Using Pick and Reject Flags in Lightroom
The Pick and Reject flags in Lightroom can be a powerful tool for quickly sorting through batches of photos. This article will describe the way these flags work (and don’t work) and includes a video on how I use the flags to quickly edit a shoot.
Some Important Notes
- An image can have either a Pick Flag, a Reject Flag, or no flag. It cannot have multiple flags.
- Pick and Reject flags don’t carry over from one folder view or collection to the next. In other words, if an image exists in more than one Collection and you’ve flagged it in Collection A, it won’t automatically be flagged in Collection B.
- Pick and Reject flags don’t go along with images when they’re viewed outside of Lightroom. If you view an image in Bridge, it won’t have a Pick or Reject flag, even if it is flagged in Lightroom.
- In the Loupe View and Develop Module, you can set a Pick or Reject flag from the Tool Bar below the image.
- Choose View -> View Options from the Menu to get the Library View Option dialog box. Under the Grid View tab, you can check the Flags checkbox under the Cell Icons section to see Pick and/or Reject flags in the upper-right corner of Grid View thumbnail images.
Tool Bar
Keyboard Shortcuts
- P – Flag an image as “Picked”
- X – Flag an image as “Rejected”
- U – Remove any flags from an image
A Pick and Reject Flag Workflow
Like anything else in life, there are a number of very different, very valid ways to use Pick and Reject Flags in Lightroom. Here’s a brief walk-through of how I use them to edit down images from a shoot.
In this example, I’m importing a memory card’s worth of images (99) and quickly editing those down to the keepers.
First, I’ve created a Custom Library Filter to automatically hide any rejected images from my view. It makes more sense in the video below, but hiding those rejects helps me quickly identify the best image in a series. Follow these steps to create your Custom Library Filter:
- Tap G to make sure you’re in the Grid View of the Library Module.
- Tap the backslash key (\) to view the Library Filter bar above your photos.
- Click on Attribute to view the Attribute Filter Options.
- Click on the first (Flagged) and second (Unflagged) flag icons. This will filter your view to show only images with a Pick Flag or no flag. In other words, hide your images with a Reject flag.
- Click on the Custom Filter link on the right-hand side of the Library Filter Bar and select Save Current Settings as New Preset.
- Name your preset and click Create. I’ve named mine “Hide Rejects.”
- Now your new preset is available from the Custom Filter menu in the Library Filter bar.
Library Filter Bar
Attribute Filter
Click on the Flagged and Unflagged Icons
Choose Save Current Settings as New Preset
Name your preset and click Create.
Your new Custom Filter Preset
One other tweak that I find useful is Auto Advance. When enabled, Auto Advance automatically moves to the next image once you’ve applied a Flag, Label, or Rating to an image. To turn this feature on, make sure it’s checked in the Photo -> Auto Advance menu.
Photo - Auto Advance
Once you’ve created that Custom Library Filter (you only have to do it once), you can continue on with these steps:
- Import your images. I like to let the Standard-sized previews build so I can go through and edit more quickly.
- Bigger is better, so tap the F key twice to get to full screen mode.
- Tap E to get to Loupe View.
- Tap Shift+Tab to hide the top, bottom, and side panels.
- Tap T to hide the Tool Bar at the bottom of the screen. This gives us the largest image size available for judging the quality of an image.
- Now, use your right arrow key to navigate through your images. In a shoot like this, I have more rejects than I do keepers, so I’ll go through and apply a Pick Flag (using the P key) to any image that deserves a second chance. Every image that I don’t flag will get deleted.
- Choose Library -> Refine Photos from the menu.
- This will cause the unmarked photos in this folder or collection to be marked as rejects then change the Pick Flagged photos to Unflagged. A dialog box warning us of this will appear. I click Don’t show again then Refine.
- Tap the G key to see all of your remaining (not-soon-to-be-deleted) photos.
- If you want to get one last look at your rejected photos, change the options on the Library Filter Bar or choose Library -> Filter by Flag -> Rejected Photos Only from the menu.
- Go back through and take a look, if you’d like. When you’re convinced that they’re ready for the trash, tap Cmd/Ctrl-Delete and choose Delete from Disk.
- Go back and choose your Hide Rejects Custom Library Filter again.
- Tap E to get back into Loupe View so we can further refine our images.
