As professional photographers, we know our most valuable asset is time. Tools like Impossible Things have changed the game by bringing AI editing right into Lightroom. But what if your needs are different? Maybe you need powerful culling, too. Or perhaps you want an AI that learns your entire style, not just applies a preset intelligently. We’ve all been there. Let’s look at the best Impossible Things alternatives for your photography business in 2025.
This article will show you other options. We will cover tools that do more than just edit. We will look at apps that handle your whole workflow.
Key Takeaways
- Your Workflow Matters Most: The best tool for you depends on your full workflow. This includes culling, editing, file management, and delivery.
- Plugin vs. Platform: Impossible Things is a plugin that lives inside Lightroom. Many top alternatives, like Imagen, are complete desktop apps. These apps manage the whole process from start to finish.
- Culling is a Key Differentiator: Impossible Things does not have AI culling. This is a critical missing piece for many pros. Tools like Imagen and Aftershoot build AI culling directly into their workflow.
- Personalization is Deeper Than Presets: While Impossible Things applies your presets intelligently, tools like Imagen build a Personal AI Profile from thousands of your old edits. This learns how you edit every single slider, offering a much deeper level of personalization.
- There is a Tool for Each Step: You can build a workflow from different tools. You could use Photo Mechanic for culling, Imagen for editing, and Topaz for sharpening. Or, you can use an all-in-one platform like Imagen to handle everything in one place.
What is Impossible Things and Why Look for an Alternative?
Impossible Things is a popular AI photo editor. It works as a plugin inside Adobe Lightroom Classic. This is its main appeal for many photographers. You never have to leave your catalog.
It’s designed to take your existing Lightroom presets and apply them intelligently. It does not just paste the preset. It analyzes the photo and adjusts over 38 different sliders to make your preset look good in any lighting. It also offers “Cloud Styles” from well-known photographers. This is a great way to save time on the editing step.
So, why would you look for an alternative?
For most working pros, it comes down to two main reasons:
- It Does Not Have Culling. This is the biggest factor. Impossible Things only handles editing. You still have to do the most time-consuming part of the job: sorting through thousands of photos to find the keepers. You must use Lightroom, Photo Mechanic, or another tool to cull your images before you can even use the plugin.
- It’s an Editor, Not a Workflow. Because it lacks culling, storage, and delivery features, it is just one piece of the puzzle. Many photographers today want a single platform that handles everything. They want to upload a shoot, have the AI cull it, have the AI edit it, and then have it ready for the client.
- It Only Works with RAW Files. This can be a problem for photographers who shoot in JPEG or need to edit both formats.
If you find yourself spending hours culling before you even get to edit, or if you want a more complete, all-in-one solution, then it’s time to look at some alternatives.
How We Evaluated These Tools
To give you a real-world review, I judged these tools on what matters to a working pro. I’ve been in the trenches with these apps. I know what makes or breaks a workflow during a busy wedding season.
Here is my criteria:
- Workflow Integration: Does it fit in with Lightroom? Is it a separate app? Does it do everything or just one thing?
- AI Editing Quality: How good are the edits? Are they consistent? Do they look like my work?
- Personalization: Can it really learn my unique style? Or is it just a fancy preset? How much control do I have?
- Culling: Does it have culling? How fast and accurate is it? Does it find blurry shots, closed eyes, and duplicates?
- Speed & Efficiency: How much time does it actually save me from start to finish? Is the app fast or sluggish?
- Pricing: Is it a subscription? Is it per-photo? Is it a one-time cost? We all have to watch our budgets.
The 10 Best Alternatives to Impossible Things in 2025
Here is a detailed look at the 10 best alternatives for professional photographers. I’ve included all-in-one platforms, specialized tools, and even a human-powered option.
1. Imagen
If Impossible Things is a helpful plugin, Imagen is your complete post-production assistant. It’s a dedicated desktop app (for Mac and Windows) that handles your entire workflow. It can manage culling, editing, cloud storage, and even client delivery.
