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I show them to others only when I don't have a ★★★★+ photo to serve the same purpose. They often serve as narrative glue in slide shows.

I rarely do more than crop & straighten them or apply batch changes with Ctrl/⌘-Shift-V.

This is my threshold for off-site backup. Except for home inventory and family photos, I don't bother to include ★★ photos in off-site backups, and I don't back-up ★ photos off-site at all. The idea being, if my house is hit by a meteor, I won't drop any tears over losing such low-rated photos. I'm willing to keep them around as long as it's "free," but I'm not going to pay off-site storage fees to maintain their existence through a disaster.

The higher the rating, the more redundant backups I have.³

In a folder of unprocessed photos, activate THE CHAINSAW (tthbbitrrrrrrr!), then turn off all the UI distractions by pressing F.⁴ All you should see is the first "undecided" photo in this folder, full-screen.

Now put your fingers on the 1-4 keys and your thumb on the X key.⁵ Taking at most a few seconds per photo, rip through the set, giving them an initial rating or rejection. Trust your expertise and go with your initial "flash" impression. If you find yourself dithering, it's probably a ★★★ photo; rate it and move on.

When all the photos are rated or rejected, delete the rejected photos: Ctrl/⌘-Backspace.⁶

1. I don't erase my filled memory cards on the road for the same reason.

2. This the sort of metadata we had before GPS tagging.

3. I don't literally have 5 levels of redundant backups. I just mean that there are more copies of my ★★★★★ photos floating around than copies of my ★★★ photos.

4. In Lightroom 4 and earlier, F had a much more limited (though related) function.

Yet, I don't spend much time on them, because I show them to others only when I don't have a ★★★★+ photo to serve the same purpose. If they're seen at all, it's usually only as narrative glue in slide shows.

I rarely do more than crop & straighten ★★★ photos or apply batch changes with Ctrl/⌘-Shift-V. When I do spend more than a few seconds on such a photo, it is in an attempt to raise them to a ★★★★+ photo.

This is my threshold for off-site backup. Except for home inventory and family photos, I don't bother to include ★★ photos in off-site backups, and I don't back-up ★ photos off-site at all. The idea being, if my house is hit by a meteor, I won't drop any tears over losing such low-rated photos. I'm willing to keep them around as long as it's "free," but I'm not going to pay off-site storage fees to maintain their existence through a disaster.³

Such is the beauty of photos in this rarefied class that I will display them long-term, knowing that I will not quickly tire of them. These are the photos I hang on walls and use as desktop backgrounds.

The higher the rating, the more redundant backups I have.⁴

In a folder of unprocessed photos, activate THE CHAINSAW (tthbbitrrrrrrr!), then turn off all the UI distractions by pressing F.⁵ All you should see is the first "undecided" photo in this folder, full-screen.

Now put your fingers on the 1-4 keys and your thumb on the X key.⁶ Taking at most a few seconds per photo, rip through the set, giving them an initial rating or rejection. Trust your expertise and go with your initial "flash" impression. If you find yourself dithering, it's probably a ★★★ photo; rate it and move on.

When all the photos are rated or rejected, delete the rejected photos: Ctrl/⌘-Backspace.⁷

1. I don't erase my filled memory cards on the road for the same reason.

2. This the sort of metadata we had before GPS tagging.

3. Low-rated photos do still get backed up locally, such as in whole-HDD mirrors.

4. I don't literally have 5 levels of redundant backups. I just mean that there are more copies of my ★★★★★ photos floating around than copies of my ★★★ photos.

5. In Lightroom 4 and earlier, F had a much more limited (though related) function.

• ★: Photos which are "bad" in some way, but which I have to keep for some reason. They may be unattractive, out of focus, under/overexposed, purely documentary, etc.

An example of documentary photos are those of tourist attraction signs. They go with a set of photos taken at that place and serve only to document the shoot. Such photos are rarely worth showing to others in their own right. In a sense, they are just a kind of metadata, the sort we had before GPS tagging.

Such photos have inherent value for me, but I likely won't ever show them to anyone else.

This is probably as close as I get to "don't care." These photos are in focus, well-composed, and attractive enough to avoid dropping to a ★★ rating. Yet, I tend to avoid showing them to others unless I find myself without higher-rated photos of the same subject, so I rarely spend much time working on them. At most, I might crop them, straighten a horizon line, remove dust spots, and apply a global adjustment with Ctrl/⌘-Shift-V.

