How to cull photos fast and choose your best images
Culling is the first and most important editing step. Learn efficient systems, tools and criteria for selecting your best shots.
After a shoot, you may have thousands of images. Choosing the best quickly matters as much as editing them.
Do a quick first pass
Look at each image for a second or two and reject obvious misses: closed eyes, blur, bad framing, duplicates. Do not edit yet.
Use flags and stars
- Pick (P) the keepers and reject (X) the rest in Lightroom.
- On a second pass, give stars to the strongest: 3 stars for the gallery, 5 for portfolio.
Compare similar shots
Use Survey or Compare view to choose between near-identical frames. Check focus at 100 percent on faces.
Faster tools
Photo Mechanic and AI culling tools like Aftershoot or Narrative Select speed up large events by grouping similar images and detecting closed eyes.
Criteria
Emotion and moment first, then composition, then technical quality. A slightly soft photo of a perfect moment can beat a sharp, empty one.
Be ruthless
Clients prefer 300 great photos to 900 average ones.
