cullzy
early access

Photo culling, for people who aren't photographers

Culling is a photographer's word for going through photos and keeping the good ones. If you aren't a photographer, you don't need the software built for wedding shoots. You need to see one photo at a time, decide quickly where it goes, take any decision back, and not have to look at screenshots and duplicates one by one.

What culling means, and what it means for you

For a photographer, culling means picking the best frames from a shoot: 2,000 photos of one afternoon, almost all the same, and the job is finding the 200 worth editing. Search for “photo culling app” and that's what you get, from apps made for that job.

Your pile is probably different: twelve years of phone backups, an old laptop, a camera card from a holiday, all mixed together. Hardly any of the photos are alike. The question for each one isn't “is this the sharpest frame?” but “what is this, and where does it go?” That's sorting more than culling, and it needs a different tool.

Why photographers' apps feel wrong

  • They expect star ratings and colour labels, and then a second app to act on them. You want the photo to end up in a folder, and that's all.
  • Many keep a catalog: a database of your photos that you import into first, and that has to be kept in step with the files from then on.
  • Their best features, such as spotting closed eyes or ranking near-identical frames, solve a problem your pile mostly doesn't have.
  • They're priced for people who earn money from photos, often as a subscription.

What to look for instead

Whatever you end up using, free or paid, these are the things that matter:

  1. It moves files into real folders. Albums in Apple Photos don't move anything. That's fine if Photos is where your pictures live, and not if they're on a drive. More on that in Apple Photos or plain folders?
  2. One photo, big, and the next one comes up by itself. Most of the time goes on getting to the next photo, so that's where the speed is.
  3. Mistakes cost nothing. An undo that works, and nothing deleted for real until you say so. You decide faster when a wrong choice can be taken back.
  4. The obvious stuff is found for you. Screenshots, images forwarded through WhatsApp, and duplicates are often a big share of a phone backup, and none of them needs a decision one at a time.
  5. It works where your photos are, including an external drive, without uploading them anywhere.

Each photo is one of four decisions

It's quicker when you know there are only four possible answers:

  • It belongs somewhere. Family, trips, the house, the dog: a handful of folders, nine at most.
  • It isn't worth keeping. It goes into a folder called delete, not the bin. You look through it once at the end.
  • You can't decide. Put it in a maybe folder, or leave it where it is and move on. Don't stop on it.
  • It isn't really a photo. A screenshot, a receipt, a forwarded meme. Deal with these as a batch: see separating screenshots and forwards.

Rules that keep it moving

  • Go with your first instinct. You can tell in a second whether you care about a photo. Thinking for longer rarely changes the answer.
  • Sort now, edit later. Cropping and fixing colours while you sort turns a weekend into a month.
  • Don't rename photos one by one. The folder says what they are. If you want tidy names, rename the whole folder at the end.
  • Good enough in one pass is better than perfect in none. You can always go through a folder again.
  • Do it in short sittings. Twenty minutes a night keeps your decisions quick. Two hours in a row makes every photo feel hard.

Before you start

  • Make sure there's a second copy of anything that only exists on one drive. Sorting is when files get moved, and moving is when things go wrong.
  • Leave the Photos library alone. On a Mac, your Pictures folder usually holds a Photos Library, which looks like a single file. Don't point any sorting app at it or at a folder containing it, because moving photos out of it damages the library. Sort the folders next to it instead, or export the photos first.

Where cullzy fits

Cullzy is built for this kind of pile, and everyday is the mode it starts in. You choose a folder, pick a few of the piles it suggests or name your own, and a photo fills the screen. A number key moves it into that pile's folder, and the next photo is already there. Screenshots, forwards and duplicates are found first and offered to you as a selection to look over. Nothing is deleted, and ⌘Z undoes a move, even after you've quit and come back. K leaves a photo where it is and counts it as done, which is the “can't decide” answer.

On-device AI is optional and off until you turn it on. With it on, cullzy can point out blurry shots and look-alikes, or find “beach” or “receipts” across your photos, using Apple's own image recognition on your Mac. It only ever makes suggestions. You still file every photo yourself.

When something else is the better pick:

Last checked . Something here out of date? Say so and it gets fixed.

Try cullzy on your own pile

It's a Mac app in early access. One email when it's ready.