Section 3.6. Ranking Images in Bridge

3.6. Ranking Images in Bridge

After sorting and adding metadata, the next thing you want to do in your normal workaday workflow is to give a permanent ranking to all your images. I rerank my images at this stage, now that all the trash has been eliminated. The reason: you make better judgments about image quality when there's less to consider.

3.6.1. Using the Light Table for Ranking

The first thing you want to do is go back to Light Table mode so that you can get the quickest overview and orientation as to what this shoot (folder) contains. Also, the idea here is that you're ranking so that you know what you really want to spend time working on and what to keep "just in case."

As soon as you have the files open in Light Tabel mode, drag the sizing slider until you get the smallest size thumbnail that isn't wasting space with a lot of info. At this stage, your images should already be arranged by category (see the "Organize and Regroup" section earlier in this chapter).

Figure 3-25 shows you the shoot in Light Table mode after you've added the first star.

Figure 3-25. The shoot in Lightbox mode after you've added the first star.

Go through each group quickly and click to put one star under all those images you think might be worthy of further use in any way shape or form. You're not trying to find the very bestjust those you think you're most likely to use or market sometime. Don't include images that are exact duplicates (perhaps you shot them to make sure you got a steady shot or you bracketed and the shots are useless). They're going onto backup disk in a moment.

Once you've completed these steps, right-click in the Lightbox and choose NewFolder from the Context menu. Name the new folder with the prefix Burn the Maybe folder to a CD or DVD, and label it clearly with an acid-free marker. Now erase the originals from your hard drive (they're just wasting space and slowing down your computer until the day, far-far away, when you need them). Put the CD in an acid-free glassine sleeve in a CD album. Make sure the album cover is clearly labeled with a marker. Stick on labels fall off, and you're not doing this for show. Finally, go back to the Unfiltered menu and choose Show All Items. Now you're ready for the next stage.

Of course, since you already have hundreds of shoot folders that you haven't organized at all, it would be a good idea to have your assistant follow this routine for all the pre-existing shoots.

Now we're going to take those one-star ratings and look for the images that deserve serious consideration since those are the ones on which you want to stake your reputation. Table 3-2 shows my list for ranking by stars. I save labels only for images that have been sold or exhibited, but we'll get around to that later.

Table 3-2. Criteria for awarding stars to images

# stars	Definition
1	Above averagemay have a use or a market someday.
2	Candidates for royalty-free stock sales.
3	Show these in client presentation.
4	Chosen for consideration for sale. Add to Best of Directory for category.
5	Chosen for sale or exhibit.

This is an excellent list for general purposes, but of course you may have special considerations that suit the nature of your specialty or style. So feel free to edit and modify the list. Remember, though, you only have five ratings.

You can download this list from www.kenmilburn.com/lists or www.oreilly.com/digphotoet. Once you've downloaded the list, open it in your word processor and print it out so you can keep it next to your keyboard as you rank your images.

Start by using Bridge for opening the folder you're going to rank. You should do it in a mode that gives you as large a preview window as will fit your screen, with a thumbnails column to one side or the other. Personally, I prefer Ken's Workspace. You can download it from www.kenmilburn.com/workspaces or www.oreilly.com/digphotoet.

3.6.2. Ranking JPEGs

If you're working with JPEGs, make sure you do all your rotating in Bridge, as this rotates by adding instructions to Metadata and not by resaving and recompressing the file. Resaving JPEGs always means a progressively more destructive process each time the image is recompressed. If you need to open the image to get as large a version as you like, or because you need to crop or rotate, be sure to save the result as a .tif file. I say .tif because it's even more universal than .psd, it can be losslessly compressed (which is nondestructive), and it's easier to distinguish from versions that have been progressively manipulated in Photoshop or other programs.

3.6.3. Ranking RAW Files

If the shoot you are ranking was shot RAW, ranking your files is going to go much more quickly. You want to use the same basic procedure as used when collecting the trash. Use Ken's Workspace (www.kenmilburn.com/workspaces) and open multiple files. Follow the instructions in the "Using the Light Table for Ranking" section to throw out the trash when selecting, zooming in on, rotating, and cropping your files. As you click through the files, you can give your star rating to each. Just click the dots under the thumbnails until they show the correct number of stars. Better yet, as each image is selected and previewed, press Cmd/Ctrl-05 to assign the number of stars to that image.

If you want to straighten or level an image, choose the Level tool and drag a line that describes absolute horizontal or perpendicular in the rotated image. The image will rotate instantly and cropping handles will appear around it. If you want to do further cropping, just move the cropping handles until you see the crop you want. If you change your mind and don't want to rotate or crop, just click outside the cropping handles. The cropping marquee will disappear and the image will rotate back to its original position.

3.6.3.1. Choosing initial RAW settings

You're getting a preview of the next chapter here, because Camera Raw really helps in the ranking process with RAW files. At this point in your workflow, you've chosen the images that will be kept and that you will be presenting to your client. Chances are, the default automatic RAW settings that Camera Raw has assigned to your images already makes them good enough to show, but there may be some exceptions. Go to Bridge and from the Unfiltered menu choose Show All Items. Then look carefully at the three-star images that will be used for your client presentation. The first thing you probably want to correct before presenting your images for approval is color balance. If there are other settings in the Adjustments tab you want to correct, do that too. You may also, although it's not very likely at this stage, need to eliminate some noise or increase sharpness.

Once you've tweaked the default adjustments for the three-star image, you can easily apply them automatically to all the lower-ranked images. So why not do it now? It reduces the chances that you'll be embarrassed by the way those images look. It also speeds up your ability to present those images to secondary sales outlets, such as online print sales or low- or royalty-free stock photo agencies (see Chapter 12). You'll save a little time if you apply the settings to all similar images as soon as you've adjusted the three-star image (remember, that's the one you're going to present for consideration to a client, gallery, or whatever):

1. Click the Done button to save your settings. If you decide to apply the settings to the other images later, re-open the corrected three-star image and then click the Done button again. This places the settings for that image into the Camera Raw setting for the Previous file.

2. Select all the similar images. That should be easy if you've been following the workflow, because they're all positioned side-by-side.

3. Right-click on any of the preselected images to get the in-context menu. Choose Previous Conversion. Bling! All 36 (or however many) of the images in that same sequence show matching adjustments.