This is a huge difference. Imagen is not just an editor. It’s an all-in-one platform built to take over the most time-consuming parts of your job. It works directly with your Lightroom Classic catalogs. It also works with Lightroom, Photoshop, and Bridge.
A Fully Integrated Workflow
The biggest difference you will notice is that Imagen does it all. You do not need one app for culling and another for editing. You create a project in the Imagen app, point it to your photos, and choose what you need.
Do you need to cull and edit? Imagen does that. Do you just need to edit? It does that, too. This stops the awkward hand-off between different programs. The app does its heavy processing in the cloud. This means your computer stays fast. You can keep working on other things while Imagen edits for you.
Unmatched Personalization: The Personal AI Profile
This is Imagen‘s core feature, and it’s what truly sets it apart.
Impossible Things intelligently applies a preset. Imagen learns your unique editing style.
How does it work? You feed it at least 2,000 of your previously edited photos from your Lightroom catalogs. The AI analyzes everything you did. It looks at your exposure, white balance, contrast, HSL sliders, masking, and more.
Then, it builds a Personal AI Profile that edits new photos just like you would. It is not pasting a preset. It is making individual decisions on every single slider for every single photo. It’s like cloning your “editing brain.”
The best part? It keeps learning. After Imagen edits a project, you can make your final tweaks in Lightroom. Then, you can Fine-tune your profile with those tweaks. Your AI Profile evolves with your style.
Get Started Fast: Lite and Talent AI Profiles
What if you do not have 2,000 edited photos? No problem. Imagen has two great options to start immediately.
- Lite Personal AI Profile: You can create this in minutes. You just give Imagen one of your favorite presets. The AI uses your preset for all the color and style settings. Then, its own intelligence handles the “foundational” edits, like exposure and white balance.
- Talent AI Profiles: You can use an AI profile built by an industry-leading photographer. These are like Impossible Things’ “Cloud Styles” but with the full power of Imagen‘s AI behind them.
AI Culling That Saves Hours
This is the feature that Impossible Things is completely missing. Imagen has a powerful Culling Studio built right in.
You upload your entire shoot. The AI gets to work.
- It groups all your similar photos.
- It finds the best photo in each group.
- It flags blurry photos.
- It detects closed or blinking eyes.
- It uses face recognition to make sure your key subjects are in focus.
You get a clean, organized gallery where you can quickly review its choices. You can easily make adjustments. When you are done, you just click a button to send your ‘picks’ straight to the AI editor. This one feature can save you hours before you even think about editing.
A Full Suite of AI Tools
On top of the main edit, Imagen also includes extra AI Tools you can add to your projects. These cost a tiny bit extra per photo but are incredibly powerful.
- Subject Mask
- Smooth Skin
- Whiten Teeth
- Crop
- Straighten
For real estate photographers, Imagen has specialized tools. These include Perspective Correction, HDR Merge, and Sky Replacement.
Workflow and Pricing
The workflow is simple.
- Open the Imagen desktop app.
- Create a new project (Cull, Edit, or both).
- Point the app to your Lightroom Catalog or photo folder.
- Choose your AI Profile and any extra tools.
- Click “Upload.”
- Go get a coffee. Imagen notifies you when your photos are ready (it edits at about 0.5 seconds per photo).
- Download the edits. Your Lightroom Catalog is now updated with all the changes.
Pricing is flexible. AI Culling is a subscription. AI Editing is pay-per-photo. This is great for high-volume pros because you only pay for what you use. They also offer Cloud Storage plans to back up your projects automatically.
Limitations
What are the downsides? First, Imagen is a separate application. It is not a plugin. You do have to leave Lightroom to start the process. This is a different workflow than Impossible Things.
Second, building a full Personal AI Profile takes time and a lot of photos (at least 2,000). The results are worth it, but it’s not instant. The Lite Profile is the best workaround for this.
