photo culling software
The fastest way to
pick your keepers.
Browse thousands of RAW photos in under a second. Pick, reject, export to Lightroom or Capture One. A 4.5 MB native app that does one thing and does it fast.
How it works
Open any folder
Point cull at a folder of RAW files. Thousands of images load instantly — no importing, no catalog, no database. Every RAW file already contains a full-resolution JPEG preview baked in by your camera. Cull extracts these directly. No decoding. No waiting.
Pick or reject
P to pick, X to reject, arrow keys to move. Keyboard-driven culling workflow designed for speed. Review an entire wedding shoot in minutes, not hours.
Hand off to your editor
XMP sidecars are written the instant you pick or reject. Import into Lightroom or Capture One and your picks appear as green labels, rejects are already flagged. Star ratings are untouched — ready for your grading pass.
Why is it so fast?
Every RAW file — CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, DNG — already contains a full-resolution JPEG preview baked in by your camera. Most photo software ignores this and decodes the entire RAW file from scratch.
cull extracts these embedded previews directly. No RAW decoding. No rendering pipeline. Just the image your camera already made, displayed instantly.
Features
One job, done fast. Everything a culling app needs, nothing it doesn't.
Instant RAW preview
Extracts embedded JPEG previews from RAW files. No decoding, no rendering pipeline. Images appear the moment you open a folder.
4.5 MB native app
Built in Rust with GPU-accelerated rendering. Smaller than a single RAW file. No Electron, no runtime, no bloat.
XMP sidecar output
Writes industry-standard XMP files on every pick or reject. Lightroom reads them as flags and color labels. Capture One reads them as color tags.
Keyboard-driven
P to pick, X to reject, U to unmark. Arrow keys to navigate. Shift+arrow to extend selection. Grid and loupe views.
EXIF at a glance
Camera body, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, ISO. Filter your shoot by camera or lens to compare setups.
Export picks
Copy your selections to a _picks/ subfolder with one shortcut. Open in Lightroom, Capture One, Photoshop, or any editor.
Works with your workflow
cull sits before your editor. Pick your keepers here, then import the folder into Lightroom or Capture One — your picks and rejects are already tagged.
| Action | XMP written | Lightroom | Capture One |
|---|---|---|---|
| P Pick | Label = "Green" | Green label | Green tag |
| X Reject | Rating = -1 | Reject flag | Red tag |
| U Unmark | Rating = 0 | Unflagged | No tag |
| R Rotate | Orientation | Correct rotation | Correct rotation |
Star ratings are untouched. They're reserved for your own grading pass within picks.
Rejects just work. Lightroom's native reject flag is Rating = -1 in XMP. Cull writes this directly.
Green = picked. Lightroom's Pick flag has no XMP representation. Green label is the standard proxy.
Every major RAW format
If your camera made it, cull can open it.
How it compares
| cull | Photo Mechanic | Lightroom Classic | Capture One | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| App size | 4.5 MB | 133-307 MB | ~2 GB | ~1.2 GB |
| Import step | None | None | Required | Required |
| XMP sidecars | Instant | Yes | On export | On export |
| Price | $14.99 | $149/yr or $299 | $15/mo | $15-24/mo or $299 |
Prices as of March 2026. Photo Mechanic Plus perpetual $299, subscription $149/yr. Lightroom Classic via Adobe Photography Plan. Capture One Pro subscription or perpetual license.
Get cull
One-time purchase. No subscription, no account, no cloud.
Open source on GitHub. Buy a license to support development and get a ready-to-run binary.