Best practices for Imagen Culling

Imagen Culling is a unique AI culling solution for photographers. Because Imagen Culling utilizes proprietary algorithms and an integrated workflow solution with Imagen Editing, we thought this documentation could help you understand the methodology and best practices for Imagen Culling.

  • Imagen culling will analyze your photos and help you reduce time when culling. 
  • You can receive the metadata results in a Lightroom Catalog or XMP. Some RAW files, like DNG, may embed the XMP metadata within the RAW file rather than leave them as sidecar files.
  • You can get the results as either Color Labels or Stars Ratings. You get to choose your preferred method. You can also adjust what stars or colors are used for each level of cull.

Understanding Culling rating results

Each photo is evaluated for similarity to create sets of similar photos. We designed our rating systems to give you flexibility for your existing workflow.

imagen_culling_star_ratings.jpg

  • COMING SOON 1-Star = Low Rated, likely not worth keeping, and there are likely better alternatives.
  • 3-Stars = Maybe, they might be worth keeping as they could be good choices.
  • 4-Stars = Unique photo, there are no alternatives to this photo. You should review these one-of-a-kind photos
  • 5-Stars = Keeper, which are your selected best photos

If you are using color labels as your culling preference, then think of the results like a traffic light.

imagen_culling_color_ratings.jpg

  • COMING SOON Red =  Low Rated, likely not worth keeping, and there are likely better alternatives.
  • Yellow = Maybe, might be worth keeping as they could be good choices.
  • Blue = Unique photo, there are no alternatives to this photo. You should review these one-of-a-kind photos
  • Green = Keeper, which are your selected best photos

Recommended Culling Workflow

  1. Review the “Unique photo” selections by using your preferred software for filtering (Lightroom Classic, Photo Mechanic, Adobe Bridge) and see if there are any photos there you would like to keep.
  2. Review the “Keeper” photos, and if you see an image that you are not satisfied with, adjust the color/rating for each photo to what you feel is best.
  3. Check the “Maybe” category. This is where you cull-in your absolute best photos.
  4. COMING SOON If desired, you can review the “Low-rated” to ensure no photo was missed.

Sending a Culled Project for Editing

To learn how to send a culled project for editing, please see this article: Send a culled project to edit

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