Summary
Imagen is the best choice for professionals who want a complete, integrated system. It handles everything from culling to final delivery. Its personalization is the deepest on the market, creating a true clone of your editing style.
2. AfterShoot
Aftershoot is another desktop application that aims to be an all-in-one solution. It is a very direct competitor to Imagen. It provides both AI-powered culling and AI-powered editing.
Functional Overview
The process with Aftershoot is straightforward. You import your photos into the Aftershoot app. The AI culls the images first. It uses AI to group your photos. It also rates them based on technical qualities like blur and closed eyes. It also looks for composition.
After you review the culled images, you can send your selections to the AI editor. This editor learns your style by analyzing your edited Lightroom catalogs. It is similar to Imagen‘s Personal AI Profile. Aftershoot builds its own AI profile based on your past edits.
Key Features
- AI Culling: Aftershoot has a culling tool. It groups photos and selects “picks.” It also filters out blurry photos and closed eyes.
- AI Editing: The app builds an AI profile based on your editing history. It then applies this profile to your new photos.
- Local Processing Option: A key feature of Aftershoot is that it can run its AI models locally on your computer. This is useful for photographers who have a slow or unreliable internet connection. However, it requires a very powerful computer to run well.
- Creator Styles: Like Imagen and Impossible Things, Aftershoot offers pre-made styles from other photographers.
Workflow and Pricing
You work within the Aftershoot desktop app for culling and editing. After it finishes editing, the changes are written to your files. You can then open your Lightroom catalog to see the final edits.
The pricing model for Aftershoot is subscription-based. They offer different plans that include culling, editing, or both. They often have unlimited plans, which can be good for very high-volume studios.
Limitations
Aftershoot’s AI profile system can be less flexible than Imagen‘s. It builds one main profile from your work. Users have reported it can be difficult to manage multiple, distinct styles. For example, if you edit with both a “light and airy” style and a “dark and moody” style, the AI can get confused.
It also lacks the integrated cloud storage and direct-to-gallery delivery features that Imagen offers. It is focused just on the culling and editing steps.
Summary
Aftershoot is a functional all-in-one tool for culling and editing. Its main technical advantage is the option for local processing. It is a solid choice for photographers who want a subscription plan for unlimited edits.
3. Narrative Select
Narrative Select is a very popular tool that started as a culling app. It has recently expanded into AI editing, making it another strong alternative. It is known for its beautiful, fast, and user-friendly interface.
Functional Overview
Narrative Select’s main strength is its culling experience. It is incredibly fast. It uses AI to help you make decisions, but it keeps you in control. It automatically identifies blurry photos and closed eyes. It also has an advanced face recognition system. It can “focus-check” your main subject’s eyes.
You can import your entire shoot into Narrative. You can then use keyboard shortcuts to quickly move through thousands of photos. The app helps you by showing you the best-focused shots and flagging the bad ones.
Key Features
- Fast Culling: The app is known for its speed. It’s very responsive.
- AI-Assisted Culling: It does not just cull for you. It gives you the information you need to cull faster. It has great close-ups of faces and eyes.
- AI Editing (Narrative Edit): This is their newer feature. Once you have culled your images, you can apply an AI edit. You can build a personal style by uploading your own edits. You can also purchase “Pro Styles” from other photographers.
- Lightroom Integration: It works very well with Lightroom. You cull in Narrative. Then you can easily sync your selections back to your Lightroom catalog.
Workflow and Pricing
The most common workflow is to cull in Narrative first. Its interface is much faster and more helpful than culling in Lightroom. Once you have your ‘picks,’ you can either edit them with Narrative’s AI or just bring those ‘picks’ into Lightroom to edit manually or with a different tool.
Narrative Select offers a subscription model. They have different tiers. You can get a plan for just culling. Or you can get a plan that includes both culling and AI editing.
