Practical writing about the unglamorous half of photography — the sorting, the grading and the delivering. Mostly about cars, because that’s what I shoot, with property and drone work alongside it.
Generic AI culling is trained on faces and blinks. Car shoots need something else: reflections, sharpness on the badge, clean backgrounds and plate privacy.
Motorsport culling breaks normal sharpness scoring — the background is meant to be blurred. How to get through thousands of panning frames without binning the good ones.
Listing photography is a volume problem with a consistency requirement. How to shoot, cull and deliver a repeatable set per car — with plates handled properly.
Property culling is about coverage and consistency, not hero frames. Plus the privacy issue in every drone file that most photographers never think about.
Aftershoot is the established name in AI culling and the better choice for many photographers. Where each one fits — written by Vantage, so read it with that in mind.
A straight guide to the AI culling landscape — Aftershoot, Narrative, FilterPixel, Imagen, Photo Mechanic and Vantage — and how to choose.
When a registration should be hidden, when a client wants it shown, and how to handle twenty plates per car without doing each one by hand.
Chrome, curved glass and an owner watching. How to shoot a classic properly in a single visit, and what to keep afterwards.
More images is not a better job. Sensible delivery counts by shoot type, and why over-delivering costs you money and reputation.
Sharp where it matters beats sharp overall. What to check at 100%, and why whole-frame sharpness scores reject good photographs.
Lightroom is a superb developing tool and a slow culling tool. How to speed it up, and when to do the cull somewhere else entirely.
Photo Mechanic is still the fastest way to cull by hand. AI culling is faster if you trust a first pass. Which suits your work.
Narrative Select is built to make your own culling faster. Vantage is built to do the first pass for you. Which philosophy suits you.
If Aftershoot isn't fitting your work, here are the real alternatives by what they're actually good at — and the cases where switching is a mistake.
Most photographers' backups are one drive and hope. A practical 3-2-1 setup, what to back up when, and the failure that catches people out.
Zip files, expiring links and 4GB email attachments. How to hand over a shoot in a way that makes you look professional and gets you referred.
AI culling trained on automotive work, with grading, plate blur and client galleries in one subscription. Free to start, currently in beta.
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