How to Organize Photos with Star Ratings and Color Labels in SnapCuller

In a previous tutorial, we covered how to use flag keys for a fast binary cull: keep or reject. Flags are perfect for the initial pass, but once you have a pile of Picked photos, you need a way to differentiate between "good enough for the client gallery" and "portfolio-worthy hero shot."

That is where star ratings and color labels come in. These two systems work together to give you fine-grained control over both the quality and the status of every photo in your shoot.

This tutorial covers everything from keyboard shortcuts to real-world workflows, including how to combine ratings, labels, and filters to manage even the largest shoots with confidence.

Star ratings use a 1-to-5 scale. Each level represents a tier of quality. Unlike flags, which force a binary decision, ratings let you express degrees of preference across your entire set.

The keyboard shortcuts

Every rating level is mapped to a keyboard shortcut using the Alt key (or Option on Mac) combined with a number:

When you assign a star rating, a badge with filled stars appears on the photo's thumbnail in both Single View and Grid View. The badge is always visible so you can scan your selections at a glance.

A suggested tier system

There is no universal standard for what each star level should mean. The key is to establish a consistent system and stick to it across all your projects. Here is a tier system used by many professional photographers:

You do not have to use all five levels. Some photographers prefer a simpler three-tier system: 3 stars for client delivery, 4 stars for highlights, and 5 stars for portfolio. Choose the granularity that matches your needs.

Color labels serve a different purpose than star ratings. While stars measure quality, colors track status. A photo can be simultaneously rated 5 stars (exceptional quality) and labeled Red (needs retouching). The two systems are completely independent and designed to be used together.

The five colors and their shortcuts

SnapCuller supports five color labels. Each one is assigned to a keyboard shortcut using Alt (or Option on Mac) combined with a number key:

To remove a color label, press Alt + Backspace. The label badge disappears and the photo returns to an unlabeled state.

Color label badges appear on the photo thumbnail as a small colored dot with a text label. They are visible in both Single View (next to the flag and rating badges) and in Grid View, where they provide instant visual scanning across hundreds of thumbnails.

1. Start with flags (the rough cut)

Before applying any ratings or labels, complete your initial cull using flag keys. Press P to pick, X to reject, and U to unflag. This binary pass removes technical failures and leaves you with a clean set of keepers. If you need a refresher, see the flag key tutorial.

2. Filter to Picked photos only

Open the filter panel in the sidebar or the Grid Header. Under the Flags section, select Picked. This hides all rejected and unflagged photos, leaving only your approved selections visible. Now you are working exclusively with photos that have already passed the quality bar.

3. Rating pass: tier your keepers

Navigate through your Picked photos in Single View. For each image, assign a star rating based on its quality and intended use:

• 3 Stars (Alt + 3): Good enough for the standard client gallery.
• 4 Stars (Alt + 4): Exceptional composition, lighting, or moment. Worth featuring on your blog or social media.
• 5 Stars (Alt + 5): The absolute best. Portfolio-grade hero shots you would put on a wall print or a competition entry.

Skip photos that you consider average — they will remain unrated and default to the standard delivery tier. You can always go back and refine ratings later.

4. Label pass: assign statuses

Now that your photos are tiered by quality, make a third pass to assign color labels based on their current status. This pass is especially valuable for collaborative workflows where multiple people are involved:

• Red (Alt + 6): "This needs retouching before delivery."
• Yellow (Alt + 7): "Waiting for client approval."
• Green (Alt + 8): "Done. Ready for export."
• Blue (Alt + 9): "Earmarked for creative treatment."

As you progress through editing, update the labels. A photo that was Red (needs retouching) can be changed to Green (ready for delivery) once the retouching work is complete.

5. Filter, review, and export

Switch to Grid View by pressing G. Open the filter panel and combine rating and label filters to isolate exactly what you need:

• Filter by 4+ Stars + Green label: to see only your exceptional, delivery-ready images.
• Filter by Red label: to see your retouching queue.
• Filter by Yellow label: to see everything waiting on client feedback.
• Filter by 5 Stars only: to isolate your portfolio-tier images for a final hero pass.