Limitations
Narrative’s AI editing is newer than its culling. It is still building its reputation. Some users find its AI profile system less deep than Imagen‘s. It also does not offer the other workflow tools, like storage or delivery. It is a culling and editing tool only.
Summary
Narrative Select is a fantastic tool for photographers who prioritize the culling experience. Its interface is fast and well-designed. It’s a great choice if your main bottleneck is culling. Its AI editing makes it a good all-in-one option.
4. FilterPixel
FilterPixel is another application that focuses on one thing: AI culling. It is not an AI editor. It is designed to be the fastest and smartest way to cull your photos. You use it before you import your photos into Lightroom or your editor of choice.
Functional Overview
FilterPixel is a desktop app. You point it to your folder of RAW photos. The AI scans all the photos. It then automatically culls your entire shoot.
It provides three main folders for you:
- Picks: The best photos. These are in focus, with good composition and open eyes.
- Warnings: Photos that have potential issues, like slight blur or closed eyes.
- Unselected: The rejects. These are duplicates, very blurry shots, or photos with bad composition.
The goal is that you only have to review the “Picks” and “Warnings.” This cuts your review time down by a huge amount.
Key Features
- Fully Automatic Culling: FilterPixel makes the first pass for you. It’s designed to be trusted.
- AI-Powered Filtering: The AI is very good at finding technical flaws. It is fast and accurate at detecting blur and closed eyes.
- Grouping: It automatically groups similar photos together. This lets you quickly compare them side-by-side.
- Export Options: You can export your ‘picks’ directly to Lightroom, Capture One, or just as a new folder.
Workflow and Pricing
The workflow is simple: Ingest > Cull in FilterPixel > Edit elsewhere. You would use FilterPixel to replace culling in Lightroom. After culling, you could import your picks into Lightroom and then use Impossible Things or Imagen to edit them.
FilterPixel has a subscription model. They also offer a pay-per-use plan. This is flexible for photographers who do not shoot a high volume every month.
Limitations
The main limitation is obvious: it does not edit. It only solves the culling part of the problem. This means you still need another tool for AI editing. It is not an all-in-one platform.
Summary
FilterPixel is an excellent choice if your only problem is culling. It is a powerful, dedicated AI culling app. It can be a great first step in your workflow. It prepares your photos for an editor like Impossible Things.
5. Photo Mechanic
You cannot have a list of workflow tools without mentioning Photo Mechanic. This is the industry-standard tool for culling and ingest. It has been around for decades. It is what many pros used long before AI was an option.
Functional Overview
Photo Mechanic is not an AI editor. It is not even an AI culler. It is a tool that does one thing: it lets you view and cull photos extremely fast.
Its magic is that it does not render full RAW previews. It reads the JPEG preview that is embedded in every RAW file. This means you can see your photos instantly. There is zero lag. You can flip through thousands of photos as fast as you can press the arrow keys.
Key Features
- Speed: This is its number one feature. Nothing is faster for manually culling photos.
- Ingest: It is a powerful tool for ingesting photos from your memory cards. You can back up to multiple locations, add metadata, and rename files all at once.
- Metadata: It is the best tool for adding IPTC metadata. This is critical for photojournalists, sports, and event photographers.
- Tagging: You can quickly add star ratings, color labels, and keywords.
Workflow and Pricing
The classic pro workflow is:
- Ingest photos from memory cards using Photo Mechanic.
- Cull the entire shoot in Photo Mechanic. Use it to add star ratings to your ‘picks.’
- Open Lightroom. Import only the photos that you gave a star rating.
- Edit your ‘picks’ in Lightroom (either manually or with a tool like Imagen or Impossible Things).
Photo Mechanic is a one-time purchase. You buy a license and you own it. This is very appealing to photographers who dislike subscriptions.
Limitations
It has no AI features. It does not edit. It does not cull for you. It is a manual tool. It just makes the manual process much, much faster. It also has an interface that looks a bit dated.
