As professional photographers, we know the drill. You get home from a long wedding day or a chaotic event shoot. You’re tired, but you’re also excited to see what you captured. Then, you plug in your memory card and see the number: 3,427 photos. Suddenly, that excitement fades. Why? Because you know the single most tedious task in our entire workflow is staring you right in the face: culling.

Manually sifting through thousands of photos is a massive time-sink. It’s a bottleneck that keeps us from editing, from delivering galleries, and from getting back behind the lens. Tools like Narrative Select have been a big help for many. But in 2025, the market is packed with powerful options. If you’re looking for an alternative, you’ve come to the right place.

Key Takeaways

  • Culling is a major bottleneck for pro photographers, and dedicated software is no longer a luxury. It’s a necessity.
  • The new standard is AI-powered culling. This technology goes beyond finding blurry shots. It intelligently groups duplicates, analyzes facial expressions, and helps you make decisions in a fraction of the time.
  • The biggest division in culling software is between standalone tools and integrated platforms. Standalone tools do one job (culling), while integrated platforms like Imagen connect culling directly to your AI editing workflow.
  • Imagen Culling stands out as a top-tier alternative. It offers powerful AI grouping, “Cull to Exact Number” for high-volume jobs, and a game-changing “Cull Edited Previews” feature.
  • The best alternative for you depends entirely on your workflow. Do you want a 100% manual (but fast) process? Do you want a “one-click” AI culler? Or do you want a seamless system that handles both culling and editing? We’ll cover all of them.

What is Narrative Select (And Why Look for an Alternative)?

Let’s start by giving credit where it’s due. Narrative Select is a popular, well-designed culling app for macOS. It’s fast, and its AI assists are genuinely useful. It quickly identifies faces, flags closed eyes, and gives you focus assessments. This helps you make faster manual decisions. It’s a great tool.

So, why would you even look for an alternative? Well, every photographer’s workflow is different. What works for one person is a roadblock for another.

Here are a few common, practical reasons you might be looking for a change:

  1. You’re a Windows User. This one is simple. Narrative Select is macOS-only. If you run your photography business on a PC, you need a different solution.
  2. You Want a More Integrated Workflow. With Narrative, you cull your images, then you have to export your selections or drag them into Lightroom or Capture One. It’s a separate step. Many of us dream of a single app that flows from culling directly into editing without that extra step.
  3. You Want More AI Automation. Narrative assists your manual cull. It doesn’t make the first pass for you. Other tools on the market now use AI to do a full “first pass” cull, grouping thousands of photos and picking the “best” from each group automatically. This leaves you with just a final review.
  4. The Subscription Model. Narrative Select runs on a subscription. Maybe you’re tired of “subscription fatigue” and want a tool with a one-time cost. Or perhaps you want a subscription that does more than just culling for the money.

These are all valid reasons. The good news is that in 2025, there’s a solution for every single one of these needs.

The New Standard: AI-Powered Culling

Before we dive into the list, let’s quickly define what “AI culling” means today. It’s not a gimmick. It’s a powerful technology designed to mimic the (boring) parts of our human decision-making process.

The real power of modern AI culling isn’t just flagging a blurry photo.

  • It’s about Grouping. The AI scans all 3,000 of your photos and finds all the duplicates. It groups those 15 shots you took of the bride walking down the aisle into one stack. This is the single biggest time-saver.
  • It’s about Analyzing. Within that stack, the AI analyzes each photo for critical details. Is the subject in sharp focus? Are their eyes open? Are they smiling?
  • It’s about Scoring. The AI then “scores” each photo based on these factors (and others, like composition or exposure). It presents the stack to you with its top recommendation already highlighted.

This process turns a 3,000-photo job into reviewing maybe 500 groups. It’s a total workflow transformation.

The 10 Best Narrative Select Alternatives in 2025

I’ve tested dozens of culling apps over the years. Here’s my breakdown of the top 10 alternatives on the market today, starting with the one that’s become the center of my own post-production workflow.

1. Imagen Culling

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What It Is

Imagen Culling is, in my opinion, the new benchmark for a modern, efficient workflow. It’s not just a standalone “culling tool.” It’s the first, crucial step in a complete, end-to-end post-production platform. It’s built right into the Imagen desktop app, which also handles AI editing and cloud backup.

This tool is built by photographers, for photographers. It understands our biggest pain points: saving time and maintaining quality. It combines smart AI automation with 100% final user control.

Key Culling Features

Imagen Culling is packed with smart features, but a few stand out as true game-changers.

