Thanks for the tips, they're very informative! A personal tip I often use is to cull starting with your last photo and work your way backwards. Your best photos are often at the end of the shoot after you've warmed up. You want to base your selections with your best shots, instead of the warm up shots from the beginning of the shoot.
One other helpful keyboard shortcut is the Caps Lock button. It advances to the next photo automatically after rating, selecting or marking as rejected. FYI.
Really useful, though I have to leave culling for at least 24 hours because if I look at them sooner I hate them all! I have to distance myself a bit from the taking the photos before I can look at them critically.
For me I do it immediately. I shoot auto racing and media outlets want images as soon as they can for online publication. So much so that they will use cell phone Victory Lane images. :(
Very thoughful and effective. Being an amateur but working with a professional kit, I end up with 100's of images. So I have to use the rationality of a pro to get through this boring part of the work process.
This video is an example of the way to do a “How To” video: it gets right to the point, wastes no time on introduction and description of the video maker’s background, history, etc. Here I learned 5 “tips” and 2 “bonus tips” very quickly. Yesterday I watched a different Adorama video on culling photos. It introduced helpful tips also, but wasted too much time on discussion and presentation that was not directly relevant to the subject of culling photos.
Good primer on culling, will be sharing! I usually am culling in, so I prefer to use tilde (~) instead of P when picking images as it works as a toggle. That way when I inadvertently pick an image I don't even have to move my hand to unpick. I generally don't bother to mark rejects, because anything that isn't picked is...not picked. The only time I mark rejects are when there is something I notice that I definitely do not want going out -- like a brand-unsafe shirt or gesture in a crowd. This is only for the occasions when a client might be asking me to find an alternate take from an event beyond the images I may have originially delivered many months ago.
"CULLING IN"... OMG!!! I wish I had've known this concept years ago. I am currently working on a set of 691 photos from one location and was dreading what to keep and what to trash. Using your CULLING IN technique, I have started with 0 instead. It's like I'm taking the photos again, but being extra selective with my shutter. In the moment, I wanted to capture everything I could see. I am still slow, but I have made it almost 25% of the way through and it is quite easy. If I don't really like something, I just pass over it. I can't wait until I make it to the end and get to use your CULLING OUT technique. 😍
Fantastic. I have similar culling workflow. Flag or reject. Flag good shots and reject failed ones. While doing that I color with either yellow or green for “must edit” or “best of set” respectively. So it’s just pressing P/U/X and 7/8. I go through thousands of bird photographs relatively quickly this way. And if possible cull after shoot is my preferred way too! It’s not always possible but certainly better. If you want to double check the selected photos with fresh eyes few days/weeks later at least you already did the heavy lifting!
Excellent video. I will start following this next time I shoot birds or a sporting event. I can easily shoot 800 to 1000 pics and plan on keeping only a few.
Thank you very much! I used to use 1:1 previews but I had so many photos it would take forever to load. Now I'm using Bridge to cull the pictures and cull them, and then I import them all in Lightroom with minimal previews and select the one I picked on Bridge and create a 1:1 preview only for them to sort through them one more time and edit them! Might try your way with the smart previews now
I cull similar as well however I prefer to cull using F key and seeing my images full screen. However, for a bunch of action scenes the way you suggested maybe better just because many maybe similar and to see what’s coming. I do really like the idea of culling in or out tho and plan on trying that method. Thx for the tips 😁
thanks a lot bro . hey i have seen this vedeo many times to learn this process. now i m using it . as a editor i have already edited a bunch of weeding images .after watching this vedeo to cull images just like a piece of cake for me . thanks again dud .at the end i waana say i just want to edit your shots . i hope u would definitely give me some work . that would be your auto graph for me bro .
This is what I was looking for. Lightroom has become my taskmaster instead of my servant. This should dramatically speed up my workflow and prevent massive file buildup with junk. I like to shoot birds in flight so many shots are almost but no cigar…
Top video. Learned a lot. I use the star system. Lots of 1 to be deleted, few 3 or 4 based on sharpness, rarely an exceptional 5. Thank you for your time and work and be safe.