Summary
Photo Mechanic is an alternative for the photographer who wants full manual control over culling. It is the fastest tool for this job. You can pair it with an AI editor to create a powerful two-step workflow.
6. Luminar Neo
Luminar Neo is a very different kind of tool. It is a full photo editor that can be used as a standalone app or as a plugin. It is not designed for bulk editing thousands of wedding photos. It is designed for creative, AI-powered enhancements.
Functional Overview
Luminar Neo, from Skylum, focuses on AI tools that give you “magic” results. It’s less about correcting your photos to a consistent style and more about transforming them.
It has a catalog system like Lightroom. You can use it to organize and edit your photos from start to finish. Or, you can use it as a plugin from Lightroom or Photoshop. You can send a photo to Luminar, apply a creative edit, and send it back.
Key Features
- AI Sky Replacement: This is its most famous tool. It can replace a boring sky with a dramatic one in one click.
- Portrait AI Tools: It has AI tools for skin, faces, and eyes (like Imagen‘s AI Tools).
- Relight AI: This tool lets you adjust the lighting in a scene after the photo was taken.
- Noiseless AI and Supersharp AI: These are AI tools for noise reduction and sharpening.
- Generative AI: It also includes generative AI tools to add or remove objects from your photos.
Workflow and Pricing
There are two ways to use Luminar. You can use it as your main editor. Or you can use it as a plugin for special photos. For example, you could edit your full wedding in Imagen. Then, you could take your top 10 “hero” shots and send them to Luminar to add a dramatic sky.
Luminar Neo is available as a one-time purchase or a subscription.
Limitations
It is not a bulk-processing tool. It is not designed to learn your style and apply it to 3,000 photos. It is a creative tool for enhancing individual images. Its catalog system is also not as robust as Lightroom’s.
Summary
Luminar Neo is not a direct competitor for bulk editing. It is an alternative for photographers who want creative AI power. It’s a great tool to have in your toolbox for enhancing your best shots.
7. Topaz Photo AI
Topaz Photo AI is another specialized tool. Like Luminar, it is not a bulk editor. It is an AI-powered utility app. Its only job is to make your photos look technically perfect. It focuses on three things: denoising, sharpening, and upscaling.
Functional Overview
Topaz Photo AI combines three of Topaz Labs’ famous tools into one app. You can use it as a standalone app or as a plugin.
You send a photo to the app. Its “Autopilot” AI analyzes the image. It detects if the photo is noisy, blurry, or low-resolution. It also finds faces and subjects. Then, it automatically applies the correct fix.
Key Features
- Denoise AI: This is one of the best noise reduction tools on the market. It cleans up high-ISO photos.
- Sharpen AI: This tool can save blurry photos. It can fix motion blur and missed focus in a way that regular sharpening cannot.
- Gigapixel AI: This tool lets you enlarge, or upscale, your photos. You can crop a photo and then enlarge it back to full size with amazing detail.
- Face Recovery: The AI is trained to recognize faces. It can add detail back to soft or out-of-focus faces.
Workflow and Pricing
The most common workflow is to use Topaz Photo AI at the end of your edit.
- Cull your photos (with Imagen or Photo Mechanic).
- Edit your photos (with Imagen or Impossible Things).
- For any photos that are very noisy or slightly soft, send them to Topaz Photo AI as a final “fix.”
Topaz Photo AI is a one-time purchase. You buy the app and get one year of updates.
Limitations
It is not an editor. It does not adjust exposure, color, or white balance. It is a utility for fixing technical problems. It is also very resource-intensive. It requires a powerful computer to run fast.
Summary
Topaz Photo AI is an amazing tool for enhancing and saving problem shots. It is not an alternative to Impossible Things for editing. It is an alternative for improving your final image quality.
8. DxO PureRAW
DxO PureRAW is similar to Topaz Photo AI. It is a specialized utility. It is designed to be the very first step in your workflow, before you even import into Lightroom.
