Lightroom Assisted Culling: AI-Powered Photo Culling for Faster Photo Selection

Cull Faster, Not Harder: Meet Assisted Culling in Lightroom

Sorting through hundreds of shots to find the keepers is one of the most time-consuming parts of any shoot. Assisted Culling takes on the heavy lifting for you by automatically checking subject sharpness, eye sharpness, open eyes, exposure issues, and even accidental "misfire" shots, then sorting everything into Select and Reject groups so you can review at a glance instead of clicking through every frame.

Once Lightroom finishes analyzing your album, you can fine-tune the results with adjustable focus thresholds, dig into the Culling Info panel to see exactly why a photo scored the way it did, and apply batch actions. It's a big time-saver for wedding, event, and sports photographers working through massive photo sets, and you're always one click away from overriding any pick.

How to Use Assisted Culling:

1. Open an album and select Assisted Culling > Cull.

2. In the Select section, turn on the filters you want scored: Subject Sharpness, Eyes Sharpness, Eyes Open (with sub-options for detecting eyes or flagging "can't tell" shots).

3. In the Reject section, turn on filters to exclude unwanted shots: exposure issues, misfires, or documents/receipts.

4. Lightroom starts analyzing automatically as soon as a filter is selected — no separate "start" button.

5. Use the Review buttons (Selects / Rejects / All) to browse each category.

6. Check the Info icon > Culling Info to see the score behind each Select/Reject badge, or just hover over a badge for a quick tooltip.

7. Once analysis finishes, use Apply Batch Actions to flag, star-rate, color-label, move, or delete your Selects/Rejects in bulk.

8. Disagree with a call? Click the badge on any photo and choose "Mark as Select" or "Mark as Reject" to override it.

Pro-Tips:

• Manual shortcuts still work during review. Standard pick/reject keys (P to flag a pick, X to reject) work right alongside the Assisted Culling badges, so you can speed-review without reaching for the mouse.

• It pairs well with auto-stacking. Running Assisted Culling's select/reject pass alongside auto-stacking by visual similarity is a strong combo for burst-heavy shoots — think sports, weddings, wildlife.
• Good import habits pay off later. Adding a copyright preset and basic keywords during import won't change your culling scores, but it makes the resulting Select/Reject groups much easier to search and reuse later.

Join the Conversation

Have you tried Assisted Culling yet? What's the first shoot you're putting it to work on?