Almost the workflow, I have developed for myself. Except one step, which makes culling even quicker: I don‘t reject images with a black flag, because I am only interested in those images which I will work on later. Therefore I only assign white flags. By filtering for the picked ones (white flag) I can then simply size down the selection for better overview. In later steps of the workflow I use colors to group images, which are merged to a new file, including the result - red for HDR, blue for pano, green for externally edited. Later I will sometimes temporarily assign stars for special uses like social media, gallery prints, portfolio.
I use Loupedeck and rate them 5 stars. Then filter and work on all my 5 stars. The rest that are not mark I still keep for future reference. I don't cull after the shoot as I am so tired already. But if I finished early, why not.
Super great tips! Can you do a tutorial on Collections vs Folders? And what to do after you cull. Do you throw them into Collections? How do you go about developing after you cull? Do you use the presets to only show the flagged images? Thanks!
I start deleting photos during the shoot/event when there’s some downtime. Just going through the camera and deleting duplicates or bad shots before taking to the computer saves some time
It still takes F. O. R. E. V. E.R. to import initially into LR. I use Faststone Image Viewer (like Photo Mechanic, free on Windows) to do the initial cull. Works with raw files, too.
You know, that rendering of the preview and the lag in the development module always has bugged me. I will double check my settings and see if I notice a difference. I shoot motorsports and can have thousands of pictures in a day easy. If this cuts down culling time I am going to be so happy. haha.
i use B in fullscreen to quickselect my images as keepers move to the Quickselection and cycle throw a second time and hit B again to rejact all images after a closer inspection ;)
I thought this was really useful with some great tips. I really like the idea of keeping the filmstrip open while in Loupe view, but for whatever reason, I can't seem to figure out how to do that. My filmstrip doesn't appear with the loupe in the Import window. Can anyone tell me what I need to do?
Cull them right after your shoot is advice I wish my photo teacher had given me in school, sitting here with 4 hard drives of personal projects that "i'll get to eventually" a few years later lmao
I have almost 20,000 photos that I am going through on my computer. It has been an agonizing experience with a lot of quitting and walking away for weeks. I get frustrated with how long it takes to cull. By the time I eventually narrow down a set, I don't want to ever look at them again; let alone process them. I just started to use the CULLING IN approach from this video and I sped through 158 photos and reduced them to 44. It took me 90 min to do that, but that was because I had photos I wanted to try merging together to see if I liked those better. If I like a merge, I'll pick that; if not, I'll reject that and never go back to it. I seriously love the simplicity of CULLING IN. Once I finish CULLING IN, I'll quickly go through the rejects to make sure I didn't miss anything. Then the stressless fun of going through the flagged photos and CULLING OUT (unflagging so I can still keep them). Cheers =)
Před 4 lety
In the whole process, I mark only the photos that I will process. Why tag photos "X"? This is unnecessary extra work. I was fascinated by the browsing speed in Lr. What is your computer configuration, please? It is also possible that Canon raw can handle Lr better than other raw. But great video! Thank you!
Why even use keystrokes culling? After importing and creating previews I don't even touch my keyboard to cull. I do it all with my mouse with programmable buttons. Tilt the scroll wheel left or right to advance images. Use the left two side buttons to assign a color yellow or red. Yellow is a keeper, red is trash, no color is yet-to-be-determined. I can click to zoom to check for critical focus, which is the slowest part of the culling process in LR for me. I have thought about trying Photo Mechanic, but for an amateur, it's a lot of money just for culling.
I have a PS4 controller that I have mapped (Enjoyable app on mac) to sit back and go through my photos. Because the controller has more buttons than my mouse, I have it set to do everything I need.
Why mark x or p? I have done many events and shoot a lot of wildlife. My method is similar to yours, but I use 1 and 3 with auto advance so 1 is to be deleted and 3 is to be processed. so one keystroke per image.. same as you, but I do not go through the x and p stuff..
That works too! But keep in mind you have a two stroke workflow the way you described. 1 to reject, 3 to process. I'd suggest starting with a culling-in or culling-out workflow as discussed in the video. I.E. you'd start with all 3s or start with all 1s. Then it becomes just 1 keystroke. Regarding P/X vs numbers, it's mostly the same. But, there are interface benefits that are already set up for the flagging system. LR has features like "delete all rejects." It will auto gray rejected images, etc. But beyond those interface benefits, what you described is the same thing, just a matter of preference.
@@slrlounge maybe I am missing something here. When you start with all 1's or all 3's you still have to advance past each photo by pressing the opposite number depending on the process you started with and then an arrow key or clicking with the mouse to advance past the ones pre-selected. Correct?
Oh man. That culling in and out workflow is an absolute game-changer. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge, Pye!
Culling in & culling out - genius!
Thanks for the tips, they're very informative! A personal tip I often use is to cull starting with your last photo and work your way backwards. Your best photos are often at the end of the shoot after you've warmed up. You want to base your selections with your best shots, instead of the warm up shots from the beginning of the shoot.
This is not the video we wanted. It is the video we needed :-)
One other helpful keyboard shortcut is the Caps Lock button. It advances to the next photo automatically after rating, selecting or marking as rejected. FYI.
Yes, select Auto Advance.
Wow one of the most helpful videos on this topic. Culling in and out is so smart!
Really useful, though I have to leave culling for at least 24 hours because if I look at them sooner I hate them all! I have to distance myself a bit from the taking the photos before I can look at them critically.
For me, it depends what I’m shooting. Birthday party? I can do it in 5 mins after. Wedding? I’m critical and will need time to be less critical 😂
For me I do it immediately. I shoot auto racing and media outlets want images as soon as they can for online publication. So much so that they will use cell phone Victory Lane images. :(
Thank you Pye. And all this.... because Lightroom is slow. But we still love it . And Pye tries to help us out. Thanks again!!!
This video has defintely changed my life. I have literally finished editing two different events in one day. THANK YOU!
Very thoughful and effective. Being an amateur but working with a professional kit, I end up with 100's of images. So I have to use the rationality of a pro to get through this boring part of the work process.
This video is an example of the way to do a “How To” video: it gets right to the point, wastes no time on introduction and description of the video maker’s background, history, etc. Here I learned 5 “tips” and 2 “bonus tips” very quickly. Yesterday I watched a different Adorama video on culling photos. It introduced helpful tips also, but wasted too much time on discussion and presentation that was not directly relevant to the subject of culling photos.
Good primer on culling, will be sharing! I usually am culling in, so I prefer to use tilde (~) instead of P when picking images as it works as a toggle. That way when I inadvertently pick an image I don't even have to move my hand to unpick.
I generally don't bother to mark rejects, because anything that isn't picked is...not picked. The only time I mark rejects are when there is something I notice that I definitely do not want going out -- like a brand-unsafe shirt or gesture in a crowd. This is only for the occasions when a client might be asking me to find an alternate take from an event beyond the images I may have originially delivered many months ago.
"CULLING IN"... OMG!!! I wish I had've known this concept years ago. I am currently working on a set of 691 photos from one location and was dreading what to keep and what to trash. Using your CULLING IN technique, I have started with 0 instead. It's like I'm taking the photos again, but being extra selective with my shutter. In the moment, I wanted to capture everything I could see. I am still slow, but I have made it almost 25% of the way through and it is quite easy. If I don't really like something, I just pass over it. I can't wait until I make it to the end and get to use your CULLING OUT technique. 😍
Fantastic. I have similar culling workflow. Flag or reject. Flag good shots and reject failed ones. While doing that I color with either yellow or green for “must edit” or “best of set” respectively. So it’s just pressing P/U/X and 7/8. I go through thousands of bird photographs relatively quickly this way. And if possible cull after shoot is my preferred way too! It’s not always possible but certainly better. If you want to double check the selected photos with fresh eyes few days/weeks later at least you already did the heavy lifting!