Functional Overview
DxO is famous for its optical science. They have tested thousands of camera and lens combinations. PureRAW uses this data to fix your RAW files at a deep level.
You drag your folder of RAW files onto the app. It then does three things:
- DeepPRIME Denoising: Its AI noise reduction is world-class.
- Optical Corrections: It fixes lens distortion, vignetting, and chromatic aberration.
- Demosaicing: It processes the RAW file into a high-quality DNG (Digital Negative) file.
It then saves these new, “pure” DNG files. You import these files into Lightroom to edit.
Key Features
- DeepPRIME XD: This is its main feature. Many pros say it is the single best noise reduction tool available.
- Lens Corrections: The corrections are based on DxO’s own lab tests. They are often more accurate than Lightroom’s built-in profiles.
- Simplicity: The app has almost no settings. You just drag, choose a quality level, and click “Process.”
Workflow and Pricing
The workflow is:
- Cull your photos in Photo Mechanic (optional, but recommended).
- Process your ‘picks’ through DxO PureRAW.
- Import the new DNG files into Lightroom.
- Edit the DNGs with Impossible Things, Imagen, or manually.
DxO PureRAW is a one-time purchase.
Limitations
It is not an editor. It is a pre-processor. It adds an extra step to your workflow. It also creates new, large DNG files. This means it takes up more hard drive space. It cannot fix extreme blur like Topaz Sharpen AI can. It is focused on noise and optical quality.
Summary
DxO PureRAW is for photographers who are obsessed with image quality. If you shoot a lot in very low light (like dark wedding receptions), this tool can be a lifesaver. It cleans your files before you edit.
9. Capture One Pro
Capture One Pro is not a plugin. It is a full-scale, professional alternative to Adobe Lightroom itself. For many years, it has been the top choice for high-end studio, commercial, and fashion photographers.
Functional Overview
Capture One is a complete photo editor and catalog. It is known for its powerful color editing tools, layer-based editing, and high-quality RAW processing. It also has the best-in-class tools for “tethered shooting” (shooting directly from your camera to your computer).
Key Features
- Advanced Color Editor: Capture One gives you complete control over colors. It is more advanced than Lightroom’s HSL panel.
- Layers and Masking: It has a layer-based editing system, similar to Photoshop. This is very powerful.
- Tethering: It is the industry standard for shooting tethered in a studio.
- AI Features: Capture One has been adding AI tools. It has AI-powered culling (grouping and rating). It also has AI masking to select subjects and backgrounds.
- Speed: The app is known for being very responsive and stable, even with large catalogs.
Workflow and Pricing
If you use Capture One, you do not use Lightroom. It replaces it. Your entire workflow, from culling to editing to export, happens inside Capture One.
Capture One is available as a subscription or a one-time purchase.
Limitations
The main “limitation” is that it is a completely different ecosystem. If all your work is in Lightroom, moving to Capture One is a very big decision. Its AI editing is also not the same as Imagen or Impossible Things. It does not learn your style. It provides AI tools to help you edit faster, but you are still the one making the edits.
Summary
Capture One is a powerful alternative for photographers who are unhappy with Lightroom. It is a tool for pros who want deep control over color and layers. It is not a bulk AI automation tool, but it is an alternative editor.
10. Photographer’s Edit (Human Editing Service)
Here is a completely different alternative: a human. Photographer’s Edit is a professional photo editing service for photographers. You do not use an app. You hire a team of real people to edit for you.
Functional Overview
This is the original “alternative” to editing yourself. You cull your images. Then you upload your ‘picks’ (often as a Lightroom Smart Preview catalog) to the service.
You tell them what style you want. You can provide your own presets or examples of your work. A professional, human editor then edits your photos for you. They send the edited catalog back to you for review.
Key Features
- Human Touch: A human can understand context and nuance that AI sometimes misses.
- Your Style: They are trained to learn and match your specific style.
- Time-Saving: This saves 100% of your editing time.
- Consistency: They are very good at providing consistent results across a full shoot.