  • Advanced AI Grouping: The AI intelligently groups all your similar photos and duplicates. You can adjust the sensitivity, but I find its default is spot-on for weeding out burst-mode shots.
  • AI-Powered Selections: This is where it gets smart. The AI analyzes each photo for sharpness, focus, closed eyes, and blur. It even has “kiss recognition,” so it knows not to flag a romantic closed-eye shot as a “bad” photo.
  • Cull to Exact Number: This is a lifesaver for high-volume jobs like school portraits, sports, or corporate events. You can tell Imagen, “I need the best 300 photos from this shoot,” or “cull this down to the top 20%.” The AI will then select the best images to meet that exact count.
  • Cull Edited Previews: This is my favorite feature and something you won’t find elsewhere. You can tell Imagen Culling to show you the preview thumbnails with your Personal AI Profile already applied. This is huge. You’re no longer culling flat, boring RAW files. You’re making your selects based on what the final, edited photo will look like.

The Integrated Workflow Advantage (How It Works)

This is what truly separates Imagen from the pack. It’s not about what it does. It’s about how it does it as part of a single, unbroken chain.

  1. Upload: You drop your entire project (from a Lightroom Classic catalog, for example) into the Imagen desktop app.
  2. Cull: You run Imagen Culling. The app uses cloud processing, so it doesn’t bog down your computer. You can keep working while it analyzes.
  3. Review: You open the “Culling Studio” within the app. Here, you review the AI’s grouped selections. You have the final say. You can change the top pick in a group or reject a group entirely with simple keyboard shortcuts.
  4. The Handoff: This is the magic moment. Once you’re done reviewing, you don’t export a list. You don’t create a new folder. You simply click a button to “Send to Edit.”
  5. Edit: Your “keepers” are instantly sent to the Imagen AI editing engine. It then applies your Personal AI Profile (that it learned from your own past edits) or a Talent AI Profile from a world-class photographer.
  6. Download: Minutes later, you download the finished, edited photos right back into your Lightroom catalog.

This workflow takes you from 3,000 RAW files to 300 fully edited photos, all within one app. It turns a multi-day process into less than an hour of review.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

No tool is perfect for everyone. Based on Imagen’s own technical documentation, here are a few things to keep in mind:

  • It’s a connected system. You need to cull and review your results on the same computer where you initiated the project.
  • It’s designed for a single-user workflow. You can’t share the storage or culling session with another user (like an associate editor).
  • For the cloud storage backup feature, it currently only supports uploads from Lightroom Classic catalogs.

Who It’s Best For

Imagen Culling is for the professional wedding, event, or portrait photographer who wants maximum efficiency. If your goal is to slash your total post-production time (not just culling time), this integrated platform is, in my opinion, the best solution on the market in 2025.

2. AfterShoot

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What It Is

Aftershoot is a standalone desktop application that uses AI to automate the culling process. It is one of the most direct competitors to Narrative Select and has gained a large following. It’s available for both macOS and Windows.

Key Features

  • AI Culling: The core of the product. Aftershoot’s AI scans photos and sorts them into different categories, such as “Selected,” “Duplicates,” and “Blurred.”
  • Customizable Thresholds: It allows users to adjust the strictness of the AI. For example, you can tell it to be more or less tolerant of blur or closed eyes.
  • Face and Eye Detection: It includes features to detect closed eyes and whether faces are in focus.
  • AI Editing: Aftershoot also offers an AI editing feature, which attempts to learn a photographer’s style from their past work and apply it.

How It Works

The workflow is separate from your main photo editor. You first import your photo folders into the Aftershoot application. The AI runs and analyzes the entire shoot. After the analysis, it presents you with its selections. You can then review these AI-made decisions, make any changes you see fit, and then export your final selections (as a list or to a new folder) to be imported into Lightroom, Capture One, or another editor.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

The main consideration is that it is a separate step. You must import, cull, export, and then import into your editor. Some users find the AI can be a “black box” and may occasionally miss photos with emotional nuance, requiring a careful re-check of the “rejected” images. It is also a subscription-based service.

Who It’s Best For

Aftershoot is for the photographer (on Windows or macOS) who wants a powerful, dedicated AI culling tool and doesn’t mind having it as a separate, distinct step in their post-production workflow.

3. Photo Mechanic

What It Is

Photo Mechanic by Camera Bits is a legend in the industry. It is the long-standing champion for speed. It is a professional-grade application designed for photo ingesting, browsing, and metadata management.