I sometimes use ★★★ photos in slideshows as narrative glue. I prefer to find a ★★★★+ photo to serve the same purpose if I can, of course, but sometimes I have to fall back to a ★★★ photo.

This is my threshold for off-site backup. Except for home inventory and family photos, I don't bother to include ★★ photos in off-site backups, and I don't back-up ★ photos off-site at all. The idea being, if my house is hit by a meteor, I won't drop any tears over losing such low-rated photos. I'm willing to keep them around as long as it's "free," but I'm not going to pay off-site storage fees to maintain their existence through a disaster.

Such photos appear in web galleries, slideshows, etc.

The higher the rating, the more redundant backups I have.²

In Lightroom, go to the Filter Bar and click Attribute. Clear any settings that may be here already, then click the middle of the three flags (unflagged) and set the Rating part to "equals no stars." Then save it as a Custom Filter, calling it THE CHAINSAW. I put it in all caps because I use it on every import, so I want to be able to pick it out of the list instantly. Plus, chainsaws are dramatic. (Feel free to pronounce the name in your WWF announcer voice.)

In a folder of unprocessed photos, turn off all the distractions. Lightroom 5 greatly simplified this, in that F will do this for you.³ All you should see is the first "undecided" photo in this folder, full-screen.

Activate THE CHAINSAW (tthbbitrrrrrrr!), then put your fingers on the 1-4 keys and your thumb on the X key. I don't bother dedicating a finger to the 5 key since ★★★★★ photos are so rare; stretching from the 4 key is easy.

Then, taking at most a few seconds per photo, rip through the set, giving them an initial rating or rejection. Trust your expertise and go with your initial "flash" impression. If you find yourself dithering, it's probably a ★★★ photo; rate it and move on.

When all the photos are rated or rejected, delete the rejected photos: Ctrl/⌘-Backspace.⁴

1. I don't erase my filled memory cards on the road for the same reason.

2. I don't literally have 5 levels of redundant backups. I just mean that there are more copies of my ★★★★★ photos floating around than copies of my ★★★ photos.

3. In Lightroom and earlier, F had a much more limited function.

1. Defer as above if your backup methods are not available where you are working.

• ★: Ugly photos which I have to keep for some reason. They may be poorly composed, ill-conceived, out of focus, under/overexposed...

A special class of ★ photo is the purely documentary photo, such as those of tourist attraction signs. They go with a set of photos taken at that place and serve only to document the shoot.² Such photos are never worth showing to others in their own right.

Another example is the gray card or color balance card shot you take at the beginning of a session and between lighting/scene changes. You have to keep the shot at least until everything is color- and white-balanced, and you might want to keep it for future reference purposes.

Most such photos have inherent value for me only. I rarely show them to anyone else.

This is probably as close as I get to "don't care." These photos are in focus, well-composed, and attractive enough to avoid dropping to a ★★ rating. 

I show them to others only when I don't have a ★★★★+ photo to serve the same purpose. They often serve as narrative glue in slide shows.

I rarely do more than crop & straighten them or apply batch changes with Ctrl/⌘-Shift-V.

This is my threshold for off-site backup. Except for home inventory and family photos, I don't bother to include ★★ photos in off-site backups, and I don't back-up ★ photos off-site at all. The idea being, if my house is hit by a meteor, I won't drop any tears over losing such low-rated photos. I'm willing to keep them around as long as it's "free," but I'm not going to pay off-site storage fees to maintain their existence through a disaster.

Such photos appear in web galleries, slide shows, etc.

The higher the rating, the more redundant backups I have.³

In Lightroom, go to the Filter Bar and click Attribute. Clear any settings that may be here already, then click the middle of the three flags (unflagged) and set the Rating part to "equals no stars." Then save it as a Custom Filter, calling it THE CHAINSAW. I put it in all caps because I use it on every import, so I want to be able to pick it out of the list instantly. Plus, chainsaws are dramatic. (Feel free to pronounce the name in your WWF announcer voice.)

In a folder of unprocessed photos, activate THE CHAINSAW (tthbbitrrrrrrr!), then turn off all the UI distractions by pressing F.⁴ All you should see is the first "undecided" photo in this folder, full-screen.

