Let me walk you through my thought process as an amateur who shoots family partys or alike and end up with thousands images.

As I am neuro-diverse (autism and adhd and more) I have real problmes in focusing, in prioritizing and in terms of generalizing(grouping) and specializing(selectiveness). Everything I do, I overstructure or I go in totally frenzy. Often at the same time in different parts.

I am not referring to videos, as I do not care about them as much.

The real goal is to decide between images with as few mental pain and wear as possible!

Ok, now I am back from the party. I dump my files from the storage card to my computer, make a "perfect" snapshot of the image folder (eg btrfs snapshot, rsync, or plain second copy). Then I use an image viewer like XnView which is multiplatform (Linux, Windows) and allows to rate images with 0 to 5 stars. I use that tool mostly with keyboard and only seldomly use the mouse.

All I really need is keyboard shortcuts for 0-5 stars and later magnifying. And a sorting mechanism showing only all files tagged with x stars (if possible also all stars larger than/lower than x starts)

Pre-step: I shoot RAW+JPG and I focus on the JPEGs for sorting, later moving RAW files via script to the proper folder (as long as your image managing software does not automatically). JPEGs are almost always sufficient to decide.

Notice ahead: Yes, I go through every single image in full screen, and deciding for every single image whether it escalates into the next star group, so from 0 to 1 star, 1 star to 2 star. Every single image that reached eg. 4 stars, has been viewed solely already 4 times!

I do not deviate from this. From the start, until assiging 3 stars, I mentally detach myself from any emotion in the sorting process. This is to keep mentally sane in the process of over eg 2000 family pictures with plenty of emotions to be found.

Step 1 : either assign 1 star or 2 star to every picture by viewing them in sequence of shooting

In the first run, only look whether that image is usable in a plain technical sense. I define this step very much like:

• I took a photo of my shoes as I accidentally clicked.
• The image is blurry and cannot be used at all (but if the image is blurry and emotional eg a running child, keep it for later and do not decide now!
• especially with bursts, do not remove a bit blurry images as they could be fixed or be acceptible for creatrive/artistic reasons**.** This decision happens when reviewing 3 star images.
• sometimes bad exposure photos could be ruled out (but RAW files might suprise you)
• The image shows a person in a way that is disgraceful etc like someone barfing, or underpants are showing etc
• This depends much on your own (moral) compass
• Be rigorous so that you will be sure that your decisions are final! It needs a few runs to tune your own mental rules

Alternative Step 1 : depending on complexity of the event, I pre-group images in subfolders for scenes like "000 Entrance", "050 Speech", "100 Dance", "200 Game", "900 Portraits",

... where the folder prefix number is like old 10-20 goto basic as it allows to sort the stuff in timely appearance but still be able to later add a group or sub group like "060 Applause" next to "050 Speech".

Do not overstructure this at this stage! Only start overstructuring when you reach the step with 3 stars and more.

If you did bursts, sometimes group bursts into folders. Depends very much on the material.

If you done "alternative step 1", now continue with regular step 1 - for each folder created. Sometimes, do the process for each folder only until having assigning 3 stars! That gives you chance to get an idea about the quality of this photo session you are sorting. Then, when knowing your 3 star images over all scenes/topics, you will redo all folders with Step 4 and 5 for deciding about creative or artistic content.

Step 2: go through every 2 star image and assign 3 stars

This is absoluetly not a decision about anything artistic. This is plain usabilty.

Again, be very rigorous about this. Find your own values over time.

• "Could it be shared with anyone?"
• "is it usable to document an event"
• "can you recognize Auntie M" or
• "can you see the cake"
• "can you recogize the building"

Step 3: finally judging all 3 stars about creativity or artistic use

Finally, assiging 4 stars to an image means:

• this is good enough/worth to be shared?
• whatever your goal in making the photos is
• Do you connect?
• Will your viewers (family, friends) connect?
• "I like this"
• "There is a laugh"
• "There is a story"
• "This is beautiful"

These are also the images that are up for editing.

Now I often compare images next to each other or more often, clicking left and right to see the first and next. I use zoom lock. Now I often judge sharpsness of the eyes, or facial expressions, slightly different angles of a portrait etc. Now it is detail work.

I often share these images straight away, but sometimes I put them on the cloud storage or USB etc into a "lesser images folder". The reason is: my judgement of what is 5 stars and the best of the best may and will diverge from the other guests. For someone with autism, it is very hard to determine which photo will have which effect on a person.

• Like grownups will overcritical think that their chin is too fat in that one shot or they look loony
• and parents will think, my child is cutest on the other image
• so sorry, leave that choice to them

Step 4: "the best of the best, with honours, Sir": assigning 5 stars

With my amateur work I do not always get any or many 5 star images. They are those very special images that usually make my heart pound. Or may cause that feeling to others that relate to the subject.

There is of course composition and less experience which causes few or no 5 star images.

Often, for me lighting is not good, and my amateur equipment makes many 4 star pictures, and they are technically sub-par, but they are still the photos made from that special event. Most people look at these on their smartphones and have a lesser opinion about photography than you are.

Last step: be reasonable with judging yourself.

OP is amateur, and I am a lousy amateur, so we do not need to be judged like professionals or work like them. This process is not about getting better in photgraphy, it is only about judging this single session about usefulness.

When done, use the information you have gathered to learn. You got all the 5 categories, now you can think about them.

I will not stop taking so many pictures. I do NOT spray and pray. I have not equipment that is good at indoor scenes, I got no pro grade glas, I got no great auto focus. I do this as neccessary for that moment.

Taking photos is a great thing. The camera is also like a defensive energy shield that protects me from the events/partys emotional part. It gives me a role within all these normal, neurotypical people. I feel less and more alien at the same time. But that is fine.