This is in man ranger:
@
Open the console with the content "shell %s", placing the cursor before the " %s" so you can quickly run commands with the current selection as the argument.
So,
- highlight the files you want to work on with - Space
- type - @to get to a command prompt which will be- :shell %swith the cursor positioned before- %s
- type the name of your command and press - Enter
- the command you specified will be executed with selected filenames as parameters 
The man page also covers adding a pause to check command output:
FLAGS There are some additional flags that can currently be used only in the "shell" command: (for example ":shell -w df") p Redirect output to the pager s Silent mode. Output will be discarded. w Wait for an Enter-press when the process is done