Deleting After Review

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Today’s Question: I now have a bunch of downloaded new photos, each with a red label from using my ‘preset import’ for adding a red label. Then I go through them all my downloaded images and assign a 1-star rating to those with potential. When that’s done, does that mean that I can delete/remove all the remaining red label images?

Tim’s Quick Answer: In concept, yes, once you have identified your best photos from a given photo shoot, you can delete the outtakes. Of course, you’ll want to consider whether you actually want to delete your outtakes, versus simply using a filter to hide those outtakes from view when you want to review only your favorite photos.

More Detail: During one of my recent presentations as part of the GreyLearning Webinar Series, I presented my workflow for making sure I review every photo when identifying my favorite images from a given trip or photo shoot. You can view a recording of the full presentation on my “Tim Grey TV” channel on YouTube here ( https://youtu.be/2I73Eq2r7E8 ):

One of the techniques I use to make sure I review every photo is to add a color label to all photos upon import, marking the images as needing to be reviewed. After reviewing a batch of photos and assigning star ratings to my favorites, I can remove the red color label from those photos, so I know all of the images were reviewed.

At that point, any images that have been reviewed but don’t have a star rating assigned to them can be assumed to be outtakes. At that point, assuming you’re confident in your review process, you could delete all photos that have already been reviewed (those that don’t have a red color label in my workflow) and that don’t have a star rating assigned to them.

Of course, you’ll also want to consider whether you want to delete the photos, or keep them in your catalog and instead use filters to view only images with star ratings assigned to them when you want to work with only your favorite photos from a trip or photo shoot.