How to Cull Photos Like a Pro!

Pangolin Photo Host William Steel is going to show you his step-by-step process on how to cull photos that you have taken in a sequence! Using Adobe Lightroom, he will show his 7-step process, demonstrating how he went from 500 images down to the best one!
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Timestamps:
00:01 Intro: How to Cull Photos Like a Pro
01:18 Importing a sequence to Lightroom
02:00 Rejecting the first images
02:55 Refining your selection
03:32 Colour rating your images
04:27 Using the Lightroom star rating
05:03 Doing some quick edits
05:41 Adjusting the star rating
06:07 Selecting the best Image
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[@PangolinWildlife]

Apologies for the dodgy sound......the next video will be much better! Hope it didn't distract too much.

[@bayleigh.winzenburg]

Me too, required to much effort to listen to. Maybe I’ll watch on a different device and try headphones, you sounded far away.

[@RogerJones-mountfield]

Terrible 😢 even with headphones 👎🏼

[@hgpezi]

I stoped it after 2 minutes it was just not working very bad sound not even funny

[@vanessaquinn177]

no problem the dodgy sound didn't last long enough to have a whinge about it.

[@RogerJones-mountfield]

@@vanessaquinn177 yes it’s a known fact women had hear everything!

[@jackieboshoff2013]

It's easy getting trigger happy when you're out on safari, whether it's Kruger National Park, Chobe or Sabi Sands. Been there, done that 😊 I follow a very similar process, but end up keeping way too many images that I think I'm going to get back to one day 🙈. I need to be more disciplined with that. The colour that I use for my top picks is blue 💙

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thanks for the tips!

[@stanblumberg]

I use 6 (red) to delete & 9 (blue) as keepers.....as these numbers are together on the side of my keyboard. NBB - SHORTCUT.......enable CAPS LOCK when doing any selection and the selection will move to the next image automatically after selection 1-9 or X

[@tordandreasson]

I use a similar workflow but prefer to use the rating (1-5 stars) rather than colors, which I use for other purposes. And I also set the filter to only show non-flagged and non-rejected photos. This way, rejected (and flagged) photos will automatically disappear from the strip, no need to click right/left arrows.

[@AliasJimWirth]

I have a question: How do you deal with the fact that on any given day you might be in a mood that likes this or that photo for whatever reasons, but on another day in a different mood, you would pick different images for whatever reasons? Does this make sense to you? I hope so. Thanks for posting this video in any case. Cheers.

[@zephyrderg]

Really useful tips, thank you!

[@chadpeterson2033]

Would recommend using Fast RAW Viewer for this step, even on my newer MB Pro, LR is just too laggy to cull quickly.

[@phillipscrimshaw]

Look who finally made it to the KZbin channel! Now time to make some content about wild dogs!

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hahah thanks Phillip.. you might be waiting a while for that video! 😂

[@ajaysonarikar1713]

Superb technique

[@PangolinWildlife]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@EdwardKilner]

One of my Project Management clients wanted a colour coded “Wall of Bricks” spreadsheet to show notable tasks from week to week. Sky Blue was the best, Black was the pits. Blue, Green, Orange, Yellow, Red, Black was my ordered set. You are free to copy or choose your own, depending on what’s available in your program. Oh, White or Clear was the No Information colour.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Thanks for sharing Edward! I did suddenly realise that my red for "good" might cause a few raised eyebrows!

[@rogermilstein3303]

I’m with you. Similar process. And yes, Red and Yellow and stars. Just took 16,000 down to 3850, and still working.

[@kathleeneveritt5340]

Great video , yes you chose the best image , absolutely stunning,

[@PangolinWildlife]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@jackstutts6439]

You have hit on a topic that drives many a wildlife photographer insane. I usually remember those "special images and sequences" so the first round of culling isn't to tough. After that it's all about eye contact, the sharpest and the pose. I'll flag the ones that meet my criteria and then rate those with stars. And yes, you picked a great image.

[@joncothranphotography9375]

Cool thoughts! Thanks William!

[@yeuhuanlai6573]

I follow a broadly similar process. Keeping Caps Lock on while you rate will move the selection forward as you press X or P (it's P for pick). If previews have been built, this can happen very quickly. After I have done my picks, often I need to compare the images for critical sharpness, and the Comparison Tool in the Library module is invaluable for that.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hi Yeu, good spot, my mistake you are absolutely right it is p for pick! Nice to hear your process

[@pedroferreiradoamaral7248]

I agree with your choice and, above all, super useful to see your selection and rejection process. Just the other day I talked about this with a friend.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Thanks Pedro! Glad that you enjoyed the video and that it helped!

