Culling, choosing the keepers from a big shoot, is the slowest part of most photographers' day. It doesn't have to be. Here is a simple, plain-English workflow that turns a two-hour slog into a focused half-hour, and the shortcuts that make it stick.
Updated 24 July 2026 · 6 min read · by Cullora Studio
wedding_0614, culling
DSC04818 · ARW+JPG+XMPƒ/1.8 · 1/2000 · ISO 100
→ keepers/
DSC04819 · ARW+JPGƒ/2.0 · 1/1600 · ISO 200
✗ rejected
DSC04820 · ARW+JPG+XMPƒ/1.4 · 1/3200 · ISO 100
→ keepers/
DSC04821 · ARW+JPGƒ/2.8 · 1/800 · ISO 400
✗ rejected
CtrlXone keypress files the group
The idea in one picture: see the photo, press one key, the whole group is filed, then the next frame is already on screen.
First, what "culling" actually means
Culling is the sorting step that happens before editing: you go through everything you shot and split it into keepers and rejects, so you only ever edit the photos worth editing. On a wedding or event that can be 2,000–5,000 frames. Get culling fast and you get hours of your life back on every job.
The trap is doing it inside a heavy editor that makes you import, build a catalog and render previews before you can even start. By then you've waited ten minutes to look at your first photo.
The 6-step fast-culling workflow
1
Cull from the embedded preview, not the RAW
Every RAW file has a full-size JPEG baked inside it by your camera. That preview opens instantly, no decoding, no waiting. Most of the "culling is slow" problem is really just software rendering RAW files you were only ever going to glance at. Use a tool that shows the embedded JPEG and you skip the wait entirely.
2
Treat RAW + JPG + sidecar as one photo
DSC00123.ARW, DSC00123.JPG and DSC00123.xmp are the same picture. Decide once, and move the whole group together. If your tool files them one file at a time, you will orphan sidecars and lose edits, so make grouping automatic.
3
Do two quick passes, not one slow one
Pass one: fly through and rejectthe obvious misses, blinks, blur, test frames. Don't agonise. Pass two: from what's left, pick the keepers. Two fast passes beat one perfectionist pass every time, because early decisions are cheap and easy to change.
4
Keep your hands on the keyboard
Reaching for the mouse for every photo is where the minutes go. Learn a handful of one-key shortcuts, pick, reject, rate, next, and your speed roughly doubles. Cullora follows Lightroom's muscle memory: P picks, X rejects, 1–5 rate.
5
Use one rating system and stick to it
Pick a simple rule and never rethink it mid-shoot. A common one: reject = gone, 1 pick = a keeper, 5 stars = a hero shot for the highlight reel. Consistency is what lets you filter down to "show me only the keepers" in one click when the pass is done.
6
Make every move reversible
You cull fast when a wrong call costs nothing. Work in a tool with an undo journal that never overwrites files and always renames collisions instead of silently replacing them. Confidence is speed.
The shortcut cheat-sheet
These are the only keys you need for a full pass. They match Lightroom, so the muscle memory carries over:
XReject, flag a miss without touching a file
PPick, flag a keeper
1–5Star rating · 0 clears it
CtrlXFile the whole photo group into your keepers folder
CtrlZUndo, walk back the last move, any time
Doing it in Cullora
Cullora is a free, keyboard-first culling app built around exactly this workflow. You open a folder and start straight away, no import, no catalog. It shows the embedded preview instantly, handles RAW + JPG + sidecar as one photo, and files the whole group with a single keypress. Every move lands in a 100-deep undo journal, and nothing is ever silently overwritten. It works fully offline with no account.
Usually because the software fully decodes each RAW just to show it. RAW files are large and slow to render, so flipping through a shoot stutters. The fix is to view the JPEG preview the camera already embedded in every RAW, it opens instantly, so you spend your time deciding instead of waiting.
Should I cull in Lightroom?
You can, but Lightroom is a full editor and treats culling as a side task, you often wait for imports, catalog builds and 1:1 previews first. A dedicated culling tool skips all of that and just lets you review and file. Many photographers cull in a fast tool, then send only the keepers to Lightroom to edit.
What is the fastest way to reject bad shots?
Do a quick first pass with a single reject key (X in Cullora and Lightroom) and don't overthink it, remove blinks, blurred frames and duplicates. Then do a second pass to pick keepers from what survived. Two fast passes are faster and less tiring than one slow, perfectionist pass.
Will culling software move or delete my RAW files?
It should move them, never rewrite or overwrite them. Cullora moves the whole photo group (RAW + JPG + XMP) into your chosen folder, renames instead of overwriting on any name collision, and keeps a 100-deep undo journal so any move can be walked back. It never re-encodes your originals.