Already paying Adobe? Add CullTone for the first cull
Lightroom Classic is where many photographers finish their edits. CullTone gets you there faster: it makes the first call on every frame with a reason attached, edits the keepers in your look, and either hands everything to Lightroom or delivers the gallery itself.
Our pick: CullTone. You get a decision on every photo instead of a column of scores, bursts lined up across every camera, and a way to finish and deliver a shoot without opening Lightroom at all, from $9 a month.
CullTone runs on a Mac with Apple silicon; Windows is not available yet.
A decision, with the reason beside it
The first decisions appear within seconds of the card going in. Every photo lands in Keep, Review or Archive with a sentence you can check: eyes closed, motion blur, a better frame in the same burst. You read the Review pile, flick through Archive and move anything you disagree with. Nothing is deleted.
Bursts and near-duplicates are grouped across every camera on the day, and CullTone corrects camera clocks that disagree. Second shooter an hour out? Sorted. The same files always give the same piles, so a second look at a shoot never surprises you.
For reference, Lightroom Classic 15.4, announced on 18 Jun 2026, added a Faces panel with Eye Focus and Eyes Open scores and duplicate detection, as part of the existing subscription.
| CullTone | Lightroom Classic | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9 a month (Solo) or $19 (Pro), billed monthly | US$11.99 a month (Lightroom plan) or US$19.99 with Photoshop; annual plan, billed monthly |
| Culling output | Keep, Review or Archive with a written reason | Eye Focus and Eyes Open scores, duplicates found |
| Burst grouping | Bursts and near-duplicates, across cameras, clock offsets fixed | Duplicate detection |
| Editing | 54 looks or a learned style; final JPEGs at quality 95 | Lightroom's editor |
| Client galleries | In every plan | Not compared here |
| Status | Private beta; billing not live yet | On sale |
Keep Lightroom in the loop
Like to finish in Lightroom Classic? CullTone writes an XMP sidecar next to each RAW file with the star rating, colour label, the reason for the decision and the develop settings. Point Lightroom at the folder and your picks and starting edits are there. Your originals are never changed.
Or skip it for a routine job
CullTone edits the keepers itself, starting from your camera's own colour with one of 54 looks or a style learned from your Lightroom catalogs. A quality check flags skin colour shifts and clipped highlights, and your client gets a private gallery where they can heart favourites, approve, ask for a redo and download.
Small fixes cost nothing
Paint over an exit sign or a stray cable and CullTone removes it on your Mac at no charge. Bigger changes from a prompt, such as a new sky, show their price before they run (about $0.10 to $0.14 a photo), and every photo changed with AI is labelled for your client. The Lightroom handoff page covers what goes into each sidecar.
Cull your next shoot before you open Lightroom
The 30-day trial is free and runs on a Mac with Apple silicon.