Q: Photos and star rating??

There are no star ratings in the new app, your ratings were converted to keywords ; 1star. 2star etc. You can continue to work like that, using those keywords, and even assigned them keyboard shortcuts in the Keyword window.

I suggest you write in to https://www.apple.com/feedback/photos.html  with feedback that you really need this feature. I did as I have a ton of shots I have rated this way for years.

Thanks for the link.  For some reason there is a view that software needs to change from version to version and I can't help but think this is a feature a lot of people use.  It seems like a really basic oversight and I hope it gets corrected.  FWIW, searching "rating photos in photo" gets you nowhere (naming a photo program "photo" doesn't seem like a great idea either) and you have to go with "star rating system".  I would assume anyone that wants to be effective at organizing the massive volume of photos we originate these days would have to use the rating system to organize, create smart lists and run screen savers. A big miss on Apple's part in my opinion.

What's the miss? A rating and a keyword a functionally the same thing, with the added benefit that you can export keywords (as there is a standard for those) but not ratings. You can even assign the same keyboard shortcut to the keywords as you used in iPhoto. Check out the Keyword Manager - just like iPhoto's.

What's the miss?

Essentially we can use keywords for the ratings, you're right, TD, but some nice features of the ratings are missing:

• No more  badge overlay for ratings on the thumbnails; now there is only the cute "heart" for the favourites.
• Ranges of ratings:  We can no longer easily create a smart albums based on a range of ratings and combine it with other constraints. For example,  all photos with a rating greater or equal 3-star and taken with my Canon EOS MK II.   To express the constrain "Rating greater or equal 3-star" we need to combine the rating keywords with "Any":  3-star or 4-star or 5-star, but the additional camera constraint would require an "All", and we cannot use both "All" and "Any" in one album.

To be able to search for "Rating greater or equal 3-star" I use the work-around to assign 3-star to all 4-star photos and 5-star photos as well. But that is messy to maintain consistently.

TD, the "miss" is easy. I went out today and shot 500 shots. For me that isn't unusual. As I go through them, I check them for quality and give them a star rating via a keyboard shortcut (cmd 1, cmd 2 etc) while I am looking at them. In no time, they are rated, then I view by rating, and work on or publish only the 4 or 5 star rated ones ( or bump ratings up and down with a simple cmd key entry).  I can then delete all my 1 to 3 stars. There are no extra words to type, it's fast and an "elegantly simple" system with almost no typing needed. If I went by keywords etc, It will have taken me forever, and all my previous ratings on my shots are also lost, which is a huge miss. I am continuing to check out how to rate in Photos, especially given that I will be leaving on an outing for two weeks that could net me 5000+ shots to rate.

What I was happy that this time with 10.3, you can keep iPhoto and not use Photos, but I am sure that will change. iPhoto isn't perfect, but star rating is just too important. If you have worked out a way to use cmd+1, 2, 3 as keywords I can use while viewing shots in Photos, I am all ears and would be more than happy to hear it!!

Cheers!

Photos 2.0 vs iPhoto 9.6.1:  Features and Capabilities

As I go through them, I check them for quality and give them a star rating via a keyboard shortcut (cmd 1, cmd 2 etc) while I am looking at them

Perhaps you missed this in my post:

You can even assign the same keyboard shortcut to the keywords as you used in iPhoto. Check out the Keyword Manager - just like iPhoto's.

So, you know, no extra typing.

Smart albums for selecting (and thereafter deleting by the ratings... That's all the built in rating albums in iphoto were.

In the end, though, if the app is not right for you then best to move to one that is. That's what I did.

I think aimpromo has a very valid point.  Yes, one can keyword a rating system, BUT, once I keyword something a '4 star' and later decide it should be a '3 star', how do I remove the keyword '4 star' and simply replace it with a '3 star' rating without a fair amount of work.  In my mind, the color marking, staring and flagging capability of Aperture was one of its very best features and most useful. 

TD... I am curious as what you moved to?  With around 400,000 pictures and edits stored in the Aperture structure (fortunately referenced), concept of migration is daunting at best.  Migration to LR does not seem to be very viable from what I have been reading.

, BUT, once I keyword something a '4 star' and later decide it should be a '3 star', how do I remove the keyword '4 star' and simply replace it with a '3 star' rating without a fair amount of work

Quite easy.  Select the image and type Command + K to bring up the Keyword pane.

Say you had it at 3 Star.  the 3 Star keyword would be blue. Click on it till it is white or off.  Then click on the 4 Star keyword.  This can be done to multiple photos at a time or scroll thru the images using the arrow keys.

I ended up in LR as the closest to my needs - hobbyist shooting Raw, family shooting Jpegs on a range of cameras and devices. But i'm talking 60k and it was tedious. Are you talking Raw or Jpeg?

Most of my pictures are RAW...like 99%.

Old Toad...that may work, but at best it is very cumbersome vs the old Aperture model of 'Command 1, 2, 3, 4, 5' for your choice and your done.

And I not infrequently have clients review and rate pictures in the studio the Aperture model worked very well, but I am doubtful your work around will be 'readily doable by my clients.

Old Toad wrote:

, BUT, once I keyword something a '4 star' and later decide it should be a '3 star', how do I remove the keyword '4 star' and simply replace it with a '3 star' rating without a fair amount of work

Quite easy.  Select the image and type Command + K to bring up the Keyword pane ...

Alternately, you can use the Info window: click on a keyword there & it will turn from light to dark blue, indicating that it is selected. Then tap the delete key on the keyboard to remove it. Begin typing a new keyword at the cursor, & if it is one like "4 star" you have already used, as soon as you type the "4" the "4 star" keyword will appear in the popup list of suggestions. Tap the return key to enter it (or any other suggested keyword that is highlighted) & you are done.

Obviously, this isn't as useful for batch changes as using the Keyword Manager but it is handy for one off changes, & like the Keyword Manager technique applies to any keywords, not just the converted star ratings.

You may want to consider using a professional grade DAM (digital asset management) application like  Media Pro 1, Capture One, Lightroom, Photo Mechanic or Photo Supreme.  You can lean more about these apps at  The DAM Forum.