Curate photos with Quick Look and the Shelf

Browse a large photo folder, instantly preview each image full-size with Quick Look, and collect the keepers on the Shelf — all without leaving the keyboard.

Time: ~5 minutes to learn the flow
Skill level: Beginner

The scenario

You’ve imported 200 photos from a camera. You want to pick the best ones and move them to a Keepers folder. Without SPAN Finder this means opening each photo in a viewer, alt-tabbing back, moving the file, repeat. Here’s a faster way.

Step-by-step

1. Navigate to your photo folder

Open the folder in SPAN Finder (Miller Columns or any view mode works).

2. Switch to Icon view for a visual overview

Press Ctrl + 4 to switch to Icon view. Press it again to cycle through size options — use Large or Extra Large for thumbnail-size previews that let you quickly eliminate obvious rejects.

3. Open Quick Look for a full-size preview

Click any photo to select it, then press Space. Quick Look opens a large preview window — roughly 70% of your screen — with the photo rendered at full resolution.

4. Navigate through photos without closing Quick Look

While Quick Look is open:

  • Press → or Space — next photo
  • Press ← — previous photo
  • Press Esc — close Quick Look

You can browse through hundreds of photos this way in minutes.

5. Add keepers to the Shelf

When you see a photo you want to keep:

  1. Press Esc to close Quick Look (the photo stays selected)
  2. Drag the selected photo to the Shelf on the right edge, or right-click → Add to Shelf
  3. Press Space to open Quick Look again on the next photo

Tip: You can also select multiple photos at once (Ctrl + click) and add them all to the Shelf in one drag.

6. Move keepers to the destination

Once you’ve gone through all the photos:

  1. Navigate to your Keepers folder (or create one with Ctrl + Shift + N)
  2. Hover the Shelf to expand it
  3. Click Move here

All your picks land in the Keepers folder in one operation. Press Ctrl + Z to undo if needed.

Faster variant: keyboard-only flow

  1. Press Ctrl + 4 (Icon view) and select the first photo
  2. Press Space (Quick Look)
  3. → to advance, Esc + drag-to-shelf for keepers
  4. Repeat until done

Tips

  • Split View helps — Open the destination Keepers folder in the right pane (Ctrl + Shift + E). When you find a keeper, drag it from the Shelf directly into the right pane instead of navigating away.
  • Quick Look stays in sync — If you delete a photo (Delete) while Quick Look is open, it automatically advances to the next one.
  • RAW files — SPAN Finder uses the Windows imaging pipeline, which supports RAW formats if you have the manufacturer’s codec installed (Canon CR2, Nikon NEF, Sony ARW, etc.).

See also