Windows · Version 0.8.4 · Private beta

FastCull - AI culling that learned how I cull.

Point it at a wedding folder and it picks the keepers the way I would: the right moments, the best frame of every burst, plenty of guests and faces, every group formal and the confetti. Then I review, swap and apply - just like Photo Mechanic.

⬇ Download for Windows (0.8.4) How to install Installer · 719 MB · Windows 10/11 64-bit

What it does

✦

Culls a wedding in minutes

Reads the preview inside each RAW (CR3, CR2, NEF, ARW, DNG…) - about 3-4 minutes for 3,500 frames on a desktop GPU.

◎

Moments, not just sharpness

Groups near-identical frames into moments, decides which moments to keep, then picks the best frame of each.

☺

Guests & faces

Keeps one-off shots of people at my usual rate - a People slider gives more or fewer.

❖

My hard rules

At least one frame of every group-formal combination, and at least 4 frames of every confetti moment.

▦

Photo Mechanic-style browsing

Fast contact sheet, viewer with filmstrip, 100% zoom from the full-size JPEG, colour labels 1-8, stars, tags, filters F1-F4.

≋

Review groups

Work through similar photos one group at a time: keep this, accept the AI pick, add a keeper or discard the group.

◷

Time sync

Line up the clocks of two cameras: pick matching frames, it suggests the shift and applies it to one camera, a time range or a filename filter.

↻

Learns & syncs

Retrain on your own culls. Models are ~3 MB and sync between PCs through OneDrive.

How good is it?

Blind tests on my own weddings that the model had never seen (it was trained on the others).

74%of the moments I kept, it kept too (3 May 2026 weddings)
90%of my keepers have a similar AI keep within 30 s
36%exact same frame as mine (I often keep 2-3 of a burst; it keeps 1)
114weddings / 420,000 frames it learned from (2025-26)

Install

  1. Download FastCull-Setup-0.8.4.exe (above).
  2. Run it. If Windows SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC", click More info → Run anyway (the installer isn't code-signed).
  3. No admin rights needed - it installs for your user only, with a desktop shortcut.
  4. Updating: just run the newer installer; settings, models and analysed shoots are kept.

Requirements

  • Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, ~1.2 GB free disk.
  • A DirectX 12 graphics card is recommended (NVIDIA, AMD or Intel) - it also runs on the processor, just slower.
  • 16 GB RAM recommended for big weddings.

Quick start

  1. Open folder (Ctrl+O) - it analyses and culls automatically.
  2. Browse: colours 1-8, stars Ctrl+1-5, tag T, viewer Enter, zoom Z.
  3. Review groups (Ctrl+G) to check the AI's choices quickly.
  4. Want more from a stretch of the day? Select it and press +.
  5. Apply labels writes the colour labels to the XMP sidecars for Photo Mechanic / Lightroom.
Safe with your files: FastCull only reads your photos. Nothing is written until you click Apply, it never overwrites a label you set, every sidecar it edits gets a .fcbak backup, and folders you mark as protected are never touched.

What's new

0.8.4 - 16 Oct 2026

  • Fixed: if a sidecar was read-only or open in another program (Photo Mechanic, Lightroom, OneDrive syncing), Apply stopped half way without saying anything. Now it writes everything it can, tells you which files it couldn't, and keeps those changes for the next Apply.
  • