For more great Lightroom Tutorials (and lessons on the Beta version of Lightroom 3) join NAPP (The National Association of Photoshop Professionals).

When using Lightroom, you may be tempted to “rate” your shots. Sorting them on a 1-5 scale takes a lot of time, or shall I say can waste a lot of time.  You really need to decide, are you showing/keeping the image, or is the image unworthy.

A better way to do this is to “flag” picks, rejects, and unpicks (should you pick one and change your mind).  To do this, use the “library module” and the arrow keys. If you need to you can make the pictures fill your screen.  I personally do this so I can get a realistic view.

If you like it, click the “p” key (pick).  If you do not want to keep it, click the “x” key to make it a reject.  If you pick one and decide later that you don’t like it as much as another, click on “u” to unpick it. If you rejected one and change your mind, just go back to it and click “p” and it will be a pick.  Try this – and you will be thrilled at how much time this saves you. No more deliberating, no more editing pictures (especially once in Photoshop) that you were just keeping because…

Here is what the flagged “picked” image will look like (white flag) and the unflagged “rejected” image (black flag and dimmed).

Next tip… Sorting. Check tomorrow’s post for more details.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Photoshop Tips & Tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.