Video: How to use Lightroom's Survey view to quickly review images
Lightroom Classic’s survey view is a useful part of the Lightroom workflow that can speed up selections, but it also remains a poorly understood and under-utilised part of Lr.
In this handy video by Michael Rung Photography, you'll learn how to use Survey view within Lightroom Classic.
The view is particularly useful during the second stage of your culling process when you already have an initial selection but are trying to choose between multiple images that look similar but might have subtle differences between lighting or composition.
Rung's sorting process works by first opening images in the Library module and assigning a one-star rating to any images that have merit or deserve a closer look, with survey view helping refine this selection.
By filtering the one-star images and entering survey view, it's possible to view these images as thumbnails.
Then, by hiding the side panels using Shift + Tab, you can maximize your screen space, making it easier to focus on the details of each individual image.
Where the feature comes into its own is by selecting multiple images and pressing the "N" key to enter survey view. You’ll see all selected images side by side. From there, you can use the "X" icon to remove images that don’t fit. This step doesn’t delete the images, but simply removes them from the current selection, helping you focus on the keeper shots.
It's a quick and easy way to sort your work and lets you get onto the important step of processing.