Skip the first pass. CullTone makes it for you.
CullTone looks at the whole card before you do. Every photo lands in Keep, Review or Archive with the reason beside it, so your evening starts with checking a short pile instead of rating frame one of thousands.
| CullTone Solo | Photo Mechanic | Photo Mechanic Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $9 | $14.99 | $24.99 |
| Yearly | $108 (twelve monthly payments) | $149 | $249 |
| Buy once | Not offered | $299, with 1 year of updates | $399, with 1 year of updates |
| Computers | One seat; Mac with Apple silicon | One user on up to 2 computers, macOS or Windows | |
| How it culls | Each photo goes to Keep, Review or Archive, with a reason | You rate and tag; no automatic culling on the pages we read | |
| Also does | Editing, quality check, client galleries | Ingest, browse, metadata | Adds a catalog database |
Our pick: CullTone. The hours in a cull go into looking at every frame. CullTone does that first look for you, then carries the keepers on to edits, a quality check and a client gallery, all on one flat plan from $9 a month.
Fewer frames beat faster frames
The first decisions appear within seconds of the card going in. Sharp, open-eyed frames go to Keep. Blinks, motion blur and the weaker shots in a burst go to Archive, each with a plain reason such as "eyes closed" or "a better frame in the same burst". The close calls wait in Review for you.
So you spend the evening on the photos that need your eye, and the same files always give the same piles, which means a second look at a card never surprises you. Nothing is deleted. Archive is a pile, not a bin, and you can move any frame back whenever you like.
Photo Mechanic, from Camera Bits, is a manual tool for ingesting, browsing, rating and metadata; Plus adds a catalog database. You can read the details on its buying page.
What happens after the cull?
The keepers go straight into the edit. Pick one of 54 looks or, on Pro, teach CullTone your own style from your Lightroom catalogs, and every frame starts from the camera's own colour. A quality check flags skin colour shifts and clipped highlights before a client sees anything.
Then the gallery. Clients mark favourites, approve, ask for a redo, comment and download, and you set the expiry date and the download switch yourself. If you finish in Lightroom, CullTone writes XMP sidecars with the rating, colour label and reason for every photo.
One thing to know before you start: CullTone runs on Macs with Apple silicon, and Windows is not available yet. We're in private beta, and billing isn't live. See the reasons CullTone gives on the culling page.