(Early Access) Assisted Culling (Lightroom Ecosystem - Desktop)

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Introducing Assisted Culling (Early Access) in Lightroom Desktop 

For providing feedback for Lightroom Classic, click here.

We’re excited to share an early look at Assisted Culling, an AI-powered workflow that helps photographers quickly review large photo sets and select the best shots with confidence. 

What is Assisted Culling? 
Assisted Culling is one of the most requested features from advanced photographers, consistently topping feedback at customer events. It streamlines the process of identifying top photo selects from large sets—hundreds or even thousands—based on attributes like eye openness, sharpness, and more. 

Assisted Culling saves photographers countless hours of manual review, letting them focus on creativity instead of sorting. 

• Eyes Open – Detects whether subjects’ eyes are open. 

• Eye Focus – Measures the sharpness of the eyes. 

• Subject Focus – Evaluates overall clarity. 

• Clean Up – Identifies likely rejects (e.g., blurs, misfires, exposure issues). 

• Stacks – Groups images either by visual similarity or time for easier selection. 

Why Early Access? 
Assisted Culling launches as Early Access at MAX 2025 with a narrow, high-confidence scope prioritizing portraits and headshots. This focused approach ensures reliability for these scenarios while we gather feedback and iterate. From here, we’ll expand to broader use cases like weddings and events before GA. 

How to Try It: 

• Open Lightroom Desktop. 

• Find Assisted Culling in the left photo panel. 

• Select your criteria, adjust the settings, and apply batch actions, such as flagging selects or deleting rejects. 

FAQs 

• Q: Where is Assisted Culling available? 
  A: Lightroom Desktop and Lightroom Classic as part of the MAX 2025 release. 
• Q: How fast is it? 
  A: Our testing shows an average of 0.18 seconds per photo on modern devices (≈2000 photos in 8 minutes). 
• Q: What kinds of photos work best today? 
  A: Individual portraits and headshots. 
• Q: Do I need to pay extra? 
  A: No. Assisted Culling is included in your existing Lightroom subscription. 

Giving Feedback: 

Please share your experience in this thread. Include: 

• App version/platform 

• System details 

• Example images (optional) 

 
Your feedback helps us refine our models and user experience. 

Lisa Ngo / Kwamina Arthur – Product Managers, Lightroom 

Posted by:

[biemmezeta]

Thank you very much for this feature.

I'd like to be able to easily navigate groupedstack made by AI culling and decide whether or not to keep that stack. As of now it seems that culling stack is separated by normal stacks.

[Gian36596128ihzv]

I've been using the new Assisted Culling feature for real estate photography, and I can confidently say it's one of the best additions to my workflow. It's incredibly helpful for managing groups of photos efficiently.

One feature that would make it even better for me is the ability to automatically create HDR stacks. This would streamline my process even further and ensure the highest quality results.

[Heidi Delacroix]

As someone just learning photoshop with a learning disability, may I say you just saved me so much time and energy with this feature. I beg you, never take it away!

[Emma K Alex]

Very cool feature. Would love to ability to exclude photos I already have added a title or keywords to.

[aloy_teoh]

The feature is great but Lightroom can be quite slow when it is culling.