(Early Access) Assisted Culling (LrClassic)

[Rikk Flohr: Photography]

Introducing Assisted Culling (Early Access) in Lightroom Classic. 

For providing feedback for Lightroom Desktop, click here. 

We’re bringing Assisted Culling to Lightroom Classic as part of the MAX 2025 release! This AI-powered workflow helps you quickly narrow large photo sets to the best shots using objective signals. 

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 

• In Lightroom Classic, Assisted Culling is available in the Library module and Import dialog. 

• 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. 

Feedback 

Please share your experience in this thread. Include: 

• App version/platform 

• System details 

• Example images (optional) 

Lisa Ngo / Kwamina Arthur – Product Managers, Lightroom 

Posted by:

[Piotr Gardecki]

I’ve started testing Assisted Culling, and so far my impressions are very positive. The tool handles large catalogs smoothly, import works flawlessly, and the file selection feels accurate and fast. It’s shaping up to be a solid addition to the everyday workflow.

I still need to process more images across different formats to fully evaluate the algorithm’s performance, but the Batch Actions feature also shows promising potential for streamlining the workflow.

[defaultzdb1tde3wl8e]

AI assisted subject focus etc for people is already available via 3rd party tools already aimed at weddings, events etc, Adobe should be focusing on what 3rd party tools don't already offer e.g. subject focus for animals, birds, sharpness of landscapes and photos in general.  Should also be able to see the scoring from the focus analysis and be able to sort images by the score e.g. when shooting a high-speed burst of a something like a bird in flight, being able to sort the burst by sharpness scoring helps pick out the sharpest image in a burst, take a look at when OM Workspace (it's one decent feature) does in this area.  Auto-stack also ought to be able to stack on the basis of things like drive mode, if you are using exposure, focus bracketing etc, this can be done via EXIF data, although likely camera system dependent as different systems record this data differently in the EXIF.

[McToddy]

I upvote because I've been wanting to have an automated way for stacking images  that are part of bracketed set (i.e, For Sony A7iii, there's EXIF attribuytes ReleaseMode, SequenceImageNumber and SequemceLength), but I am not sure what EXIF attribs that Canon/Nikon/other use to map for an automation algorithm)

[john beardsworth]

Look at the new AutoStack by Visual Similarity.

[Jon Woodbury]

Am I missing the location of the AutoStack by Visual Similarity? I'm a RE photographer and would LOVE to autocull and autostack brackets but all I see is the options for portrait photographers with subject focus and eye's open/focused. My wife would say that I'm looking like a man, but I really don't see a non-portrait option. 

[Jon Woodbury]

I found it, it's under stack, not cull. An odd distinction. It doesn't work very well though. It seems to focus much more on lighting and color instead of shapes.  For example, most of the way through the slider it groups all my backyard shots together, despite the fact that they're different angles and the actual structure is very different, the lighting must seem the same. By the time I move the slider to a level of similarity that it separates the different backyard frame, the inside "flambient" frames no longer stack because, despite being shot on a tripod and identical in structure, they're lit differently and it's clearly favoring color and overall vibe over form/structure in making the decision about similarity.  It needs to analyze images like the auto-align in photoshop does so it can find and stack images that are lit differently but otherwise identical.

[Jon Woodbury]

For example. These two frames are shot on a tripod and are identical in structure but different in lighting so I can put them together in PS. Stack by Visual Similarity does not stack them at all unless I lower the similarity requirement to a level where it's no longer useful. 

[Tijazap]

I upvote this as well a I'd really want to be able to sort by score. I know this is a work in progress but the inability to work with birds, animals or landscape for scoring or stacking eliminates its usefulness for me at this time. Another warning: There does not seem to be a way to turn it off. If you are not in solo mode any folder you review starts to be analyzed, taking up valuable processing time. I'm going to drop the panel(s) off my right side library panels until another solution is developed, as that seems to quell the processing.

[john beardsworth]

There does not seem to be a way to turn it off.

By @Tijazap

Just close the panel.

[Dan5E95]

When I try to import to LR, as soon as I hit the "import" key an ad, or notice, appears about this new feature and the rest of the screen goes dark.  There is an "x" on the corner of the panel, but the input from my cursor seems to be shut off.  I cannot even close LR, let alone this little panel.  I don't need this feature. How do I get rid of it?

[giovannimodesti]

Non vedo alcun motivo per cui se certe funzioni esistano già in programmi di terze parti non debbano venire implementate anche in LR. La comodità di utilizzare un'unico programa per editare le migliaia di foto di servizi come ad esempio i matrimoni ha un grandissimo valore.