Key Features

  • Extreme Ingest Speed: This is its main purpose. It can ingest (copy) photos from multiple memory cards at once, rename them, apply metadata (like copyright and keywords), and back them up to a second drive simultaneously.
  • Instant Preview Rendering: It builds high-quality previews of RAW files almost instantly. This allows for incredibly fast manual culling.
  • Advanced Metadata Tools: It has the most comprehensive IPTC metadata tools on the market. This is why it’s the standard for photojournalists and sports photographers who need to add detailed captions and info on the fly.
  • Manual Culling: The culling process is 100% manual. You use keyboard shortcuts for tags, star ratings, and color labels. There is no AI to help.

How It Works

The workflow is built around speed and metadata. You insert your memory card and start the “Ingest” process. While photos are copying, you can already start viewing and culling them. You use the fast viewer to look at every single photo, hitting ‘T’ to tag your keepers. When you are done, you filter by your tagged photos and drag just those files into your Lightroom catalog to start editing.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

The biggest “challenge” is that it’s not an AI culler. It doesn’t group duplicates or find closed eyes for you. It just makes the manual process much faster. The user interface is often described as complex or dated, and it has a high-upfront cost for a perpetual license.

Who It’s Best For

Photo Mechanic is the industry standard for photojournalists, sports photographers, and any photographer who needs to ingest, add metadata, and cull for speed, and who prefers a 100% manual and controlled selection process.

4. FilterPixel

What It Is

FilterPixel is another AI-powered, standalone culling application for desktop (macOS and Windows). It functions similarly to Aftershoot, with a strong focus on using AI to automate the initial photo selection process.

Key Features

  • AI-Powered Sorting: Its AI analyzes images for technical attributes like focus, exposure, and composition.
  • Duplicate Detection: It groups similar images and selects a top pick from each set, just like other AI cullers.
  • Face and Eye Analysis: It provides metrics for focus quality and eye quality (open/closed).
  • Cloud-Based AI: FilterPixel uploads low-resolution previews to the cloud for its AI analysis. This means the heavy processing doesn’t happen on your local machine, which can reduce the performance impact.

How It Works

You import your photo folder into the app. It uploads previews for AI analysis. Once the analysis is complete, it presents you with a gallery view that is pre-filtered by the AI. You can review its “Accepted” and “Rejected” piles and make adjustments. It also has a “Survey” mode for comparing duplicates side-by-side. Once finalized, you export your selections for use in Lightroom or another editor.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

Because it uses cloud processing for its analysis, it requires a stable internet connection. The workflow is, like Aftershoot, a separate step from your main editor. The accuracy of the AI is subjective and, like all AI, may not match your creative intent 100% of the time.

Who It’s Best For

This tool is for photographers who want an AI-automated culling process and like the idea of offloading the heavy AI processing to the cloud to keep their computer running fast.

5. Lightroom Classic (Native Culling)

What It Is

This is the tool most of us already have: Adobe Lightroom Classic. For years, culling in Lightroom was a slow, painful process. However, Adobe has made significant strides, including adding its own AI-assisted features.

Key Features

  • Library Module Culling: The classic “Survey” mode (press ‘N’) to compare photos side-by-side, and “Compare” mode (press ‘C’) to see two photos in detail.
  • Fast Previews: You can build “Smart Previews” or “1:1 Previews” on import, which speeds up the culling process (though it’s still slower than dedicated apps).
  • Assisted Culling (New): This is Adobe’s new AI feature. It’s still in development but is available in recent versions. It runs an analysis and provides filters for:
    • Subject Focus
    • Eye Focus
    • Eyes Open
    • It also attempts to reject photos of documents, misfires, etc.

How It Works

You import all your photos into your Lightroom catalog. You can either cull manually in the Library module, using flags (P for Pick, X for Reject) and star ratings. Or, you can run the “Assisted Culling” feature, which analyzes the photos and gives you a slider to “Select” or “Reject” based on its AI analysis. You then hide the rejects and proceed to editing in the Develop module.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

Even with 1:1 previews, culling in Lightroom is slower than any dedicated culling app. The new “Assisted Culling” feature is not as advanced as the AI in dedicated tools like Imagen or Aftershoot. It doesn’t automatically group duplicates in the same way, which is a major time-saver it lacks.

Who It’s Best For

This is for the photographer on a budget who already pays for the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription and doesn’t want to add another tool or subscription to their plate. It’s a “good enough” solution if you’re not a high-volume shooter.