[@janetyrer7509]

Great tutorial. I learnt a lot. I currently use the pick (p) and reject (x) tool. i only colour grade when i finished my edits. I have great difficulty choosing my favourites and end up keeping all the photos despite them being rejects! I think i may try your system as it looks great! I loved your final image. that was my favourite too!

[@user-bq2mm6pc9e]

Love the process Will. I have used colors for other purposes but will try this as I am in the middle of editing my trip with you! Glad to see you are getting into the videos. Looking forward to the next one.

[@sarelalberts8890]

Baie leersaam .Dankie

[@markusbolliger1527]

My method is somewhat different - and more efficient I would claim. First I make a rough selection of images I like in some way or another: Motif, light, composition etc. - without looking at their technical qualities. In a second step I delete from this first selection all technically flawed photographs - even if they have aesthetic qualities. The result is a selection of images which are in one way or another interesting or just pleasing for the eye, and technically okay as well. Now begins the rating of these remaining photographs by allocating stars: Three, four or even five. The small selection of five-star-images then are the ones I will work on first, and after post processing will get the green colour. Same procedure with the four-star-photographs. The advantage of this method: I do not loose time with picking out all those many technically imperfect images. I concentrate directly to the small fraction of pictures what are aesthetically or by their motif or content interesting or pleasing.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Thanks for sharing your method Markus, there are definitely so many ways to do this!

[@nature_guy]

Great video!

[@guyjackson4143]

I can only assume it's from my history of using film cameras for the first 20 years of my photography hobby but, I cannot find any reason to take the high number exposures that new mirrorless cameras are capable of. It reminded me of a adage used in shooting that shooters "spray and pray" they hit their target. Photography is the same thing, I much perferr to use timing and my knowledge of wildlife to get the shot I want without burning though hundreds or even thousands of images. If you fire off enough shots your bound to get a decent one eventually. The same as if a monkey plays with a typewriter long enough he's bound to write a novel!

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hi Guy, I think there is certainly a balance. I personally have turned off my electronic shutter on my R6 Mark 2 as 40 FPS is just way too much for me. That being said there are times with birds taking off from a perch where it is very useful. On the topic of film cameras, for the last few years I have been carrying a film camera out with me. I have been using it as a way of thinking more about a shot and being selective about when to take it. It certainly is a very different process.

[@mikecardan]

Excellent video. Looking forward for the next video.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Thanks so much Mike

[@andresalgadomarques]

Very useful video! Going through 1TB of pictures taken in Cape Town, Kruger, Botswana (with Pangolin Photo Safaris!), Victoria Falls and Rovos Rail, and, yes, it may take a lot of time picking up the best images! Personally, I would pick green as my colour for my best pictures 💚

[@gavinduffy9581]

Great practical method William, Thanks for sharing, Gavin

[@sadmanonatraintoo9781]

Defiantly agree on image choice, and thank you for share your workflow, gives me good guidance when going through my images

[@williamsteelphotography]

I'm glad it helped, thanks so much for watching!

[@Jonathantuba]

Interesting! Having earlier this year come back from safari with 25,000 images, I well know the problem, but am not disciplined enough to be as methodical as you. For me there were a handful of images that really stood out while taking and those I could not delay editing immediately after game drive while on safari. Then I went through the whole lot after return home, but in my case doing your first steps all in one getting me down to less than 10% of the original to edit. I am still doing that two months later. Then I plan once edited, to make my top choice for my folio.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hi Jonathan, I can't lie I also end up getting to excited to edit and share some images. It's a case of "do as I say not as I do" haha! I hope you find some time to get through the 25000!

[@vanessaquinn177]

Hi thank you for the tutorial. I also loved the photo with the two lions standing with the sunlight on them.

[@brentthibault3467]

I would have only been able to reduce it to 3 images: at 5:55 the pair standing and looking directly at you, the pair crouched by the water looking at you and the 3 drinking with 2 of 3 looking (although this would have been the first to go if I had to reduce it to 2)

[@SBinVancouver]

I've been using colours only for tagging by purpose, for example images that might be candidates for my (hobby) website. Interesting (or maybe just academic) to note: keys 1 through 5 assign a star rating, 6-9 a colour (red/yellow/green/blue; not sure if there are shortcuts for the other colours). There is an obscure option to pick your "keepers" then reject all others (Library/Refine all photos). I've used this when the ratio of wheat to chaff is low (lots of bad shots) but it is a blunt instrument, and can result in tossing more images than you had planned. To do this, "P"ick (you mentioned "Z", this zooms for me) the images you want to keep, then Ctrl/Cmd-Alt-R, which rejects all un-picked photos and removes the pick frag from the remains. Ctrl/cmd+backspace to remove or delete the rejects. Thanks for the video.

