Working in Choose

Choose helps you review a shoot through four phases, with keyboard controls for keeping, rejecting and rating photographs.

Press C to open Choose. Use , and . to move between phases. In Choose and Browse, ⌘← or ⌘↑ selects the first photograph in the current list; ⌘→ or ⌘↓ selects the last. These jumps follow the current filter, sort order and folded sets, and work even when nothing is selected. In text fields, Command-arrow keys retain their normal text-navigation behavior.

1. Sweep shows undecided photographs. Press \ to keep, X or ⌫ to reject, and ] to clear a verdict. A judged photograph leaves the phase, so the next one is under your hand, and it flies to the phase now holding it. A rating given here moves on to the next photograph. This also applies when rating the single selected photograph through the info panel. Rating one photo in a multi-photo comparison preserves the comparison’s selection.
2. Rate shows kept, unrated photographs. Press 1–5 to rate or 0 to clear a rating. A rated photograph leaves the phase, so the next one is under your hand.
3. Inspect shows kept photographs at or above the selected rating threshold. Set it from 1 to 5 in the Inspect segment; the default is 3.
4. Cleanup shows rejected photographs. Press \ to keep one, or use the delete button at the bottom of the rail to remove rejects after confirmation.

Sets. A set draws as a strip while two or more of its members are still in the phase. Judging a member takes it out, so the strip shrinks as you work through it, and a set down to one member in view draws as a single photograph. Every phase shows only the photographs matching its filter, so Cleanup never includes kept members beside rejected ones.

How far you have got. An inset line inside the active phase’s segment shows how much of that pile has gone. It stays within that segment even at 100%. Counts reserve space for transfers between piles, so crossing a digit boundary does not shift the control during a pass. A larger collection or import can increase that reserved space. Counts pulse when they change. Progress switches to the new pile when you change phases. Reduce Motion suppresses the pulses, photo flights and progress animation. Rapid verdicts start the next photo flight immediately while the previous photo briefly fades from its current position. Once you have judged enough for the pace to mean anything, the status bar says roughly how long the rest of the phase will take.

Views. Use ⌘1 for Grid, ⌘2 for Loupe or ⌘3 for up to six photographs in Compare. Switching views preserves the selection. A selected photograph hidden by one phase can reappear when another phase includes it. Browse and Choose remember their views separately.

Pausing on a photograph in Loupe can fetch its original. Moving quickly past it does not. Compare’s download controls are described in its topic.

Shortcuts. Rating and verdict shortcuts work in every phase, even when their buttons are absent from the rail. For example, 3 rates in Sweep and \ keeps in Cleanup.

Deletion. No key deletes a photograph. ⌫ rejects without changing the file. Only Cleanup’s delete button removes photographs, after confirmation.

See The rail, Grid, Loupe, Looking closely, Compare, Deleting, in Cleanup only.