6. Capture One Pro

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What It Is

Capture One Pro is a direct competitor to Lightroom Classic. It’s a high-end RAW converter, image editor, and asset management app. Like Lightroom, it also has its own built-in tools for culling.

Key Features

  • Fast Preview Rendering: Capture One is generally known for rendering high-quality RAW previews very quickly, often faster than Lightroom.
  • Manual Culling Tools: It has a dedicated “Cull View” that simplifies the interface for a quick review. You can use star ratings and color tags, which are written to the catalog and XMP files.
  • Group View: This is its answer to duplicates. It can automatically “Group” similar images (based on capture time). This stacks them, making it much easier to compare burst shots and pick the best one.
  • Focus Mask: You can turn on a focus mask that shows you the areas of the photo that are in sharp focus, which is very helpful for culling.

How It Works

The workflow is all-native. You import your photos into a Capture One “Session” or “Catalog.” You can then use the culling tools, like Group View and the Focus Mask, to manually work through your shoot and apply ratings or color tags. Once you have your “keepers” tagged, you filter for them and begin your editing process right inside Capture One.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

While the “Group View” is helpful, it is not AI-powered. It’s based purely on the capture timestamp. It also doesn’t analyze faces for closed eyes or smiles. The culling process is still fundamentally manual, just with good tools to speed it up.

Who It’s Best For

This is for the photographer who is already fully committed to the Capture One ecosystem for their editing. If you already use and love Capture One, its native culling tools are fast and efficient enough for most manual workflows.

7. FastRawViewer

What It Is

FastRawViewer is a highly technical, specialized tool. Its entire philosophy is that you should be culling based on the true RAW data, not the embedded JPEG preview that all other apps (except Photo Mechanic) show you.

Key Features

  • True RAW Data Viewing: It renders the RAW file directly, not the JPEG preview.
  • RAW Histogram: This is its killer feature. It shows you a histogram of the actual RAW data, so you can see if your highlights are truly blown or if your shadows are truly crushed, which a JPEG preview might lie about.
  • Focus Peaking: It offers multiple ways to check focus, including a “focus peaking” overlay that highlights the sharpest edges.
  • Fast Manual Culling: It’s designed for a fast, manual culling workflow with standard keyboard shortcuts for ratings and labels, which it saves to XMP sidecar files.

How It Works

This is a standalone tool for the very technical photographer. You open a folder of photos in FastRawViewer. You then go through them one by one. You use tools like the RAW histogram and focus peaking to make your “keep” or “reject” decisions based on the technical quality of the file. You apply your ratings/labels, and then you import only the “keepers” into your RAW converter of choice.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

It has a very steep learning curve. The interface is technical and not as “pretty” as Narrative. It is 100% manual and 100% technical. It offers no AI, no grouping, and no face detection. It is a pure tool for RAW file analysis.

Who It’s Best For

This tool is for landscape, architectural, or studio photographers who value technical perfection above all else. If your primary culling decision is based on “is this file technically perfect,” FastRawViewer is the best tool for the job.

8. Excire Foto

What It Is

Excire Foto is a different kind of tool. It’s not just a culler. It’s an AI-powered photo organizer that you can use as a standalone app or as a plugin for Lightroom. Its power comes from its AI’s ability to “see” what’s in your photos.

Key Features

  • AI Keywording: This is its main function. It scans your photos and automatically adds keywords (e.g., “beach,” “dog,” “smiling,” “one person”).
  • AI Search: Because of the AI keywords, you can search your library in new ways, like “find photos of a smiling woman on a beach.”
  • AI-Assisted Culling: Excire has an AI that rates photos based on aesthetics and can find duplicates. This allows you to sort a shoot by “aesthetic score” and see the best photos first.
  • Face Recognition: It has powerful face-finding and recognition tools, allowing you to find photos of specific people.

How It Works

As a culling tool, you would import your shoot into Excire Foto. You would let its AI analyze and keyword everything. You could then use its “Duplicate Finder” to group similar shots. Then, you could use its “Aesthetic Rating” AI to sort the groups and quickly find the best images. You would apply your ratings and then use the Excire plugin within Lightroom to transfer those keywords and ratings.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

It’s really a library management tool first and a culling tool second. The workflow can be a bit more complex than a dedicated culler. It’s another piece of software to learn and integrate into your process.

Who It’s Best For

This is for the photographer who is more focused on organizing and searching a large, existing archive and also wants AI tools that can help with culling new shoots.