Workflow and Pricing
The workflow is:
- Cull your photos (with Photo Mechanic or Lightroom).
- Create a Lightroom catalog with Smart Previews.
- Upload the catalog to their service.
- Wait a few days.
- Download the finished catalog.
Pricing is per-image. The cost depends on the level of editing you need (from simple color correction to advanced retouching).
Limitations
There are three main limitations.
- Cost: It is more expensive than AI editing.
- Turnaround Time: It is not instant. It takes several days, not several minutes. This is a problem if you need to deliver sneak peeks quickly.
- Culling: You still have to do all your own culling.
Summary
A human editing service is a great alternative for photographers who want to be completely hands-off. It is a good choice if you value the human touch over the speed of AI.
Comparison at a Glance
This table helps you quickly compare the tools we discussed.
| Tool | Best For | Culling? | Editing? | Key Differentiator |
| Imagen | All-in-one workflow | Yes (AI) | Yes (Personal AI) | Complete ecosystem (cull, edit, store, deliver). AI learns you. |
| Impossible Things | Lightroom-native editing | No | Yes (Preset-based) | Stays 100% inside Lightroom. Uses your presets. |
| Aftershoot | All-in-one workflow | Yes (AI) | Yes (AI) | Can run editing locally on your computer. |
| Narrative Select | Culling + Editing | Yes (AI-assisted) | Yes (AI) | Very fast and visual culling interface. |
| FilterPixel | Fast AI Culling | Yes (AI) | No | A dedicated, fully automatic culling-only app. |
| Photo Mechanic | Fastest Manual Culling | Yes (Manual) | No | Industry-standard ingest/culling speed. Not AI. |
| Luminar Neo | Creative AI Editing | No | Yes (Creative AI) | Standalone editor with powerful creative tools (Sky AI, etc.). |
| Topaz Photo AI | AI Enhancement | No | Yes (Enhancement) | Fixes images: denoise, sharpen, and upscale. |
| DxO PureRAW | RAW Pre-processing | No | Yes (RAW Enhance) | Best-in-class noise reduction. A “pre-edit” step. |
| Photographer’s Edit | Outsourcing | No (You cull) | Yes (Human) | A human service. Slow turnaround but 100% hands-off. |
How to Choose the Right Alternative for Your Workflow
Your choice is personal. It depends entirely on your needs, your budget, and your workflow.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What is my biggest bottleneck?
- If your answer is culling, then Impossible Things is not the right tool. You need an app with culling. Look at Imagen, Aftershoot, Narrative, or FilterPixel.
- How important is my unique style?
- If you just want to apply your presets faster, Impossible Things is a good choice.
- If you want an AI that truly learns your custom HSL, masking, and slider adjustments, you need a learning profile. Imagen‘s Personal AI Profile is the deepest and most advanced version of this.
- Do I want an all-in-one app or separate “best-in-class” tools?
- If you want one platform to do it all, Imagen is the most complete choice. It has culling, editing, storage, and delivery.
- If you prefer separate tools, a popular pro workflow is Photo Mechanic (culling) + Imagen (editing) + Topaz Photo AI (fixing).
- What is my budget?
- Pay-per-image (like Impossible Things or Imagen‘s editing) is great if your volume changes. You only pay for what you use.
- Subscriptions (like Aftershoot) are better if you shoot a very high, consistent volume and want unlimited edits.
- One-time purchases (like Photo Mechanic or Topaz) are great if you hate monthly fees.
Final Thoughts
In 2025, AI is no longer a gimmick. It’s a standard and essential part of a professional photography workflow. These tools help us get our lives back from the computer.
Impossible Things is a great tool. It solves one problem: it makes editing inside Lightroom faster.
But as we’ve seen, other alternatives solve the entire post-production puzzle. Tools like Imagen have stepped up. They give you back your life by integrating smart AI culling, deep-learning AI editing, and even cloud storage into one simple platform.
