Frame Ledger / select

Use Ratings with a Written Meaning

Give stars a stable job before applying them to a collection.

The decision

Ratings are only useful if the meaning survives the day they were assigned. A five-star scale without a written rule invites you to judge every photograph against a changing standard.

A practical sequence

Choose a small rating vocabulary for this project. One possible rule is one star for review, two for a viable candidate, and three for the current output set. Leave higher levels unused unless they have a defined purpose. Try the rule on ten varied images. Filter each level and check whether the group actually matches its meaning. Revise the vocabulary before rating the rest of the shoot.

Worked example

For a family album, a technically imperfect photograph of a meaningful interaction might belong in the output set while a sharper empty room stays a candidate. Under a purpose-based rule, that is consistent rather than a contradiction. Write that emotional relevance matters for this album; a portfolio selection may use a different rule and should have a separate note.

What can go wrong

Avoid mixing workflow state with quality judgment. If three stars means both “edited” and “favorite,” filtering cannot reliably tell you what remains to be done. Use a separate label or collection for editing status. Check your application documentation before assuming ratings travel with exported files.

Your completion record

Save a one-sentence legend with the project. Review a handful of ratings after a break. If you cannot explain the group membership from the legend, simplify the scale rather than adding more stars.

Before continuing, check the record against the actual files rather than relying on memory. Keep uncertain decisions labeled as uncertain. The next useful step is the specific task named in your completion record, not a fresh pass through the entire archive.