9. Optyx

What It Is

Optyx is another standalone AI culling application for macOS and Windows, placing it in direct competition with Aftershoot and FilterPixel. It focuses on using AI to analyze faces and technical quality to speed up the culling process.

Key Features

  • AI Autocull: It has a one-click “Autocull” feature that groups similar images and selects the best one from each shot.
  • Face Analysis: The AI evaluates faces for expression (smiling, neutral), blinks (closed eyes), and focus.
  • Lightning Fast Previews: Like Narrative, it boasts very fast preview rendering for a smooth manual review process.
  • XMP Sidecar Files: It saves all its ratings and labels to industry-standard XMP files, making it compatible with Lightroom, Capture One, and other editors.

How It Works

The workflow is what you’d expect from a standalone AI culler. You drag a folder into Optyx. The AI analyzes everything. It presents you with its autocull selections. You can then review these picks, making quick adjustments. A nice feature is that you can drag and drop your selects directly from Optyx into Lightroom, which is a small but helpful workflow touch.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

It’s another subscription in the crowded AI-culling space. Its AI, like all others, is subjective and will require a final review. You are still adding an extra step (import, cull, export/drag, import) to your process.

Who It’s Best For

This is for photographers on Windows or macOS who want an AI-automated culling tool and prioritize a clean interface and a simple “drag and drop” handoff to their editor.

10. ApolloOne

What It Is

ApolloOne is a macOS-only image viewer and management tool. Think of it as a direct, modern competitor to Photo Mechanic, but with a cleaner, more “Mac-like” interface. It is built for raw speed.

Key Features

  • Extremely Fast: It’s designed from the ground up to be one of the fastest image viewers on macOS.
  • Camera AF Points: A unique feature. It can display the actual autofocus points your camera used, so you can see exactly where you told the camera to focus.
  • Manual Culling Tools: It has all the standard rating, tagging, and labeling tools you need for a fast manual cull.
  • Metadata Management: You can view and edit EXIF and IPTC metadata.
  • No Importing: It works by browsing your existing folders, so there’s no need to import into a database.

How It Works

You use ApolloOne as a “viewer” for your memory card or photo folder. You blaze through the images manually, using the AF point display and fast zooming to check focus. You apply star ratings or color labels as you go. These are saved to XMP files. When you’re done, you import your folder into Lightroom, which then reads the XMP ratings you’ve already applied.

Potential Challenges and Considerations

It is macOS-only, just like Narrative. And, like Photo Mechanic, its culling process is 100% manual. It offers no AI, no duplicate grouping, and no closed-eye detection.

Who It’s Best For

This is for the macOS-based photographer who, like the Photo Mechanic user, wants a manual culling process. It’s for those who find Photo Mechanic’s interface too clunky and want a faster, cleaner-feeling tool for manual selection.

How to Choose the Right Culling Software for You

Okay, that was a long list. So how do you choose? It all comes down to your personal workflow. Ask yourself these questions.

Workflow Integration is Everything

What is your biggest priority?

  • Seamless Culling-to-Editing: If you want one app that does it all, an integrated platform is your answer. This is where Imagen stands alone. The ability to cull and then send directly to an AI editor without an export/import step is the single biggest time-saver.
  • Standalone Culling: If you prefer to keep your tools separate, then a standalone app (like Aftershoot, FilterPixel, or Photo Mechanic) is for you.

AI-Automated vs. Manual-Speed

How much control do you really want?

  • AI-Automated: You want the app to do the heavy lifting. You’re comfortable letting an AI do the “first pass” and trusting you’ll just review its work. This is the workflow for Imagen, Aftershoot, and FilterPixel.
  • Manual-Speed: You don’t trust AI. You want to see every single frame, but you want to do it fast. Your priority is instant preview loading. This is the workflow for Photo Mechanic, FastRawViewer, and ApolloOne.

Beyond Culling: What Else Do You Need?

  • Deep Metadata Tools: If you’re a photojournalist, you need Photo Mechanic. No question.
  • Technical RAW Analysis: If you’re a landscape or product shooter, FastRawViewer is a unique tool for you.
  • AI Editing: If your goal is to automate the entire process, then Imagen is the clear choice, as its culling is built to feed its industry-leading AI editing.

Pricing Model

  • Subscription: This gets you continuous updates. Imagen, Aftershoot, and FilterPixel use this model. It’s a lower upfront cost, but it’s an ongoing expense.
  • Perpetual License: This is a one-time, high upfront cost, but you own the software. Photo Mechanic and FastRawViewer use this model.

