Today’s Question: Can I document star ratings somewhere in Lightroom Classic like color label definitions?
Tim’s Quick Answer: There isn’t a feature for documenting the definitions of star ratings, but you could use color label definitions as a workaround.
More Detail: Lightroom Classic includes a feature for defining the meaning of color labels, which enables you to edit the text that will be added to the Label field when you assign a specific color label. However, I don’t recommend changing these definitions after you’ve already assigned color labels, as that would lead to a mismatch that results in the intended color no longer appearing for applicable photos.
However, you could use an additional set of definitions for color labels to provide a reminder of your definitions of star ratings.
To get started, bring up the Edit Color Label Set dialog by choosing Metadata > Color Label Set > Edit from the menu. You can then treat the colors as though they were star ratings, such as using the red field for one star, the yellow field for two stars, and so on. Enter text for each color to reflect your star rating definitions.
For example, based on the way I define my star ratings I might enter “Keeper” in the red field, “Best of Trip” for the yellow field, “Best of Year” for the green field, “Best of Decade” for the blue field, and “Best Ever” for the purple field. You could also provide some clarity about the definitions by including a number, such as “1=Keeper” for red.
After entering text to define your star ratings, you can click the Preset popup and choose “Save Current Settings as New Preset”. In the dialog that appears, enter meaningful text such as “Star Rating Definitions”, then click the Create button.
At any time, you can then go to the Edit Color Label Set dialog and choose the star rating definitions preset to review your intended meaning for star ratings. But after reviewing, be sure to choose the previously selected preset (such as “Lightroom Default”) so that the correct color label definitions will be active. You can also just click the Cancel button to not apply any changes to the currently active definitions for color labels.