[@dominikzimbuli]

Nice Video Wil. I am still working my way through the images from last Year 😅 When going through and pick or reject, I found that pressing the shift key and P or X at the same time will set the flag and switch automatcally to the next image. Helped me to speed up my process. Thanks for the great video and was nice "seeing" You again. Cheers from Switzerland Dominik

[@boatman222345]

Easily the best video I have ever watched on rating images! Plus the images themselves were superb. I can't tell you how many times while watching many instructional videos I find myself unimpressed with the basic image quality…nice to encounter a "how to" video with images worth editing.

[@Mike-126]

That was my favorite image too. Great info.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Thanks Mike! Glad you liked the image!

[@RVNmedic]

Very helpful. Thank you. One question. When I culled all rejected photos I only got the option to remove from collection. Not from the disk. what did I do wrong?

[@simonvail458]

And yes you chose the strongest image! Though the three lioness with one head looking at the camera was close in my opinion.

[@williamsteelphotography]

It is so subjective, and that's what makes it an artform! Great to hear your view on it!

[@FlyFishFairwx]

excellent and yes the best image was picked .. Thank you..

[@williamsteelphotography]

Thanks lot Raymond

[@ulrichtutsch5484]

Thanks for sharing your way to cull yor photo takes to one outstanding image incorporating "Wild Africa". AWESOME!!!

[@williamsteelphotography]

Thank you so much for the kind words Ulrich, glad you enjoyed it!

[@esjovold6572]

Great video. This is something I struggle with. I tend to keep too many. I do use a similar system, I skip the colour grading. After the culling out of focus images I pick my favourites with one star then go through again and 2 star those. From those I pick the ones I want to edit.

[@psgviews]

I like your process, similar to what I do but more disciplined. I'm sure it's a real timesaver as I find myself editing images too early in the culling process. Thanks. And yes, that image was my pick too!

[@williamsteelphotography]

Glad you would have picked that image to Lynn! If I'm 100% honest... I also get too excited to edit images that sometimes I skip to the good ones 😂

[@acardena13]

Great video! This more refined and easier to use than my current workflow and will make going through my next group of 3-4,000 photos quicker to go through.

[@williamsteelphotography]

I am glad it was informative, I hope it helps!

[@mondujar279]

I like the process and what a fabulous end image. Love the eye contact. Look forward to your next videos

[@garydowzall6592]

Thanks for informative video. The advice I had from another photographer was to pick the 20% you like in first cull rather than simply reject the 20% that are out of focus or blurred. For this I use FastRawViewer and only copy the ones I'm interested in from a large card. This has allowed me to stop worrying about using a high speed burst mode as I will only pick 1 or two from a burst I like. For important trips like one to Pangolin I make backup of card other trips I just let card fill up so I have temporary store without clogging Computer. There is another possible step you don't mention. AI noise reduction for higher iso images. When in your processing sequence do you use AI noise reduction?

[@simonvail458]

Thanks for the video. I have the same Need to make selects from theatre shoots. I know that photomechanic often comes up as a way of going through hundreds of images very quickly. Have you used it?

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hi Simon, photomechanic is a great way to sort through images quickly, but I personally prefer having just one program to do everything.

[@simonvail458]

@@williamsteelphotography Hello William, one other thought... have you started looking at programs like 'Imagen AI' which claim to use AI to go through hundreds of your images, find out of focus images automatically, and then edit as you would edit... automatically, but for a monthly subscription. Thanks Simon V

[@lesliegeffen734]

Really wanted to learn from this video but sound quality was so bad, I turned it off after a minute or two. Any chance you could re-record and re-post it? Such important info to miss out on!

[@philmuir6799]

Great process and a simple way to edit large amount of similar photos. Clear and easy presentation to follow. My colour selection is the reverse of your, but if it works no need to change, as long as you stick to the process. Superb final image, although I would be able to narrow it down to one!!!. Can't wait to hear your next one on LR editing.

[@PangolinWildlife]

You're very welcome!

[@JGZphotography]

When culling through many more photos, as I do as a sport photographer, Photo Mechanic is the King of Culling photos. I can shoot over 6,000 images in a major soccer game, which I can later quickly cull, crop selected images, and enter captions with player names using the Code Replacement app, then batch export to Adobe Camera RAW (the same as LT Developing too) for general editing Then export out as JPGs ready for media severs or for personal sales in my gallery. Downside of LR/ ACR is that the app cannot filter out the "locked" images set from the camera from the unlocked. This is time-consuming at best. Photo Mechanic is not just for sports as I use it for other events, including wildlife.

