AI-powered photo culling that explains its decisions, rescues your rejects, retouches portraits, checks your shot list, flags distractions, learns your editing style, and organizes by who's in the photo. One price. Yours forever.
130+ features · 125 fully functional · $39 lifetime
macOS version coming soon
9-point quality pipeline with parallel processing and weighted scoring
Laplacian variance scoring (0-100) identifies motion blur, camera shake, and missed focus. Test shot detection catches lens cap frames, blank shots, and overexposed accidents automatically.
Mean brightness analysis with under/over-exposure detection. High-frequency noise estimation. Standard-deviation-based contrast measurement. Weighted quality score (45/25/8/12) adapts by shooting mode.
16×16 perceptual difference hashing with union-find grouping marks the best of each duplicate cluster. EXIF timestamp analysis (1.5-second window) detects burst sequences and surfaces the winner.
CR2, CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF, ORF, RW2, PEF, DNG, and more. Embedded JPEG extraction for instant preview. Five shooting mode presets: General, Wedding, Portrait, Sports, Landscape — each adjusts detection weights.
No other culling tool explains its decisions. Apex Culler shows its work on every photo.
Every photo shows exactly why the AI made its call. Reject reasons with emoji badges: closed eyes, blur, noise, distraction. Keeper tooltips show what made each image stand out. No black box.
Color-coded confidence percentage on every card. Tap to expand a full per-metric breakdown: sharpness, exposure, noise, contrast — all scored 0-100. Low-confidence photos flagged for human review.
Identity tracking across your entire shoot — not just face detection
Store reference photos with names. Mark bride, groom, CEO as VIP — they get a +15% score boost and are never auto-rejected. 128-dimensional face embeddings with cosine similarity matching via dlib.
Auto-groups photos by person across thousands of frames. Eye Aspect Ratio detection catches blinks. Face quality scoring (size + confidence + eyes + sharpness). Multi-backend: dlib with grayscale fallback.
CLIP vision AI, shot list verification, and lighting detection
CLIP-based content matching against shot list templates. Shot type detection: ceremony, portrait, group, detail, candid, and more. Blue badges show matches on cards. Know what's missing before the couple leaves.
AI classifies every frame: portrait, landscape, golden hour, night. Lighting detection: low light, harsh sun, overcast, indoor. Golden hour scoring via warm temperature ratio. Distraction detection catches blown highlights, crushed blacks, edge cutoff.
Other cullers reject photos. Apex Culler rescues them — then retouches them.
Multi-pass AI denoise (NLM with strength 0-100). Edge-aware AI sharpen (unsharp mask + LAB luminance-only pro mode). Auto exposure (histogram targeting). Auto white balance (RGB average correction). Before/after comparison with 0-100% blend slider.
Seven AI retouching tools: eye enhancement (iris brighten, catch light, sharpen), teeth whitening (LAB space), hair enhancement (bilateral smooth + shine), skin smoothing (bilateral + edge preservation), blemish reduction (median diff detection), wrinkle softening (Laplacian + edge-aware), background blur (face mask + Gaussian).
ACES-style filmic tone mapping. Filmic highlight rolloff and gamma shadow lift. 5-point Lightroom-style tone curve. High-pass clarity and fine-detail texture. Dark channel dehaze (He et al.). OKLAB perceptually uniform vibrance and saturation. Vignette with amount/midpoint/roundness/feather. Midtone-masked film grain.
Tracks exposure, contrast, temperature, tint preferences. Per-scene-type profiles build over time. Learning rate adapts (0.08-0.20 alpha). 500-edit rolling history tracks suggested vs final settings and ratings. Thumbs up/down feedback on every AI decision. Gets smarter every session.
Five comparison modes plus spray can bulk selection
Press Q: AI finds close-scoring pairs and queues A/B comparisons. Press C on 2+ selected photos for manual compare. Duplicate compare (D key) and burst compare (B key) show groups with override. Winner indicators per metric.
Press S to toggle spray can — click-drag across thumbnails to keep or reject in bulk. Before/after slider (0-100% blend) on every repaired image. Undo/redo with 50-item stack and full state restore.
Six screens, 14 badge types, 28-keyword natural language search, 26 keyboard shortcuts
Welcome (3-panel AI settings + import), Review/Cull grid (cards with badges + stats bar + filters), Preview mode (full-size + info panel), Export screen (7+ export options + photographer settings), Library/Session catalog (search/sort/re-open/delete), Settings dialog (20+ configurable options). Processing overlay with live counts and tips.
Keep/reject status, star rating (1-5), confidence %, repaired indicator, duplicate group (with click-to-compare), best-of-group crown, burst position, distraction flag (yellow with interactive flyout), shot list match (blue), highlight star, color label strip, reject reason (emoji + text), before/after button, feedback thumbs up/down.
Type keywords into the search box to filter: 28 recognized terms including "blurry," "sharp," "smiling," "vip," "duplicate," "repaired," "highlight," and more. Combines with filter buttons: All, 5-Star, Keepers, Rejects, Repaired, Distractions, Shot List.
K/P=Keep, R/X=Reject, Space=Toggle, F=Flip, 1-5=Stars, 0=Clear, 6-9=Colors, H=Highlight, S=Spray, D=Duplicates, B=Burst, C=Compare, Q=Survey, M=Cycle modes, Ctrl+M=Mute, Tab=Score overlay, Shift+Tab=Summary, Z=Zoom, Ctrl+Z/Y=Undo/Redo, Ctrl+F=Faces, Ctrl+A=Select all, Enter=Accept+advance, Esc=Close.
Your analysis work is never lost
All sessions tracked in a master catalog with total sessions, photos, keepers, keep rate, and rescued counts. Search by name, folder, or shoot type. Sort by date, name, photos, or keep rate. Re-open any session for continued work. Delete sessions you're done with.
Analysis saves to index files that travel with your photos. Re-open any session instantly without re-analyzing. Session summary (Shift+Tab) shows performance stats at any time.
11 export options including C2PA content credentials and QR-shared client galleries
XMP sidecar generation with star rating, color label, and pick flag. Send to Lightroom hot folder with auto-launch. IPTC keyword embedding via Python/Pillow. Zero-footprint: delete .xmp files to undo everything.
Generate self-contained HTML galleries with dark/light theme, lazy loading, and RAW conversion. Built-in HTTP server (localhost:8080-8089) for instant local sharing. QR code generation — hand your phone to the client at the event.
Platform-optimized export presets for Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube formats. Sneak peek export: highlights with watermark for same-day client previews. CSV report with all metrics per photo.
Repaired images get C2PA content credential signing via c2patool — proving AI enhancement provenance. Copy keepers and move rejects to organized folders. Full export screen with photographer settings.
Verified against current codebase. Every feature listed here is functional.
Apex Culler is developed by ShutterNoise's founder. This page exists on ShutterNoise because we believe in being upfront about that relationship rather than hiding it behind a separate marketing site. The product stands on its feature set and pricing. Our culling software comparison evaluates Apex Culler alongside every major competitor with identical criteria — including honest assessment of its limitations (Windows-only for now, new at scale). Feature counts on this page are verified against the current codebase. This page was produced in collaboration with AI, consistent with ShutterNoise's transparency policy.
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