Final Thoughts

Culling is a chore. There’s no doubt about it. But in 2025, you have no reason to spend days of your life manually clicking through thousands of photos in a slow Lightroom catalog.

Tools like Narrative Select opened the door by showing us a faster way. But the alternatives now offer even more power. Whether you’re a manual-culling purist who just wants speed (Photo Mechanic) or a busy professional who wants a fully integrated, “cull-to-edit” AI platform (Imagen), there is a tool that fits your brain.

My advice? Take advantage of the free trials. Test two or three of these tools on your next real shoot. The one that makes you feel less dread and more excitement is the right one for you. Your time is your most valuable asset. It’s time to reclaim it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What is photo culling? Photo culling is the process of reviewing all the photos from a shoot (which can be thousands of images) and selecting the “keepers” to be edited and delivered to the client. It also involves rejecting the duplicates, blurry shots, and photos with bad expressions or closed eyes.

2. Why is AI culling considered better than manual culling? “Better” is subjective, but “faster” is not. AI culling is dramatically faster because it automates the most time-consuming tasks. An AI can group 3,000 photos into 500 stacks, check all of them for focus, and find all the blinks in minutes. This frees you up to do a final review instead of a full manual selection.

3. How does Imagen Culling work? Imagen Culling is part of the Imagen desktop app. You upload your project, and its AI analyzes all your photos for duplicates, sharpness, blur, and facial expressions (including “kiss recognition”). It groups them in the Culling Studio for you to review. You make the final selections, then click a button to send those keepers directly to Imagen’s AI editor.

4. What’s the difference between Imagen Culling and Aftershoot? Both are excellent AI cullers. The biggest difference is the workflow. Aftershoot is a standalone culling app. You cull in it, then you export your selects to your editor (like Lightroom). Imagen Culling is part of an integrated platform. You cull in it, and then you send your selects directly to the Imagen AI editor, all within the same app. There’s no export/import step.

5. Is Photo Mechanic still relevant in 2025 with all this AI? Absolutely. Photo Mechanic is not an AI culler. It’s a manual-speed culler. For photographers who need to ingest and add deep metadata (like journalists or sports shooters), its speed and IPTC tools are still undefeated. It serves a different (though related) purpose.

6. Can I just use Lightroom Classic for culling? You can! Culling in Lightroom is much slower than a dedicated app, but it’s “free” with your subscription. Adobe is also adding an “Assisted Culling” AI feature, but it’s not as powerful at grouping duplicates as Imagen or Aftershoot, which is where the real time-savings come from.

7. Is AI culling 100% accurate? No. As the Imagen documentation points out, AI isn’t infallible, and personal preference always plays a role. An AI might flag a photo as “blurry” that you intended to be soft and artistic. That’s why every single one of these tools (including Imagen) gives you the final review. The AI does the first 90% of the work. You do the last 10%.

8. What does culling software cost? It varies. Some, like Imagen Culling, Aftershoot, and FilterPixel, are monthly or annual subscriptions. Others, like Photo Mechanic and FastRawViewer, are a one-time perpetual license (which costs more upfront).

9. Do these culling apps work with RAW files? Yes. All the professional tools listed here (including Imagen, Photo Mechanic, Aftershoot, etc.) are designed to work directly with your RAW files (CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG, etc.).

10. What are the system requirements for Imagen Culling? According to Imagen’s guides, the desktop app runs on both Windows and macOS. You’ll need Windows 10 (64-bit) or later, or macOS 10.11 (El Capitan) or later. It’s a desktop app, but it uses the cloud for its heavy-duty AI processing, which helps keep your computer running fast.

11. What is the “Cull Edited Previews” feature in Imagen? This is a unique feature. It lets you review your photos in the Culling Studio after applying a preview of your Personal AI Profile. This means you’re not culling a flat, boring RAW file. You’re culling a photo that already looks like your final edit, which makes it much easier to choose the real keepers.

12. What if I use Capture One instead of Lightroom? You have options! You can use Capture One’s built-in manual culling tools, which are quite fast. You can also use a standalone app like Aftershoot, FilterPixel, or Photo Mechanic to cull first, and then import your “keepers” into Capture One.

13. Why is grouping duplicates so important? Because most of us use “burst mode” for critical moments (first kiss, walking down the aisle). This leaves us with 10, 20, or 30 photos that are almost identical. Manually comparing all of them is slow. An AI that stacks all 30 and says, “this is the sharpest one with eyes open,” instantly saves you a huge amount of time.