In Lightroom, there are many way to mark images. These include:

• Rating (1-5 stars)
• Keywording
• Colour labels
• Picking

You see some of these in use here:

These give you a great ability to use images the way it suits you.

I use start to rate the pics –  this is independent of use. One start is technically unusable; two starts is technically just about OK but not good – a snapshot; three stars is usable and can be shown to client; four stars is great in this shoot; five stars is portfolio shot. Stars are carried across collections too, since they are a property of the pic, not of its use.

The same is true of keywords, which I assign upon, or just after, import.

On the other hand, I use colour labels to indicate something temporary – like “use this for the article”.

I use pick to indicate a very temporary pick – as in “these are the ones I am going to print now”.

This way I can work with all my images in a multi-dimensional way. Lightroom really really rocks!