Star Ratings Up To 9

[Craig_S44]

Due to the nature of our work, I have a lot need to be able to tag images in different ways prior to renaming them.  Being able to rate up to 9 stars would be great. Perhaps once it got past 5 they would would display as *6, *7, etc as I know there would not be room to show 9 stars in the thumbnails where the current 1-5 stars display.   I know that this would not be supported in Lightroom or other programs that can read this info, but I would not need it to be seen else where, just in PM.

Cheers
Craig

[Kirk Baker]

Craig,

Due to the nature of our work, I have a lot need to be able to tag images in different ways prior to renaming them.  Being able to rate up to 9 stars would be great. Perhaps once it got past 5 they would would display as *6, *7, etc as I know there would not be room to show 9 stars in the thumbnails where the current 1-5 stars display.   I know that this would not be supported in Lightroom or other programs that can read this info, but I would not need it to be seen else where, just in PM.

The ratings are saved in the metadata such that they're compatible with other apps.  If we put out of range data in the rating field, it would cause problems and potentially data loss when using other apps and coming back to PM (the other app may force the out of range ratings into the 0-5 range and update the metadata.)

It may be better to use a different strategy like setting keywords, or using the serial number of the camera that shot the images to get your images grouped together.

-Kirk

[Hayo Baan]

It may be better to use a different strategy like setting keywords, or using the serial number of the camera that shot the images to get your images grouped together.

How about colour classes? Those are what I use to give special meaning to files.

[Craig_S44]

Hi Kirk,

The problem for us is, that with even a single camera we can have a situation where there are numerous different image groups.  We photograph high school graduations.  some bigger schools may have up to 26 home forms, then there are the special awards, subject awards, performances, speakers etc.  I use every method that I know of in PM to catagorise them and still need more!  But I understand and suspected what you have said may be an issue - so I guess I am just out of luck.  Thanks for the reply.

Craig

[Kirk Baker]

Craig,

The problem for us is, that with even a single camera we can have a situation where there are numerous different image groups.  We photograph high school graduations.  some bigger schools may have up to 26 home forms, then there are the special awards, subject awards, performances, speakers etc.  I use every method that I know of in PM to catagorise them and still need more!  But I understand and suspected what you have said may be an issue - so I guess I am just out of luck.  Thanks for the reply.

Let's think outside the box for a bit.  While we can't accommodate stretching existing categorization (ratings/color classes/tags), IPTC/XMP fields could be used to add more categories.  You could put a value in an unused field (Edit Status, Transmission Reference) that represents each group.  Then you could create a custom sort on the field that you used ({status}, {transref}) and your images will be grouped together.  As long as each value you use is unique for each group and the alphabetical sorting isn't ambiguous (if you use numbers, make sure they're zero-padded: 001, 002, 003, etc.) then this should work very well.

-Kirk