Cull a shoot in minutes, not hours
PhotoCull groups a shoot into scenes, scores every frame for focus, exposure, eyes-open, and overall aesthetic, then exports your picks as XMP sidecars that Lightroom and Capture One read directly. Runs entirely on your own computer — no account, no upload, no subscription.
New in 0.4: it can also find tripod star sequences, suggest which frames to leave out, and stack the rest into a 16-bit TIFF.
PhotoCull is in public beta: it works, and it will have rough edges. If something breaks, please tell us on GitHub.
Group into scenes
Open a shoot folder and PhotoCull groups it into scenes automatically, based on when each photo was taken.
Score every frame
Every frame gets a score for focus, exposure, eyes-open, and overall aesthetic.
Export your picks
Step through with the arrow keys, rate as you go, then export standard XMP sidecars for Lightroom or Capture One.
Download
Version 0.4.1 (beta) · release notes
Installing
macOS
- Open the downloaded
.dmgfile, then drag PhotoCull into your Applications folder. - Double-click PhotoCull to launch it. It's signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple, so it opens normally — no extra steps.
Windows
- Run the downloaded installer.
- If you see a blue "Windows protected your PC" screen, click More info, then Run anyway.
- If Windows Defender flags or removes the app, add an exclusion for the PhotoCull install folder, or restore it from quarantine in Windows Security.
Both platforms: the first launch needs an internet connection — PhotoCull downloads its face-detection and RAW-decoding model files the first time it runs. After that, everything works fully offline.
Why does my computer warn me about this?
The macOS build is signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple, so it opens with no warning at all. The Windows build isn't signed with a paid code-signing certificate — that costs money every year, and this is a small, independently-built tool — so Windows shows you a warning because it can't vouch for who made it. That warning is expected. It doesn't mean the app is unsafe; it means nobody paid to remove the warning.
You don't have to take that on faith, though. Verify the file you downloaded matches exactly what was published by checking its SHA-256 hash — a unique fingerprint of the exact bytes in the file:
macOS (Apple Silicon (M1 and newer)): 6d494235808339e778d5ebdbb86aeff0607c6a1a735d5b948e1d4d9b9fbbc37c
macOS (Intel): 64b347011c3bbac6568d8323cb81a81f1d1484ba7894fbfc5c3b16a7b2cc8d2e
On macOS: shasum -a 256 PhotoCull-0.4.1-macOS-arm64.dmg (or -x64.dmg for Intel).
On Windows: certutil -hashfile PhotoCull-0.4.1-Windows-x64.exe SHA256.
If the hash you compute doesn't match the one above, don't install it
— download it again from this page.
What it does with your photos
- Everything runs on your computer — scoring, faces, RAW decoding, all local and offline.
- No account, no cloud upload, no telemetry.
- Your picks and ratings are saved next to your photos, in a small database in a
.photocullfolder inside the shoot itself. - Exports write standard
.xmpsidecar files next to your originals — nothing is moved or renamed unless you use the optional import tool.
Supported formats
System requirements
macOS
macOS 13 (Ventura) or newer, on Apple Silicon (M1 and later) or Intel.
Windows
Windows 10 (version 1809) or newer, 64-bit.
A few hundred MB of disk space for the install. No Python or Node.js needed — everything PhotoCull requires is bundled in.
Getting started
Open a shoot folder, and PhotoCull groups it into scenes automatically based on when each photo was taken. Step through with the arrow keys, rate as you go, then export your picks.
Support PhotoCull
PhotoCull is free and open source (MIT). If it saves you time on a shoot, a small donation keeps it moving. Bug reports and feature ideas help just as much.