I have the loupe view on a second monitor, which makes it even easier
I loop my main and grid my secondary monitor. It’s amazing ❤️
Excellent video. I will start following this next time I shoot birds or a sporting event. I can easily shoot 800 to 1000 pics and plan on keeping only a few.
Then Critical Focus is a huge determining factor in culling. And that is where LR is so SLOW! Grrrrr.....
Great video. i learned a ton and sped up my culling process. thank you
Really liked this idea of culling in and culling out
Great workflow ideas to minimize the keystrokes and time spent. Thank you pye!
Thank you very much! I used to use 1:1 previews but I had so many photos it would take forever to load. Now I'm using Bridge to cull the pictures and cull them, and then I import them all in Lightroom with minimal previews and select the one I picked on Bridge and create a 1:1 preview only for them to sort through them one more time and edit them! Might try your way with the smart previews now
These are some great tips. Thanks Pye.
Great as always!!! Thanks Pye!
GREAT TIPS!! VERY HELPFUL!
I cull similar as well however I prefer to cull using F key and seeing my images full screen. However, for a bunch of action scenes the way you suggested maybe better just because many maybe similar and to see what’s coming. I do really like the idea of culling in or out tho and plan on trying that method. Thx for the tips 😁
love it, thanks!
Fantastic, will be sharing this around.
Thanks Pye!
This was indeed very helpful thanks ! You just saved me a ton of time, great videos and keep up the good work.
thanks a lot bro . hey i have seen this vedeo many times to learn this process. now i m using it . as a editor i have already edited a bunch of weeding images .after watching this vedeo to cull images just like a piece of cake for me . thanks again dud .at the end i waana say i just want to edit your shots . i hope u would definitely give me some work . that would be your auto graph for me bro .
Thank you!
Very helpful video!
This is what I was looking for. Lightroom has become my taskmaster instead of my servant. This should dramatically speed up my workflow and prevent massive file buildup with junk. I like to shoot birds in flight so many shots are almost but no cigar…
Top video. Learned a lot. I use the star system. Lots of 1 to be deleted, few 3 or 4 based on sharpness, rarely an exceptional 5. Thank you for your time and work and be safe.
Amazing, informative and well done!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great Video and I need to implement this immediately. Thanks
Excellent!
Great tips, well presented.
Glad it was helpful!
Almost the workflow, I have developed for myself. Except one step, which makes culling even quicker: I don‘t reject images with a black flag, because I am only interested in those images which I will work on later. Therefore I only assign white flags. By filtering for the picked ones (white flag) I can then simply size down the selection for better overview. In later steps of the workflow I use colors to group images, which are merged to a new file, including the result - red for HDR, blue for pano, green for externally edited. Later I will sometimes temporarily assign stars for special uses like social media, gallery prints, portfolio.
I use Loupedeck and rate them 5 stars. Then filter and work on all my 5 stars. The rest that are not mark I still keep for future reference. I don't cull after the shoot as I am so tired already. But if I finished early, why not.
Great tips man tnx! Any chance you'll cover some smart tips in bridge?
Pleased that this is more or less how I cull. Still picked up a few tips though, Many thanks
Super great tips! Can you do a tutorial on Collections vs Folders? And what to do after you cull. Do you throw them into Collections?
How do you go about developing after you cull? Do you use the presets to only show the flagged images?
Thanks!
I start deleting photos during the shoot/event when there’s some downtime. Just going through the camera and deleting duplicates or bad shots before taking to the computer saves some time
Can Lightroom apply auto image adjustments before importing? This might make it easier to identify images with potential before processing?
Although I use Raw Therapee, I use a workflow almost the same as this. #3 is the most important one, IMO.
It still takes F. O. R. E. V. E.R.
to import initially into LR. I use Faststone Image Viewer (like Photo Mechanic, free on Windows) to do the initial cull. Works with raw files, too.
