Culling Photos

How to Cull Your Photos

This guide walks you through the process of culling photos in PhotoCulling, from scanning your library to finalizing your selections.

Step 1: Select Your Temporary Catalog

After copying images from your camera to a temporary catalog on your Mac, select that folder in PhotoCulling. The application scans all images and generates previews for quick review. This process reads your photo metadata and creates a visual index of all images in the selected directory.

During scanning, you can monitor progress as the application indexes your images. Depending on the size of your library, this may take a few moments.

Step 2: Post-Scan Display

Once scanning completes, PhotoCulling displays your full photo library with a thumbnail grid and preview controls ready for culling.

At this point, you can:

• Navigate through images using arrow keys or click navigation
• View the current image in the main preview area
• Mark images with your culling decisions
• Use filters to organize your view

Step 3: Review and Mark Images

Examine each photo carefully. You can view images at normal size first to get a quick sense of quality.

Persistent Marking and Session Recovery

PhotoCulling automatically saves your marking decisions as you work, allowing you to pause and resume your culling session at any time. Your marks, ratings, and review status are saved to disk, so if you need to continue later, simply reopen the same folder and your progress will be restored.

Thumbnail Performance

Thumbnails are generated and kept in memory during your session for fast navigation. PhotoCulling also maintains a disk cache of thumbnails for previously reviewed catalogs, enabling instant loading when you return to the same folder in the future.

Marking and Rating Photos

For each image, decide whether it’s worth keeping:

• Mark as Keep: Select high-quality photos that you want to retain for editing
• Leave Unmarked: Photos you don’t want to include in your final catalog
• Rate Quality: Assign star ratings or priority levels to marked photos based on editing priority
• Review Later: Mark questionable photos for later review

Keyboard Shortcuts

Use these keyboard shortcuts for efficient culling (the Shortcuts may change):

Step 4: Inspect Details

For critical decisions, zoom in to examine fine details like focus, expressions, or technical quality.

Zoomed view allows you to:

• Check if eyes are sharp and in focus
• Verify composition details
• Look for artifacts or blemishes
• Confirm technical quality before keeping

This is especially useful when deciding between very similar shots from burst mode.

Step 5: Review Your Selections

After marking and rating all photos, take time to review your decisions:

1. Filter by Status: View only photos marked as “Keep” or “Review Later”
2. Verify Ratings: Review the star ratings and priority levels you assigned
3. Double-Check: Re-examine borderline cases
4. Adjust Marks: Update any incorrectly marked or rated photos

Step 6: Copy Marked Photos to Final Catalog

Once satisfied with your selections:

1. Copy Marked Photos: PhotoCulling copies only the marked and rated photos to your final catalog
2. Organize for Editing: The final catalog is now ready to import into your photo editing application
3. Keep Original: Your original temporary catalog remains untouched, preserving all images from your shoot

Note: Only marked and rated photos are copied to the final catalog. Unmarked photos remain in the temporary catalog but are not copied to your editing workflow.

Pro Tips for Efficient Culling

1. Work in Sessions: Cull in focused sessions rather than all at once. You’ll make better decisions when fresh.

2. Use Consistent Criteria: Decide on your standards (sharpness, composition, exposure) before starting.

3. Compare Burst Shots: Use the grid view to compare similar shots side-by-side, selecting the best from each burst.

4. Rate as You Go: Assign ratings to marked photos based on editing priority—5 stars for must-edits, 3 stars for secondary choices.

5. Workflow Ready: Once copied to your final catalog, immediately import into your photo editing application to maintain workflow momentum.

6. Trust Your Instincts: If you have doubts about a photo, mark it for review rather than keeping questionable shots.

7. Check Metadata: PhotoCulling can show image metadata (ISO, aperture, shutter speed) to help inform your decisions.

8. Sort by Date: Group photos by shooting date to maintain context during culling.

What’s Next?

Once you’ve culled your photos, you can:

• Continue with post-processing in your preferred editing software
• Organize keepers into collections or albums
• Create backup archives of your final selection
• Share your best work

Congratulations on completing your cull! You now have a curated collection of your best photos ready for the next steps in your photography workflow.