If you wish to study delete rejected images in Lightroom, it is best to learn this text. Right now I’ll present you my easy workflow of how I clear up my photograph catalog by deleting undesirable or rejected photos.

Delete Rejected Pictures in Lightroom: Fast Reply
If you’re in a rush and don’t have time to learn all the article, listed below are two methods you may delete rejected images in Lightroom.
- Use the keyboard shortcut CMD + DELETE (Mac) or CTRL + BACKSPACE (Home windows).
- Use the highest menu: Photograph > Delete Rejected Information.
The Primary Problem of Digital Belongings Administration
Digital pictures provides us many unprecedented advantages, akin to on the spot visualization and no further value to take additional images. However on the similar time, it additionally comes with new challenges.
One of many largest challenges we face is that almost all photographers (together with myself) are inclined to overshoot or take extra digital photos than essential.
Overshooting results in the extra sophisticated and time-consuming difficulty of digital asset administration (DAM).
Through the years, I discovered that utilizing Lightroom is essential for sustaining my sanity. I simplified my digital asset administration workflow and unapologetically delete unneeded, undesirable, and unused photos from my digital catalog.
Right here is the place picture removing turns into a vital a part of my pictures.
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 offered with a popup menu that includes two choices: DELETE FROM DISK or REMOVE.
REMOVE signifies that the photograph will probably be faraway from the Lightroom catalog, however it will likely be preserved on the pc’s laborious drive in its authentic location.
DELETE FROM DISK signifies that the photograph will probably be faraway from the Lightroom catalog and deleted from the laborious drive.
Finally, 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 photos in Lightroom, nevertheless it has one important shortcoming. It’s too time consuming when it is advisable to course of hundreds of photos.
Right here is the place the Rejection Technique turns into extraordinarily helpful.
Rejecting As an alternative of Deleting
The important thing right here is to first mark the undesirable images as rejected after which delete the rejected images in a single sweep on the finish of the culling course of.
Use the “X” keyboard shortcut to mark the chosen photos as REJECTED. The picture will not be 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 following picture after marking the chosen photograph 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 hundreds of images in a matter of minutes.
My Culling Workflow
Culling means to pick the keepers—the images with the potential to be revealed—and delete any unneeded photos. In some cases, the culling course of entails score 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 function.
Subsequent, I’m going by way of all my newly imported images in Lightroom and solely search for photos to mark as REJECTED.
Probably the most obvious standards for rejecting images embody out of focus photos, incorrect publicity, and unintended captures. I additionally reject images with poor composition that can not be salvaged by cropping.

leading to extreme vignetting in 5 captures.
If I can’t determine in a single to 2 seconds if I ought to reject a picture or not, I go away it unmarked and transfer ahead in order that I don’t waste any extra time.
Step 2 – Choosing
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 score; I merely choose the photographs which have the potential to be revealed. I would apply the star score to a few of them sooner or later once I begin enhancing photos.
Please word that I proceed utilizing the Caps Lock perform for auto advancing.
By the top of Step 2, I’ve separated my images into three classes: Keepers (picked or flagged), Unmarked, and Rejected.

Later, maybe in a number of months or so, I would undergo the identical course of utilizing the unmarked photos to seek out extra keepers or extra images to reject.
Step 3 – Deleting Rejected Pictures
Lastly, I’m able to delete all of the rejected images.
I take advantage of one in all two strategies:
- Use the keyboard shortcut CMD + DELETE (Mac) or CTRL + BACKSPACE (Home windows).
- Use the highest menu: Photograph > Delete Rejected Information.
I unapologetically delete all of the rejected photos from the Lightroom library and the pc’s laborious drive.
Delete Rejected Pictures in Lightroom | Last Ideas
Deleting photos from the Lightroom catalog and the pc’s laborious drive looks like a trivial and unexciting process in a photographer’s life. However for those who gamify the method by treating each deleted picture as an funding in your psychological well being, it will get a lot simpler.