Yes this … just delete the junk shots before anything reaches Lightroom.. faststone rocks
Great vid. Thanks. Can I get away with just using "X" on the rejects and not using the "P" at all?
You know, that rendering of the preview and the lag in the development module always has bugged me. I will double check my settings and see if I notice a difference. I shoot motorsports and can have thousands of pictures in a day easy. If this cuts down culling time I am going to be so happy. haha.
As a dirt circle track photographer I feel your pain! I am so happy if I can reduce my photo count at the track lol.
i use B in fullscreen to quickselect my images as keepers move to the Quickselection and cycle throw a second time and hit B again to rejact all images after a closer inspection ;)
Do you always render your images 1:1 eventually? If so, can you talk about the “why’s”?
I thought this was really useful with some great tips. I really like the idea of keeping the filmstrip open while in Loupe view, but for whatever reason, I can't seem to figure out how to do that. My filmstrip doesn't appear with the loupe in the Import window. Can anyone tell me what I need to do?
My 1st step, usually done in my iPad pro is to just Reject (slide finger down) and then move to macPro to go further.
Cull them right after your shoot is advice I wish my photo teacher had given me in school, sitting here with 4 hard drives of personal projects that "i'll get to eventually" a few years later lmao
I have almost 20,000 photos that I am going through on my computer. It has been an agonizing experience with a lot of quitting and walking away for weeks. I get frustrated with how long it takes to cull. By the time I eventually narrow down a set, I don't want to ever look at them again; let alone process them. I just started to use the CULLING IN approach from this video and I sped through 158 photos and reduced them to 44. It took me 90 min to do that, but that was because I had photos I wanted to try merging together to see if I liked those better. If I like a merge, I'll pick that; if not, I'll reject that and never go back to it. I seriously love the simplicity of CULLING IN. Once I finish CULLING IN, I'll quickly go through the rejects to make sure I didn't miss anything. Then the stressless fun of going through the flagged photos and CULLING OUT (unflagging so I can still keep them). Cheers =)
In the whole process, I mark only the photos that I will process. Why tag photos "X"? This is unnecessary extra work. I was fascinated by the browsing speed in Lr. What is your computer configuration, please? It is also possible that Canon raw can handle Lr better than other raw. But great video! Thank you!
I shot about 3000 images over the 10 days in Marocco; but that was 2 months ago. hadn't had much time sofar, :///
Why even use keystrokes culling? After importing and creating previews I don't even touch my keyboard to cull. I do it all with my mouse with programmable buttons. Tilt the scroll wheel left or right to advance images. Use the left two side buttons to assign a color yellow or red. Yellow is a keeper, red is trash, no color is yet-to-be-determined. I can click to zoom to check for critical focus, which is the slowest part of the culling process in LR for me. I have thought about trying Photo Mechanic, but for an amateur, it's a lot of money just for culling.
I have a PS4 controller that I have mapped (Enjoyable app on mac) to sit back and go through my photos. Because the controller has more buttons than my mouse, I have it set to do everything I need.
Why mark x or p? I have done many events and shoot a lot of wildlife. My method is similar to yours, but I use 1 and 3 with auto advance so 1 is to be deleted and 3 is to be processed. so one keystroke per image.. same as you, but I do not go through the x and p stuff..
That works too! But keep in mind you have a two stroke workflow the way you described. 1 to reject, 3 to process. I'd suggest starting with a culling-in or culling-out workflow as discussed in the video. I.E. you'd start with all 3s or start with all 1s. Then it becomes just 1 keystroke. Regarding P/X vs numbers, it's mostly the same. But, there are interface benefits that are already set up for the flagging system. LR has features like "delete all rejects." It will auto gray rejected images, etc. But beyond those interface benefits, what you described is the same thing, just a matter of preference.
@@slrlounge maybe I am missing something here. When you start with all 1's or all 3's you still have to advance past each photo by pressing the opposite number depending on the process you started with and then an arrow key or clicking with the mouse to advance past the ones pre-selected. Correct?