[@shotsbyscott6243]

Thanks for sharing your process. I agree with the steps however for the first two culling processes I use other programs than importing 1000's of photos into LR. I photograph birds in flight so could have 1000's of photos in a few hours. It takes too long to import into LR and there are more effiicient programs to perform the initial culling phases. Thanks again!

[@stevenheapy9331]

Hi interested to know what other programs you use to cull 1000s photos

[@shotsbyscott6243]

@@stevenheapy9331 Fast Raw Viewer for the first culling pass, then Nikon NX Studio for the 2nd culling pass. I really like NX Studio however it is very slow when folders may contain 1000's of photos. Also crashes quite a bit the way I use it. I contacted Nikon several times to report and got unsatisfactory responses from them. It is free so perhaps they don't have or want to spend the resources to improve.

[@Jma273]

Awesome image William. It took weeks to cull our images from our recent trip. Shame we didn’t have this video sooner 😂

[@chrismartin7594]

I picked the same one. Wonderful photos. Your sound had a bit of an echo .

[@debbielucas5178]

I'm curious - did you delete all of the 5 star images and just keep the 1? Yes, I think you chose the best image. I have a terrible time culling images; your video is helpful. Thank you.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hi Debbie, glad you enjoyed the video! I kept all the star rated images as well as the red and yellow rated images. Although the others werent the "best" I may relook at them in the future.

[@denisejanisch5112]

I spotted the same one as you early on and thought it was very strong. I don't have Lightroom - only Camera Raw and Photoshop. Am I right in saying there isn't a way to export all one's photos or colour code or star them in Photoshop? Thanks

[@littleman787]

Thanks Will, great topic and video but couldn't really hear you at all. I guess it was recorded with your laptop mic? The audio in the intro was much better and the target output

[@GB-AK]

I use the star ratings instead of colors.

[@wellingtoncrescent2480]

Sensible and helpful, and a good final choice. But I often need more editing to decide on my final rating. Perhaps I lack imagination :)

[@williamsteelphotography]

Haha I certainly think there is no harm in more editing! Thank you

[@Andy_Thomas]

Are there keyboard shortcuts for the colour labels/ratings. Switching from keyboard to mouse while scrolling through lots of photos could be inefficient.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hi Andy, for star ratings you can use 1,2,3,4,5 on your keyboard and for colour rating 6 for red, 7 for yellow, 8 for green, and so on. Hope that helps

[@essdee2397]

2:10 Pressing Z toggles 1:1 zoom, not Picks an image. Unless you’ve altered your standard shortcuts. The default key to pick an image is P.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hi Ess, my apologies you are absolutely right!

[@captinktm]

Sorry boss this is not anything like the rest of us. well at least me. Most, if not all my images have to be cropped so seeing if they are sharp means zooming in and out which takes the time. Static subjects which fill the frame are easy. Show how you sort through 500 images of BIF taken at a normal WILD animal distance. I even tried aftershoot and that won't sort BIF or any sort of images that need cropping. I would say that when taking images like your's in perfect controlled conditions you know instantly when you have "the shot" Thanks for posting.

[@timclark9051]

This is very helpful but your audio drooped off once you started the editing process, seems like it was microphone placement

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hi Tim, thank you for your comment. Apologies for there audio, there was a mix up with the video uploaded, I hope the next one will make up for it!

[@grantosborne3062]

Why oh why don't you activate the caps lock during this excellent culling process. It's so much faster and easier. It activates auto advance and saves using the arrow key with your other hand.

[@timothycorsi]

Good subject, poor audio.

[@williamsteelphotography]

Apologies Timothy there was a slight mixup with the video that was uploaded! We promise the next one will be better. Thanks for watching!

[@deep-fat]

Tord, I'd re-voice over where you jump to lightroom, as it is distracting. However your content is gold so please, please make the effort. I have been bitten by dodgy sound and it's a real blocker to getting viewers to watch your stuff

[@macwestcanon]

Great video. I would of liked it better with all the beautiful Women at Pangolin doing video . LOL

[@williamsteelphotography]

Haha!

[@sodawaterbottle]

Hi, sound quality is not good...hence can't really enjoy

[@markturriff994]

The sounds on this video is shocking

[@williamsteelphotography]

Hi Mark, apologies for the audio there was a mix up with which video should have been posted, I hope that the content was still useful?

[@markturriff994]

@@williamsteelphotography It was so hard to hear I switched off I’m afraid

[@boulx]

wtf colors...

[@MrOzphoto]

Audio is bad

[@williamsteelphotography]

Apologies Mark, there was a mix up with which video was uploaded. I hope it didn't detract too much from the content