I tried an AI culling app, here's what happened:
I downloaded an AI culling app recently. I'd been seeing the ads everywhere, and culling is one of those parts of the job that most photographers (me included!) would admit they dread. So I gave it a real try.
It wasn't for me, but what I took away from the experience was a clearer understanding of what culling actually is, and why it matters more than I initially gave it credit for.
The Four Parts of a Session
I think about every project in four phases:
- Pre-production and planning
- The time on set, actually shooting
- The cull
- And the edit
Most conversations about photography focus on the first two and the last one. The cull gets treated like the thing in between, admin, a sorting task, something to get through before the real work begins.
I realized, I don't think that's right for me.
Culling is a Creative Decision
The images I choose to bring into editing are as important as how I capture them on set and how I edit them. Culling is where I look back at everything that happened during a session and decide what the story actually is. That process requires the same eye, the same instinct, the same intentionality as being behind the camera in the first place.
When I'm culling, I'm not just removing the blinks and the motion blur. I'm asking: does this image earn its place? Does it add something, or is it a variation of something I already have that does it better?
Right now, that's not a question I want an algorithm answering on my behalf.
Why the App Didn't Work
The app grouped duplicates, which sounds useful in theory. In practice, it consistently flagged the frame I would have kept and buried the one I would have cut. The way it organized images didn't map to how I see or how I think and after two hours I went back to my usual process, and left with more of an opinion about it than I'd had going in.
I think there are tools that make you sharper and there are tools that remove you (the human) from the process. For me, I learned, the cull sits too close to the creative core of a project to hand off. The final images I deliver to a client aren't just the best-exposed frames from the day. They're the result of thousands of small decisions, made on set and then made again at my desk during post production.
