The "Rate" button on Canon EOS camera

Does anybody know whether I can use the "Rate" button on EOS cameras to rate images on the fly prior to downloading ? The 'Rate" button, or Function lets's you rate images on a 1-5 Star basis . My Canon 6D does not have a Rate button, but it does have a Rate Function in the Menu system.

 

At first I thought this whole "Rate" thing was a gimmick to keep up with Social Media, but it can be pretty handy if you have multiple images to download and only want to download the ones you think look the best. It might not be very accurate since you can't really determine the actual quality of an image by looking at a 3" monitor, but it's a start and can save you a lot of time in PP.

I suppose you can rate to your heart's content on the train ride home, but I have no clue, which software would download high rated only or display your ratings. I'm old school, weak and new to my overweight EOS. In camera culling isn't my cup of tea. If at all I'd connect a tablet wirelessly and work on that. Camera dials and buttons seem too expensive, to wear them out with not picture taking related activities, considering that I can replace desktop PCs' keyboards and mice for peanuts.

I personally would not rush to judgment, and would not 'rate' photos until I could compare them on a large, hi-res monitor.

I'm with @JDMvW on this one. Unless you need to select and send time-critical photos via Wifi/internet, I prefer to see photos on a larger screen, even if they're just thumbnails. I have a Canon 6D too and the 'EOS Utility 2' software allows me to select individual photos that I want to download from previews.

 

TBH, I never bother. I just download all photos from 'the shoot' and browse through them (as larger thumbnails or 1 by 1) in Lightroom. That's where I do my 'rating'. As @JDMvW says, it's easier to compare similar photos on a large screen than on a camera screen. Adobe bridge works just as well and is free. A lot of other PP software does the same. When I 'rate' photos, I try to look at the 'potential' (including PP). I'd find this difficult to do on my small camera screen. I select the 'keepers' and delete the rest from my hard drive. The download time of the 'extra non-keepers' is no more than a few seconds or minutes, depending on the number of photos. At the start of any new 'shoot'', I delete all (previous) images on my camera.

 

FWIW, my rating system is:

3 stars: good enough

4 stars: good

5 stars: best

 

I usually delete any photos that I've rated 3 stars or less.

Does anybody know whether I can use the "Rate" button on EOS cameras to rate images on the fly prior to downloading ?

 

Yes.

 

I understand the 'rating' is embedded in the EXIF data of the jpeg file. If you use Canon software you can do download images from the card, based on their specific 'rating' (for example all 5's).

 

If you download all the images you can filter the images (sort on jpeg data lines) on their specific 'rating'. You might need a third party programme to do this procedure, I think 'exiftool' allows for such sorting. I have used exiftool to sort images, but not on their 'rating' data.

 

There is a limit to the number of images you can rate whilst the card is in the camera, from memory, I think it is 999.

 

You can also edit the 'rating' once the image is downloaded. This is done by editing the images 'rating' EXIF data line.

 

WW

ACDSee the software I use can read the Rating bucket on the EXIF, but I have not tried it yet.

I know a guy who shoots high school sports for a website ran by a local radio station. The station also broadcasts the games so they encourage him to get some shots up at halftime and again a few minutes after the game. He rates on the fly to identify the ones he wants to upload on game day.

 

By the next morning he usually has a better selection up, but the couple dozen he uploads during the game draws a lot of traffic to the site. He jokes that for high school kids, fast is always better than good.

Interesting question (now I've read it again)! I've never used the 6D in-camera rating system but I've discovered how it works and how it can indeed be useful.

 

There are 2 parts:

1. In-camera rating

- choose the 'rating' function in the menu

- press the "Q" button

- On my camera, this brought up the first (default) "protect/unprotect photo" function; I had to click on the inner circular dial on the back to scroll down to the 'star' symbol (=rating)

- Then use the outer circular dial on the back to select the rating of 1-5 stars

 

It's not very intuitive but it does work!

 

2. Downloading

I still use EOS utility 2 but there may be later versions

- Click on 'Edit' and then on 'Select Image'

- the selection options include 'images with a rating of x stars and higher' (where x=1-5)

 

For me personally (and for the kind of burst mode photos I usually take), I would find an on-the-fly in-camera rating of images 1-by-1 too time-consuming and a distraction from taking more photos. But I can well imagine circumstances in which you have plenty of time to review a series of photos in-camera and rate the 'best of the bunch' in-camera. You can later download only those.

 

Thanks to your question, I've discovered something new that my 6D can do!

 

Mike

 

Does anybody know whether I can use the "Rate" button on EOS cameras to rate images on the fly prior to downloading ? The 'Rate" button, or Function lets's you rate images on a 1-5 Star basis . My Canon 6D does not have a Rate button, but it does have a Rate Function in the Menu system.

 

At first I thought this whole "Rate" thing was a gimmick to keep up with Social Media, but it can be pretty handy if you have multiple images to download and only want to download the ones you think look the best. It might not be very accurate since you can't really determine the actual quality of an image by looking at a 3" monitor, but it's a start and can save you a lot of time in PP.

Edited November 12, 2021 by mikemorrell

Never used it. I'm sure DPP must recognize your rating, Not sure about other programs. If I have a mass of photos I just delete the bad ones before downloading (if I have the time), but I wouldn't attempt to rate them, because I like to compare them all together on screen and you can't really do that on a small monitor on the back of the camera. You can check focus on the monitor, and I sometimes do that, but it is quicker and easier to compare all this at home on the PC.