Once you have the right photos filtered, select all (Ctrl+A / Cmd+A) and press the export button (Ctrl+Shift+E / Cmd+Shift+E) to copy or move them to your destination folder.

Wedding photography

Weddings generate thousands of images across multiple scenes. Here is how a professional might combine all three systems:

• Pass 1 — Flags: Reject blurry, overexposed, or duplicate photos. Pick everything usable.
• Pass 2 — Ratings: Rate picked photos from 3 to 5 stars based on emotional impact, sharpness, and storytelling.
• Pass 3 — Labels by scene: Red for Preparation, Yellow for Ceremony, Green for Reception, Blue for Portraits, Purple for Detail Shots.
• Export: Filter to "4+ stars + Green label" to export the best reception images for the client's sneak peek.

Product photography

Product shoots have a clear status pipeline. Color labels map naturally to the production stages:

• Red: Needs background removal or composite work.
• Yellow: Sent for internal review.
• Green: Approved and ready for the website.
• Blue: Hero angle for marketing materials.
• Ratings: 3 stars for web catalog, 4 stars for social media, 5 stars for hero banner placement.

Event photography

When covering a multi-day conference or corporate event, use colors to separate sessions and ratings to tier quality:

• Labels: One color per keynote speaker, panel, or breakout session.
• Ratings: 3 stars for standard event coverage, 5 stars for the hero moments that will appear in the event recap.
• Filter: After the event, filter by color to quickly deliver scene-specific galleries to each department.

Sometimes two or more photos from the same moment are so close in quality that assigning different ratings feels arbitrary. This is where Compare View becomes essential.

Press C to enter Compare View, which displays up to 4 images side by side with synchronized zoom. Pan and zoom into the eyes or the main subject to compare sharpness at 100%. Once you identify the sharpest frame, assign it a higher star rating and move on.

The real power of SnapCuller's rating and label system emerges when you combine multiple filters simultaneously. The filter panel in the sidebar supports multi-select for both ratings and labels:

• Multiple ratings: Click both 4★ and 5★ to show all exceptional images.
• Multiple labels: Click Red and Yellow to see all photos that still need work.
• Combine all: Filter for "Picked + 5★ + Green label" to isolate your absolute top-tier, delivery-ready hero shots.
• Add metadata: Layer EXIF filters on top — filter by camera body, lens, or ISO range to find the 12 frames shot at f/1.4 in a 4,000-photo wedding.

Every filter combination applies instantly. There is no waiting for a catalog to recalculate or indexes to rebuild. You can toggle filters on and off in real time and see the results immediately.

If you shoot RAW+JPG, star ratings unlock an additional power feature: Selective RAW Keeping. This allows SnapCuller to intelligently manage your disk space based on the quality of each photo.

Enable this in Settings and set a rating threshold (for example, 4 stars). When you export or move photos to a bucket:

• Photos at or above the threshold: Both RAW and JPG are kept.
• Photos below the threshold: Only the JPG is kept, saving significant disk space.

For a 2,000-photo wedding where only 200 photos are 4+ stars, this can save tens of gigabytes of storage. The JPG files are still available as proof images, but you are not burdened with RAW files for images that will never need deep post-processing.

Just like flags, star ratings and color labels are written to .xmp sidecar files using the industry-standard Adobe XMP format. These sidecar files live in the same folder as your photos, right next to the original files.

When you open the same folder in Lightroom, Capture One, Photo Mechanic, or any other application that reads XMP metadata, your star ratings and color labels will already be applied. No export step is needed — the data transfers seamlessly.

Compatibility: Adobe Lightroom, Capture One, Photo Mechanic, ACDSee, and most professional photo management tools all read the same XMP sidecar format. Ratings (xmp:Rating), labels (xmp:Label), and flags all appear automatically.

The complete SnapCuller workflow uses three complementary classification systems:

Each system serves a distinct purpose, and they all work together. Use flags for speed, ratings for quality, and labels for status. Combine them with SnapCuller's advanced filters to instantly isolate exactly the images you need — whether that is "unretouched ceremony photos rated 5 stars" or "all delivery-ready portraits."

Every rating and label is saved as XMP metadata, so your work transfers seamlessly to Lightroom, Capture One, or any other professional tool in your pipeline.