Lightroom: Ability to cull images through rating, color, picks during import

Hi Jeffrey!
I don't understand why my 'Sort by Star Rating during import' thread was merged with a thread that was started 7 years ago? I mean - if a thread was created to solve a problem / come up with a solution - why has it not been solved in 7 years? Also, now the thread is buried again... Do coders / head honchos ever look at these threads and go 'that is a good idea?' Or are we just wasting time trying to contribute here. 7 years is a long time!!!

Why conversations get merged:

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conversations/lightroom-classic/lightroom-auto-import-to-folders-organized-by-date/5f5f44f14b561a3d422ab0ba?commentId=5f5f48984b561a3d422bdf45 

In LrC, Simply when importing, uncheck the images you do not want to import! Then start the import!

@yves_crausaz ?? For a start, starred ratings do not appear in grid mode on the import page - so how would you know what to uncheck? Going through all the images in this view takes for ever. And 'simply' uncheck 1,960 images? That still means scrolling through hundreds of images and unchecking them... Easier said than done. 
 What would be easier is for Adobe to just add 'SORT BY > STARRED RATING'. That would be so easy to implement - no idea why they haven't done this. Photomechanic has done this ages ago...

Sounds like a reasonable request, and it surprises me that I cannot find a similar earlier request. Surely you can’t be the only one who would like this?

OTOH I wondered. I never use in-camera star rating myself, because I think it is very time consuming and cumbersome. You can only judge the images on a small LCD screen, so you need to zoom in on each image to check sharpness. You also do not have a compare view, making it extra difficult to decide if this image is really better than the previous one(s). I guess most photographers use the same workflow as I do: They don’t waste time rating images in-camera, but simply import them all and then rate them in Lightroom.

he unchek button at the foot of the window, then they check only discreet pictures.... So alone will be imported the checking!

It's been a while.... but I "think" Photomechanic can help with this.  It can import a large shoot MUCH quicker than LR.  At that point you filter based on star rating and just "open" those for editing in LR.  That means PhotoMechanic calls LR to just import only those images.  This saves a LOT of time in the sort of workflow that you describe.

I purchased PM a few years ago for that reason.  Up until this covid year, I do one shoot a year that involves shooting an insane number of images and need to process a very small number of selects quickly.  I'd rate images in camera and then use the workflow described above to get the selects into LR.  I too would LOVE it if star ratings showed during LR import.

Bob Smith

If you love it, then don’t forget to click on the green vote button on the left of the original message.

What's easy to forget while editing, is that every second counts. For example, you download 3000 images from an

8 hour shoot, and each RAW image takes 2.5 seconds to 'open / load' & check instead of 1 second. 3000+seconds = approx an extra hour - even more time for slower computers. Over a year, this equals an extra 10-20 days work! (and yes I have a very fast imac)
The thing is clicking through images on the back of the camera = instantaneous /less than 1 second. There is no 'load time'. Lately I have attached my Canon R5 to a huge TV screen with HDMI cable and rate them this way. I can save 1-2 hours per shoot. It's unfortunate that I have to bother, but it's also nice to see the work on a 1 meter screen.
Shooting with the new Canon R5, the ingesting / importing process is even more time consuming / uses more disc space - especially if you are shooting RAW or even CRAW. The other thing is you now have the option to shoot at even higher drive modes (3/6/12/20 frames per sec) so you end up shooting more at key moments.
Only recently, I have  started editing (star rating) after a 'set up'  - ie 1 second burst of 3-6 images = select 1. This also cuts down editing time later as you are spending time on location instead of extra time back in the office / studio selecting images. 
** The other option is to have in the 'loupe' view (in the Import page / dialog) - give us the ability to star images there. Then give us the option to import only starred images. It's not a big ask and it would save us DAYS OF WORK just waiting around for loads / deleting '0 star' images - not to mention tonnes of disc space etc.

I too would use the old / usual post shoot import system. Just make a coffee while waiting. But often have clients ask for 6-10 'hero' images for media straight after event / shoot. I used to import key shots onto my iphone using a lightening to USB adaptor to camera and just airdrop on the spot to clients phone. Pretty great and even faster than stuffing around with Canons wifi etc. Ultimately it would be best if we could 'airdrop' straight from camera image to iphone... (probably happen one day)
If you could just import say 5 starred images onto your laptop - you save important minutes of waiting around as it can take sometimes 15 minutes to ingest so many images - even with CFexpress.

Think I'm tempted to go the PhotoMechanic route. It is adding an extra step in the process though. A sports photographer buddy swears by it. Also good to support the 'little guys' as well. But really this should just be a feature in LR ha. No reason not to have it... 

The sad & super lame thing is that this old original thread is over 7 years old - therefore proving that this forum falls on deaf ears!!

The commonality among previous comments was about choosing which photos to import based on ratings, pick flags, and other criteria. Some wanted to apply ratings and pick flags in a pre-import window, while others wanted to use the ratings set in-camera. 

Also, I see that I added "why conversations get merged" to the wrong reply -- sorry about that.  Grouping related feature requests together is more likely to influence the product developers, since they use the number of likes and the variety of thoughtful comments to help prioritize development. 

This particular thread did appear to influence Adobe -- a main gripe was that import was way too slow for workflows dealing with hundreds and thousands of photos that were going to get quickly culled. So a later version of LR added the embedded-preview import option, which greatly speeds up import. But that doesn't completely satisfy all of the needs expressed here.

I've made several dozen feature requests over the years, some of which Adobe has implemented in some form (at least partially), most of which not, but I still submit them.  That's the nature of product development. I'm not thrilled about the pace of LR's evolution, but there's no competitor out there that better meets my needs.

If Adobe has someone that full time monitors their social media amongst their 20,000 workers - it wouldn't be much of an ask to forward the best ideas to the developers. I used to work for a large govt institution (a museum) on their social media and a lot of relevant interactions / ideas were  shared throughout the organisation fairly quickly.
While here we have something (sort by star on import) that is really a NEED - not a want. It would take a few days of coding on the back end?And it's something that would save photographers hours and days of time per year. Yet they haven't implemented the idea in 7+ years.
Feels like head butting a wall ha. 
I mean - we can't even export slide shows / videos at 4K even after 6 years of asking for it and that would be insanely easy to implement. 

Currently, three Adobe employees do regularly participate here: Senior Product Manager Jeff Tranberry, Quality Engineer Rikk Flohr, and Rick (sorry don't know his last name).

Also, all Adobe employees are on company-wide two-week holiday break.

this thread has been on a 7 year break ;)

"not all cameras use the same "standard" which makes it hard."

I've helped a number of people on these forums over the years with getting in-camera ratings being seen in LR (after import). I don't recall any cameras using other than the industry-standard XMP:Rating field. (But it's certainly possible some troglodyte manufacturers don't follow the standard.)