Now put your fingers on the 1-4 keys and your thumb on the X key.⁵ Taking at most a few seconds per photo, rip through the set, giving them an initial rating or rejection. Trust your expertise and go with your initial "flash" impression. If you find yourself dithering, it's probably a ★★★ photo; rate it and move on.

When all the photos are rated or rejected, delete the rejected photos: Ctrl/⌘-Backspace.⁶

1. I don't erase my filled memory cards on the road for the same reason.

2. This the sort of metadata we had before GPS tagging.

3. I don't literally have 5 levels of redundant backups. I just mean that there are more copies of my ★★★★★ photos floating around than copies of my ★★★ photos.

4. In Lightroom 4 and earlier, F had a much more limited (though related) function.

1. I don't bother dedicating a finger to the 5 key since ★★★★★ photos are so rare. Stretching from the 4 key is easy.

2. Defer as above if your backup methods are not available where you are working.

I defer deletion when I am working away from home on a laptop. I wait until I have merged the on-the-road library with my main home library and backed that up before I delete anything from the laptop. Two is one, one is none.

(I don't erase my filled CF cards on the road for the same reason.)

The higher the rating, the more redundant backups I have.

In a folder of unprocessed photos, turn off all the distractions: Ctrl/⌘-Shift-F, E, T, L. (Or L twice, if you prefer.) All you should see is the first "undecided" photo in this folder, full-screen.

When all the photos are rated or rejected, delete the rejected photos: Ctrl/⌘-Backspace. (Defer as above if your backup methods are not available where you are working.)

Turn THE CHAINSAW off with Ctrl/⌘-L.

Then go back and start working on the ★★★+ photos. If there are a lot of them, do the ★★★★★ photos first, then ★★★★. Spend time on ★★★ photos only if you still have time left or find yourself needing a filler of some kind.

Excepting those that are part of an HDR set, ★ and ★★ photos never get any more attention at this stage. I typically put off HDR experiments until after I've gotten through the ★★★★+ photos at least.

Finally, I run my various Publish Services for on- and off-site backups, empty the Trash/Recycle Bin, and erase my CF cards. I may also schedule an on-exit catalog backup via Catalog Settings at this point.

I defer deletion when I am working away from home on a laptop. I wait until I have merged the on-the-road library with my main home library and backed that up before I delete anything from the laptop. Two is one, one is none.¹

The higher the rating, the more redundant backups I have.²

In a folder of unprocessed photos, turn off all the distractions. Lightroom 5 greatly simplified this, in that F will do this for you.³ All you should see is the first "undecided" photo in this folder, full-screen.

When all the photos are rated or rejected, delete the rejected photos: Ctrl/⌘-Backspace.⁴

Turn THE CHAINSAW off with Ctrl/⌘-L, then press F to leave no-distractions mode.

Then go back and start working on the ★★★+ photos. If there are a lot of them, do the ★★★★★ photos first, then ★★★★. Spend time on ★★★ photos only if you still have time left or find yourself needing a filler of some kind.

Some photos may increase by a star or two after being edited. This should not worry you. Your initial flash impression was correct.

That we deleted the trash without attempting to rescue anything first is also not a problem. We can't expect more than a few stars of improvement, which isn't enough to bring a zero-star photo up to the level where we would really care to spend time on it in the first place. You'll find people who will tell you to keep absolutely everything, just in case, but I believe these people are packrats. Yes, technically there is a bit of ore there in the tailings pile, but it's not worth the time and effort it takes to refine it.

Excepting those that are part of an HDR set, ★ and ★★ photos never get any more attention at this stage. I typically put off HDR experiments until after I've gotten through the ★★★★+ photos at least.

Finally, I run my various Publish Services for on- and off-site backups, empty the Trash/Recycle Bin, and erase my memory cards. I may also schedule an on-exit catalog backup via Catalog Settings at this point.

Footnotes

1. I don't erase my filled memory cards on the road for the same reason.

2. I don't literally have 5 levels of redundant backups. I just mean that there are more copies of my ★★★★★ photos floating around than copies of my ★★★ photos.

3. In Lightroom and earlier, F had a much more limited function.

The equivalent in those older versions is Ctrl/⌘-Shift-F, E, T, L.

1. Defer as above if your backup methods are not available where you are working.