# Best workflow for rating and rejecting photos in Lightroom cloud



## alec.dann-verizon (Jan 30, 2020)

I'm working with a student who wants to use his iPad to store and cull his photos using Lightroom (the cloud version) while traveling.

The issue I'm having is setting up a good post-import workflow to review, reject and rate photos.  In the desktop version of Lightroom cloud, the flags (pick./reject) and star ratings are visible in a tool bar at the bottom of the image screen.  Not so in the iPad version.  On top of that, there doesn't see to be any reject/.star rating capability outside of the individual image display.  So no quick pass to reject bad shots in Grid view like I would do in LR Classic.

I'm hoping someone on this forum can direct me to the right way to approach this.

Sadly, the Adobe help material for the cloud version is well-buried (not found or out of date) and the in-app tutorials don't cover anything other than image adjustments.


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## Paul McFarlane (Jan 31, 2020)

It isn't as easy as Classic for this, for sure!

With the initial Reject process, I tend to use Select on my iPad and simply select ones that I wish to reject, then add them to a 'reject' album. I can then go to that specific Album, select them all and hit trash. I appreciate that's only a small part of the question though! Personally my next step is to run through individually adding star ratings, etc (and odd edits on the fly)


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## alec.dann-verizon (Jan 31, 2020)

Paul McFarlane said:


> It isn't as easy as Classic for this, for sure!
> 
> With the initial Reject process, I tend to use Select on my iPad and simply select ones that I wish to reject, then add them to a 'reject' album. I can then go to that specific Album, select them all and hit trash. I appreciate that's only a small part of the question though! Personally my next step is to run through individually adding star ratings, etc (and odd edits on the fly)


Thanks!  Very helpful.

It's a surprise to me, given Adobe marketing's clear emphasis of the LR cloud version, that the UI team didn't invest more care into the interface and streamlining the primary workflows.   As evidence of this, I notice that the desktop version of Lightroom (cloud) displays a toolbar where flags and ratings are visible but the phone and tablet versions don't.  Tablet and phone users should at least have the option to display the toolbar.  Trying to teach others how to use it, I find myself constantly apologizing that it's not more intuitive.  [end rant]

Again, thanks for your help.


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## clee01l (Jan 31, 2020)

alec.dann-verizon said:


> It's a surprise to me, given Adobe marketing's clear emphasis of the LR cloud version, that the UI team didn't invest more care into the interface and streamlining the primary workflows.


I think part of this stems from the need to create a UI for Lightroom (cloudy) that is common to all platforms.  It matters little whether you work an image on you PC/Mac Android Phone or Apple iPadPro the interfaces is essentially identical.   There are constraints to the UI imposed by these mobile operating systems that are not present in Windows or MacOS.   You can see the same divergence if you look at other apps ported from Windows?Mac to a mobile platform.  MSWord or Excel do not have the features found on their Windows cousins.


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## alec.dann-verizon (Jan 31, 2020)

clee01l said:


> I think part of this stems from the need to create a UI for Lightroom (cloudy) that is common to all platforms.  It matters little whether you work an image on you PC/Mac Android Phone or Apple iPadPro the interfaces is essentially identical.   There are constraints to the UI imposed by these mobile operating systems that are not present in Windows or MacOS.   You can see the same divergence if you look at other apps ported from Windows?Mac to a mobile platform.  MSWord or Excel do not have the features found on their Windows cousins.


Thanks, Cletus.  I've taken part in app design projects and agree that there are significant differences between platforms.  I still think the usability could be a lot better.


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## mikebore (Feb 3, 2020)

I use the method in this article:

https://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/lightroom-shortcuts-ipad-mobile/
*"Swipe to rate and review (iPad only)*
On the iPad, enter the “rate and review” mode by tapping the star icon. From here, swipe up or down on the left side of the photo to increase or decrease the rating, or on the right side of the photo to add or a remove a flag. Swiping side-to-side still scrolls to the next or previous image in the catalog."

In the 'Rate and Review' screenshot below, the flag panel appears with lightest swipe up or down the screen.  When you have finished rating or culling you can select all the ones for deletion with the filter tool and delete them all together.

When I was working I used to use Classic to cull 2000 pics from an event....this is much faster IMO.

I have found it very difficult to find this documented anywhere.


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## mikebore (Feb 3, 2020)

mikebore said:


> I have found it very difficult to find this documented anywhere.



Found it here in the 'Flag and rate photos' section:
https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/lightroom-cc/using/search-organize-mobile-ios.html


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## alec.dann-verizon (Feb 4, 2020)

Mike, thanks for your very helpful reply.

What I've been able to gleen from your links and testing:

Unlike Lightroom Classic Library, the actions you can take with a photo are limited depending which view you are in.
Grid View
•    Add to an album
•    Copy to the clipboard (to paste into an email or message).
•    Paste to a file (phone or tablet storage)
Loupe View (individual photo)
•    Rate a photo
•    Flag a photo (Pick/Reject)
•    Delete a photo (takes a couple of steps)

To delete Rejected photos, set the Filter (funnel icon in top menu of grid to Rejected).  Turn on Select: 3-dot icon [.. ]  ->Select.  Tap all Rejected photos and then tap Delete in the bottom menu.

In my iPad, I'm able to Segment by Flags or Ratings but in my student's iPad only date/time segmentation is available.  I haven't been able to work out what triggers the additional segmentation options yet.  Will post that as a separate topic.

Again, thanks to you (and Paul) for your help.


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