Some Thoughts on Evaluating Workflow

I just read an interesting article over on Black Star Rising that discussed grading photographic work in the academic world. It was interesting to see how someone who grades photos for a living plies his trade. The big ego booster for me is that his technique is very similar to mine.

Here is my photo evaluation process:

Go/No-Go Pass

This is the initial review. I look at the photo for about three seconds and determine if I like it. If I like it, it gets Lightroom's little white flag. If not, it gets Lightroom's little black flag with the "X". This usually cuts the pool of good shot candidates down by at least half.


Seeing Stars

Next I use Lightroom's Star ratings to place a quality score on the remaining images. One star sucks and five stars rocks. Here is the rough criteria:

1 Star - Bad snap shot. Someone walked in front of me, slightly out of focus, way too dark/light, unexpected results.
2 Stars - Bad snapshot but salvageable with serious Photoshop magic is required to yield anything I'd consider framing and hanging on my wall.
3 Stars - A good snapshot. My Mom could put the camera on Auto and taken the picture. Composition is OK and exposure is technically correct. I can put these on Flickr and not be too embarrassed.
4 Stars - These cause me to stop briefly and say "Huh. That's pretty good. A non-family member might consider hanging this in their home." Good composition, technically correct exposure, the shot came out as I intended.
5 Stars - I successfully channeled Ansel Adams long enough to snap the shutter. There are not many of these. There are maybe five of these in my catalog and I was probably too generous with my evaluation.

Adjust and Review

I'll go back through the photos with 2 stars and see if they are worthy of salvage and if salvation is possible. I'll go back through and increase the Star Rating if it is appropriate.