Wildlife photo culling for the bursts you can't face
A morning at the hide, pre-capture on, and the card holds thousands of frames of the same kingfisher. Out of a sixty-frame burst you need one, and the other fifty-nine are a storage bill. CullTone's wildlife and birds presets find the animal, judge focus on it, and leave you a short list worth your coffee.
The animal, not the branch
The subject is found first, then focus is judged on its sharpest part, the stand-in for eye and head. A crisp twig in front of a soft heron doesn't win.
Small subjects found
A distant bird in a big sky gets a second, closer search instead of being written off as an empty frame.
Reasons in plain words
"The bird is sharp but cut off at the right edge." You know why a frame lost before you open it.
Wildlife and birds: one workflow, two presets
Both presets share the long-lens day: huge bursts, high ISO, subjects that move and backgrounds that don't. Noise up to ISO 25,600 costs a frame only a little, since you'll denoise later anyway. Motion blur on the animal is a fault. A wing, tail or leg cut off at the frame edge is flagged by name, and so is a subject too small to judge. Human faces never take priority over the animal, so the ranger in the jeep doesn't steal the keeper.
| Wildlife | Birds | |
|---|---|---|
| Looks for first | Any animal, then people | Birds, then other animals |
| Weight on sharpness | Highest of any preset but birds | The highest of all |
| Burst ends after a pause of | About one second | About 0.8 seconds, for fast pre-capture runs |
| Aims to keep | Around 10 frames in 100 | Around 6 in 100 |
| Birds in flight | Not singled out | Recognised and named in the reason |
Wild mammals are called "animal" in the reasons, so a fox won't be named a fox. And the cull judges sharpness and framing; it doesn't yet rate wing position or behaviour, so a sharp bird with awkward wings can beat a softer, better pose. That's what the Review pile is for, and the optional paid second opinion on the closest bursts is told that eye sharpness and behaviour come first, at a price you approve before it runs.
Natural colour, gently
The starting edit corrects white balance only lightly, so dawn stays dawn and a forest stays green. True to camera keeps your camera's colour exactly. Film: Fuji cool gives fresh greens and cool shadows for woodland and wetland. Golden-hour glow suits savannah evenings. Apply a look to the whole outing, then adjust any frame by hand in the edit studio.
Sharing with clients, guides and print buyers
Send a gallery to a tour group, a magazine editor or a print client. They heart favourites, approve frames and ask for a redo with a note, and they can download single photos or a ZIP once you switch downloads on. If you finish in Lightroom, XMP sidecars carry every rating and reason across, and the sidecar guide shows how. Watermarks aren't available yet, so for print sales keep proofs small or downloads off.
Before your next trip
Does it work on a laptop in the field?
It runs on a Mac with Apple silicon, without an internet connection for the cull itself, at no charge per photo. CullTone is in beta and there's no Windows build yet.
Will it delete my rejects?
Never. Archive is a label you can undo with one key. Deleting stays your decision.
Photographing pets as well? The pet photography page covers cats, dogs and their owners.
Bring home a short list, not a full card
Thirty days free. Plans start at $9 a month, the same however many frames your bursts hold. See pricing in full.