to use the star ratings so you can choose what works for you. Rating your photos is a way to help you find those special photos fast.

#Photo mechanic star rating shortcut software#

Most organizing software has them and people use them in a wide variety of ways.

I must admit that I didn’t really use the star ratings in my photo organizing software much until recently. It is helpful to write it down and have your criterion visible when sorting. The real key is to decide on why you are rating the images! How will it help you find, use, and enjoy your photos? Once you’ve answered that question, stick to the system that works for you. Here are three ways to use those Stars in rating your photos: Rate the image quality, what is the best photo Use the ratings for your workflow, marking each image based on what you want to do with it Finally, use the ratings as an additional sorting tool based on personal criteria for your collection of photos. What if you used the ratings to indicate what you plan on doing with an image or one more way to narrow a search?

To rate your photos with one to five stars, starts with a more basic question: what do you want to do with your photos? The most common reason to rate your photos is to quickly find your best, or favorite photo.