[besler]

Just upgraded to try this, in Classic. Pretty impressed so far. Would love to see the ability to have LR Classic automatically choose the "best" image in a grouping / stack, similar to how other tools work. Base this on smiles, sharpness, etc., but also what might do best when shared via social media, for instance.

Would also love to see LR Classic limit to the best X amount of images.

[besler]

Also, PLEASE give the ability to manually select/reject via keyboard shortcut.

[john beardsworth]

In the new AutoStack commands, it does put the "best" of the stack on top and there are elements of the subjective criteria in that. The stack itself is ordered naturally. 

[besler]

Yeah I realized that after watching a few additional videos on it.

To add to my coment about manually selecting, I'd LOVE the ability to do this in loupe/filmstrip view too, and not just grid view.

[ChrisOgden]

Disappointing User Interface violence to long time/pro users: Our muscle memory typing (which is critical when one spends 12+hours a day in LrC, has been broken by putting the "Assisted Culling" and "Culling Scores" (btw, labelled inconsistently in the Windows-> Panels menu, where it's labelled "Photo Quality") at the TOP!?!  

What used to be ctrl/cmd 1 -> Quick Develop,  cmd/ctrl 4 Metadata, etc. now creates completely new results. YUCK!

How about you respect us users and 1. allow US to set the Keyboard Shortcuts (which would be helpful throughout the program)

or PLEASE allow we the users to change the order of the Library, right side Panels, changing the cmd/ctrl keys

or Put the new modules at THE BOTTOM of the panel.

To add insult to injury these new panels really only apply to Portrait oriented folks. Right now at least, they are mostly irrelevant to Fine Art, Landscape, etc. photographers. So to put them, immovably at the top and break our navigation is really crappy indeed.

There doesn't seem to be any workarounds(?) Can't use a keyboard re-mapping program  (like Keyboard Maestro on the Mac), because the shortcuts are Module-dependent (cmd/ctrl 1 does 1 thing in Library, another in Develop, etc.).   

UGH!

[ChrisOgden]

And also, no, hiding the Culling panels doesn't change the keyboard shortcuts. And reflexive typing the OLD shortcuts unhides the damn culling panels.

[ChrisOgden]

And saying the new "auto-stacking" feature will benefit non-portrait folks is only partially true. MANY of us hate Stacks, and wish we had a preference where we could completely turn it off. We've had to learn to frequently go back to Library, select thumbnails, and press cmd-shift-G to unstack/unhide. Yuck again! 

[C.Cella]

@ChrisOgden I i recommend to download Any Shortcut plugin @johnrellis

https://johnrellis.com/lightroom/anyshortcut.htm

You will be able to set again Cmd + 1 to Quick Develop, and do much more.

 "Ui Customisation" is off the table.

[ChrisOgden]

Thanks, I'll check it out. I have many of John Rellis' excellent mods!

[ChrisOgden]

Any Shortcut is a good stopgap measure (still need's Adobe's intentionality fix and allow we the users to assign shortcuts). You can assign command/ctrl-1 etc. BUT "beware this affects the right-column panels in every module, including Develop."  It's a bit tricky to find in the plugin. To find it, search "by Matching Shortcut" (e.g. "Cmd 1"). And then you'll see "Expand Collapse Right Panel" in the "Matching Text" field...

[McToddy]

where can we submit bug reports / performance issues?

- culling tips (highlight boundary exceed window)

- culling tips (unable to play this video)

- Assisted Culling -> View Rejects showed rejects briefly, then all rejects disappeared. I had to select View -> All, then back to View -> Reject for the culling rejects (red X, not the green checked images) to reappear.

(I didnt grab  a screenshot of the rejected images not viewable)
LrC v15.0 Build 202510171722-44F87028 on Win 11 25H2

[C.Cella]

An issue for all users:
Your scores will NOT update if in Library you did any of the following:

1. Used "Quick Develop"
2. Past/Sync Settings,

3. Apply a Develop Preset,

4. Apply settings vis SDK (Plug-ins)

To make score update you must go in Develop OR change source and come back to it.

So be careful about scores as they might be false and either stack photos that are not similar anymore due to edits you did or reject photos that are not to be rejected.

.

[kx2]

So after trying this the folder shows 39 photo's but only 1 is visible how do you get back to seeing the complete folder.  No return button, no cancel button do I need to reimport the photo's ?