Lightroom Tutorial – The Speed Round – Sort Photos Faster November 2nd, 2009

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.

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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.

6 Responses to “ Lightroom Tutorial – The Speed Round – Sort Photos Faster ”

1. Lightroom Tutorial - The Speed Round - Sort Photos Faster Says:
   November 2nd, 20099:28 am at

   [...] 1 votes vote Lightroom Tutorial – The Speed Round – Sort Photos Faster For more great Lightroom Tutorials (and lessons on the Beta version of Lightroom 3) join NAPP [...]

2. Julie McCullough Says:
   November 2nd, 200911:46 am at

   This works great! the other night I sorted through 130+images and processed the 30+ picks in 2 hours. Thank you to LIGHTROOM and MCP ACTIONS!! Love them both!

3. Shelly LeBlanc Says:
   November 2nd, 20091:15 pm at

   Thanks Jodi. Since I’ve switched to Mac, I’ve been having a lot of trouble picking/rejecting in Bridge.
   I’ll try it in LightRoom tomorrow. Some tasks should take time, picking/rejecting should not.

4. Jackie Waldoch Says:
   November 2nd, 20098:56 pm at

   Do you then get rid of the “rejects”? What do you do with them? I’ve been using the 1 star and then sorting by stars, but I like this idea too!

5. Melissa Brewer Says:
   November 2nd, 200911:18 pm at

   This is how I always do my picking. It saves soooo much time. I don’t even bother rejecting the ones I dont like I just skip them all together. I flag all the ones I want to edit, then I’ll set the view to flagged only and edit those. If I find I dont like some after all I just unflag them and they’re gone!

6. Heather Price Says:
   November 3rd, 20099:51 am at

   Thanks Jodi for this tutorial,i always struggle with lightroom as i mostly use photoshop,this is invaluable info!

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