The right choice is the one that lets you get back behind the camera. So, check your workflow, try a few free trials, and find the one that works for you.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Here are 13 common questions photographers ask about these AI tools.
1. What is the real difference between AI editing and a preset? A preset is a static, saved set of slider positions. It applies the exact same settings to every photo. AI editing is dynamic. The AI analyzes each photo individually. It then applies custom slider settings to each photo based on its specific needs (like lighting and subject) to match your target style.
2. How does an AI learn my style? Most systems, like Imagen, ask you to provide a large number of your already-edited photos (e.g., 2,000+). The AI analyzes every edit you made in your Lightroom catalog. It builds a complex model to understand how you make decisions. It learns how you adjust exposure in low light, how you treat skin tones, and what your favorite HSL settings are.
3. Do I need thousands of photos to start with AI editing? No, not always. For the deepest personalization (like Imagen‘s Personal AI Profile), yes. But most platforms offer “get started” options. Imagen has a Lite Personal AI Profile you can create in minutes from a single preset. It also offers Talent AI Profiles (like Impossible Things’ “Cloud Styles”) that are ready to use instantly.
4. What is AI photo culling? AI culling is when an application automatically sorts your photos. It scans your entire shoot and flags blurry pictures, out-of-focus shots, and photos where people are blinking. It also groups all the similar photos together so you can see them side-by-side. It saves you from manually sorting thousands of images.
5. Will AI replace photographers? No. It replaces the tedious parts of the job. The AI is a tool. It cannot create a vision, pose clients, find the light, or capture an emotion. These tools handle the boring, repetitive work. This frees up the photographer to do the creative work that clients actually pay for.
6. Can AI edit both RAW and JPEG files? It depends on the tool. Some, like Impossible Things, are RAW-only. Others, like Imagen, can create AI Profiles for both RAW and JPEG workflows. This is important for photographers who may shoot events in JPEG.
7. What is the best AI editor for wedding photographers? For wedding photographers, the best tool is usually one that combines culling and editing. The volume is just too high to do it all manually. Imagen and Aftershoot are built specifically for this high-volume workflow. Imagen‘s Personal AI Profile is especially powerful for maintaining your unique, consistent style across a full wedding.
8. What is the fastest culling software? For manual culling, Photo Mechanic is the undisputed champion. It is instant. For AI-assisted culling, tools like Imagen, Narrative Select, and FilterPixel are all very fast. They can cull thousands of images in minutes.
9. Does AI editing work with Lightroom? Yes. All these tools are designed to work with Lightroom.
- Plugins (like Impossible Things) run inside Lightroom.
- Desktop Apps (like Imagen) run alongside Lightroom. They read your catalog, send the photos to the cloud for editing, and then write the edits back to your catalog. You just have to re-open Lightroom to see the changes.
10. What is “fine-tuning” an AI profile? Fine-tuning is an Imagen feature. After your Personal AI Profile is built, you use it to edit a new shoot. You then make your final, minor tweaks in Lightroom. You can then “upload final edits” to Imagen. The AI learns from your tweaks and updates your profile. This means your AI profile gets smarter and more accurate to your style over time.
11. Can I use AI editing for real estate photography? Yes. Some tools are built for it. Imagen, for example, has AI tools specifically for real estate. These include Perspective Correction (to keep lines straight), HDR Merge (for bracketed photos), and Sky Replacement.
12. What is the most “accurate” AI photo editor? “Accurate” means “most like you.” In that case, the most accurate tools are the ones that use your own edits to learn. Imagen‘s Personal AI Profile is arguably the most accurate. This is because it learns from thousands of your photos and can be fine-tuned with your latest edits.
13. How much time can I really save with AI editing? A lot. Imagen reports that its users cut their editing time by up to 96%. If you spend 10 hours editing a wedding, a tool that includes AI culling and editing could cut that down to less than an hour of review. For a busy professional, this is game-changing.