- Now, I’ll flip through my images and tap the X key to reject those that need to go. The advantage of this technique is that I can easily compare similar images and choose the best. As soon as I reject a photo, it disappears from my view, helping me narrow things down. You can see more of this in the video at the bottom of the post.
- Once I’ve finished my rejecting, I’ll hit Cmd/Ctrl-Delete again to delete those rejected photos.
Full Screen Mode
Loupe View
Tap Shift+Tab to hide the Panels
Tap T to hide the Tool Bar
Tap P to Flag as a Pick
Choose Library - Refine Photos
Unflagged Photos
Choose Library - Filter by Flag - Rejected Photos Only
Rejected Photos
Delete from Disk
Important: Make sure you practice with the Refine Photos command before you go to town on your precious photos. It will mark any unflagged images as Rejects that are in the current view. In other words, if you’re viewing “All Photographs” and choose Refine Photos, you may end up inadvertently rejecting lots of photos. In my workflow, I’m working one folder at a time, or with the “Previous Import” only.”
Also, if you’re working within a collection rather than a folder, the Cmd/Ctrl-Delete shortcut won’t allow you to actually delete images…only remove them from the collection. Not so useful in this specific instance.
Workflow Video
This video demonstrates how I use Pick and Reject Flags in Lightroom when editing images from a shoot. Your results may vary.
Using Pick and Reject Flags in Lightroom from Scott Rouse on Vimeo.
In case you’re curious, the photos used in this tutorial are of a cute little mammal called a fisher (Martes pennanti). I took these photos at the Triple D Game Farm in Kalispell, MT. Want some really cool animal photos for your portfolio? Keep an eye on the Workshops section for some upcoming wildlife workshops.
Do you use the Pick and Reject flags differently? Let us know in the comments.
Filed Under: Organizing • Tutorials
About the Author: Scott Rouse is an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE), photographer, teacher, and graphic- and web-designer in Missoula, MT. His photography focuses on wildlife and adventure sports and can be viewed at 
Auto Advance. That feature exists? Damn… hello, helpful to my workflow.
I use the pick flag in my culling of big photo shoots, along with the numbers and the colors. Kind of depends on the number of photos and how I’m feeling that day. Thanks for sharing!
Wow, that sounds like a lot of steps. I guess I make use of X and P in a slightly different way.
After import from device, in loupe mode, I just set the filter to unflagged photos only, X and P my way through the 1:1 previews (with full screen photo on second monitor), and because of the unflagged only, it auto advances automatically.
One other keyboard shortcut worth knowing: in Lightroom 2, we changed the “tilde” key (in the top-left corner of US keyboards) to toggle the pick flag on or off.
The benefit of this is that this key is easier to reach than the P and U keys in the middle of the keyboard, and it can go both ways. When refining photos from a shoot, you can quickly use it to toggle the flag on to make your picks, and then go through the picks (with a filter) and toggle the flag back off for the ones that you decide you don’t want to keep, all using the same key.
To mark something as a Reject, you still have to use the X key (X, for what it’s worth, was selected because rejecting a photo is similar to “crossing it out”). On QWERTY keyboards it also falls near the left side of the keyboard.
Thanks, everyone, for your input.
Troy, I missed the tilde (~) key shortcut. That is quite helpful. You Adobe engineers are smart folks. I don’t think I would have even remembered to take into account the position on the keyboard of shortcut keys.
the highjacking of the ~ key is so irritating, to me. LR1 used ~ to toggle loupe and grid. Now there is NO shortcut for that, so I have to use return and esc.
I’m still having trouble adjusting to the changed shortcut.
Terry, the “E” key will call up Loupe view and the “G” key, Grid view. I know it’s not one key, but they are a bit closer together than return and esc.
Or, if you’re in Grid view, you could tap the Space Bar to enter Loupe, Space Bar again to zoom in/out, and G to go back to Grid view.
Auto Advance – Just switch on Caps Lock.
Thanks for that, Frank. I didn’t know the Caps Lock trick. Very helpful.
I agree with Terry. I used the tilde (~) key all the time for popping into loupe view. What was nice is that pressing and holding would activate loupe, with the key release bringing you back to the grid. While a single press would switch to loupe or switch back.
(I just checked and the enter key does the same with the held press, but required 2 presses to return to grid.)
I would feel less slighted if this change was as an option.
Maybe we could see a keyboard shortcut customization option sometime soon?