Rating Your Images

Rating Your Images

Using star ratings is a useful exercise when sorting and editing images. If you haven't included it in your workflow it's time to give it a go.

You've been on a shoot and got back to the computer and downloaded your files with great expectation. Now to view those images properly on a large calibrated screen. The big sort begins. You want to share your best work. A piece of advice I picked up many years ago was to only show your good stuff. You'll appear as a good photograr if you show ten excellent images than fifty mediocre ones. It's quality rather than quantity that makes the day.



Star ratings in Adobe Bridge


If you've shot a load of pictures thorough sorting is essential if you don't want to be swamped. Even if you only shot a handful, carefully evaluating each one is just as important as you may be adding to a much larger collection of similar subject matter. Storage may be very inexpensive and revisiting older images in the future could realise a better result, such as with improved noise reduction, getting rid of those images not up to scratch is good discipline. Be your own best critic, And be honest, are you really going to look through folders of hundreds of images that were never up to scratch. Your audience won't want to for sure.

I go through a set of images and give each one an initial rating. I weed out the ones that diinitely won't be needed, such as obvious focus and exposure errors and those that just appear naff. These are given a one star rating, which I can filter out and delete. There are those that maybe don't look great but have potential, for example a colour image may look uninspiring but I can see potential for a strong black and white version.



Star ratings in Canon's Digital Photo Professional


I'll then review the remaining images and adjust ratings up or down if necessary. Let's say I'd taken a series of an aircraft in flight. The first few may be well espoused and sharp but are relatively small in frame. The later shots show a much larger subject, also well exposed and sharp. So I'm not going to want or need the first few, so off they go.



Star ratings can even be seen in the File Properties in Windows Explorer


An interesting tip I've picked up is to use up to three stars. The theory goes that if you award an image five stars, you won't be able to give higher ratings to future images that you consider better in the future as your photography improves. I've tempered this with experience so I give what I consider a good image a three star rating. Those images that I consider stand out more are given four, and sometimes five stars. There are situations where a colour image gets three stars but a monochrome version gets more because it's much stronger.

Choose the way you use star ratings to suit your own workflow but do make use of them. By looking closely at why you give some images two stars and others four stars you'll improve your photography.



All text and images © Keith Rowley 2021