If you wish to be taught learn how to delete rejected pictures in Lightroom, it is best to learn this text. As we speak I’ll present you my easy workflow of how I clear up my picture catalog by deleting undesirable or rejected photographs.
The right way to Delete Rejected Pictures in Lightroom: Fast Reply
In case you are in a rush and do not need time to learn your complete article, listed below are two methods you may delete rejected pictures in Lightroom.
- Use the keyboard shortcut CMD + DELETE (Mac) or CTRL + BACKSPACE (Home windows).
- Use the highest menu: Picture > Delete Rejected Recordsdata.
The Foremost Problem of Digital Belongings Administration
Digital pictures presents us many unprecedented advantages, equivalent to immediate visualization and no extra price to take additional pictures. However on the identical time, it additionally comes with new challenges.
One of many greatest challenges we face is that the majority photographers (together with myself) are likely to overshoot or take extra digital photographs than crucial.
Overshooting results in the extra sophisticated and time-consuming challenge of digital asset administration (DAM).
Through the years, I realized that utilizing Lightroom is vital for sustaining my sanity. I simplified my digital asset administration workflow and unapologetically delete unneeded, undesirable, and unused photographs from my digital catalog.
Right here is the place picture removing turns into an important a part of my pictures.
The right way to Delete Pictures in Lightroom Basic
Lightroom is not any completely different than most DAM packages.
To delete a photograph, you first choose the image supposed for removing. Then, you hit the DELETE or BACKSPACE key on the keyboard.
What occurs subsequent is a step that’s distinctive to Lightroom catalog administration.


You’re introduced with a popup menu that includes two choices: DELETE FROM DISK or REMOVE.
REMOVE signifies that the picture shall be faraway from the Lightroom catalog, however it is going to be preserved on the pc’s laborious drive in its authentic location.
DELETE FROM DISK signifies that the picture shall be faraway from the Lightroom catalog and deleted from the laborious drive.
In the end, as an alternative of utilizing the DELETE or BACKSPACE keyboard shortcuts, you may right-click on the picture and choose the REMOVE possibility.
It’s a easy and simple course of for deleting undesirable photographs in Lightroom, however it has one vital shortcoming. It’s too time consuming when it’s worthwhile to course of 1000’s of photographs.
Right here is the place the Rejection Technique turns into extraordinarily helpful.
Rejecting As a substitute of Deleting
The important thing right here is to first mark the undesirable pictures as rejected after which delete the rejected pictures in a single sweep on the finish of the culling course of.
Use the “X” keyboard shortcut to mark the chosen photographs as REJECTED. The picture isn’t deleted from the catalog or the pc’s laborious drive; it’s merely greyed out with a black flag positioned within the high left nook.


Auto Advance
One other helpful possibility is to make use of the CTRL + X shortcut to auto advance to the subsequent picture after marking the chosen picture as rejected.
The even higher possibility is to use the Caps Lock key to activate the auto advance mode for each picture after utilizing the “X” keyboard shortcut.
Utilizing the Caps Lock and “X” shortcuts velocity up the culling course of and permit me to cull 1000’s of pictures in a matter of minutes.
My Culling Workflow
Culling means to pick out the keepers—the pictures with the potential to be printed—and delete any unneeded photographs. In some situations, the culling course of entails ranking the keepers by giving them between one and 5 stars.
My culling workflow is a three-step course of.
Step 1 – Rejecting
Within the Library Module of Lightroom, I hit the Caps Lock key to activate the auto-advance characteristic.
Subsequent, I am going by way of all my newly imported pictures in Lightroom and solely search for photographs to mark as REJECTED.
Probably the most obvious standards for rejecting pictures embody out of focus photographs, incorrect publicity, and unintentional captures. I additionally reject pictures with poor composition that can’t be salvaged by cropping.


leading to extreme vignetting in 5 captures.
If I can’t resolve in a single to 2 seconds if I ought to reject a picture or not, I depart it unmarked and transfer ahead in order that I don’t waste any extra time.
Step 2 – Selecting
On this step, I choose the keepers by utilizing the shortcut “P” to flag them as PICKED.
I don’t give my keepers a star ranking; I merely choose the pictures which have the potential to be printed. I’d apply the star ranking to a few of them sooner or later after I begin enhancing photographs.
Please notice that I proceed utilizing the Caps Lock perform for auto advancing.
By the tip of Step 2, I’ve separated my pictures into three classes: Keepers (picked or flagged), Unmarked, and Rejected.


Later, maybe in a couple of months or so, I’d undergo the identical course of utilizing the unmarked photographs to search out extra keepers or extra pictures to reject.
Step 3 – Deleting Rejected Pictures
Lastly, I’m able to delete all of the rejected pictures.
I take advantage of certainly one of two strategies:
- Use the keyboard shortcut CMD + DELETE (Mac) or CTRL + BACKSPACE (Home windows).
- Use the highest menu: Picture > Delete Rejected Recordsdata.
I unapologetically delete all of the rejected photographs from the Lightroom library and the pc’s laborious drive.
The right way to Delete Rejected Pictures in Lightroom | Remaining Ideas
Deleting photographs from the Lightroom catalog and the pc’s laborious drive looks as if a trivial and unexciting job in a photographer’s life. However in case you gamify the method by treating each deleted picture as an funding in your psychological well being, it will get a lot simpler.