Manual · Chapter 4
Ratings, Favorites and Color Labels
ViolaScope provides several independent ways to evaluate and organize photos during review. Star ratings, favorites and color labels can be used separately or together according to your own workflow.
Star ratings
Photos can be assigned a star rating from 1 to 5 stars.
You can use the scale in any way that fits your own photographic workflow.
One possible interpretation could be:
- 1 star – low priority
- 2 stars – possible candidate
- 3 stars – good image
- 4 stars – strong selection
- 5 stars – top selection
These examples are not fixed rules. ViolaScope does not prescribe what a particular star value has to mean.
Remove a star rating
A photo does not have to keep an assigned star rating.
You can return the rating to 0 stars if you want the photo to be unrated again.
This changes only the rating stored for the photo. It does not affect favorites, color labels, culling decisions or tags.
Favorites
A photo can also be marked as a favorite.
Favorites are independent of star ratings.
This means that a photo can, for example, have a 3-star rating and still be marked as a favorite.
The favorite marker can be useful when you want to identify personally important images without changing your existing rating system.
Color labels
ViolaScope provides five color labels:
- Red
- Yellow
- Green
- Blue
- Violet
Color labels provide an additional organizational layer that is independent of star ratings, favorites and culling states.
Decide what the colors mean
ViolaScope does not assign a fixed meaning to the individual colors.
You can therefore define the colors according to your own workflow.
For example, you might use colors for:
- different processing stages
- photos intended for a particular purpose
- images that require further review
- different subjects or groups
- temporary workflow markers
These are examples only. The meaning of the colors is entirely up to you.
Ratings and labels are independent
Star ratings, favorites and color labels describe different aspects of your organization.
Assigning one of them does not automatically change the others.
A photo can therefore have several properties at the same time.
For example, a photo could be:
- rated 5 stars
- marked as a favorite
- assigned a green color label
Each of these properties remains independently available for later filtering and organization.
Apply ratings while reviewing
Ratings and labels can be assigned while you are reviewing photos in the main workspace.
You do not need to leave the current photo view to record your decision.
This makes it possible to work through a larger photo collection continuously while recording ratings and organizational information at the same time.
Use ratings with multiple selections
When multiple photos are selected, a rating action can be applied to the current selection.
This is useful when several related photos should receive the same rating or other organizational state.
Before applying a rating to several photos, check that the intended photos are part of the current selection.
Filter by ratings and color labels
Ratings and color labels can later be used as filter criteria.
This allows you to display only the photos that match a particular rating or color label.
Filtering affects only the visible working set. It does not remove ratings, labels or photos from the project.
Ratings do not alter the original image
Assigning stars, favorites or color labels in ViolaScope does not change the visual content of the original photo.
These values are part of the project information used to organize and evaluate the photo collection.
They can later be included in supported export workflows, including XMP sidecars where applicable.
Example workflow
A simple rating workflow could look like this:
- Review all photos once without filtering.
- Assign star ratings to the strongest candidates.
- Mark especially important photos as favorites.
- Use color labels for an additional organizational purpose.
- Filter the collection later for another review pass.
Because the tools are independent, you can change or extend this workflow at any time.
Next step
Ratings describe the quality or importance you assign to a photo. Culling provides a separate way to record whether an image should be kept, held for later review or rejected.
The next chapter explains the ViolaScope culling workflow.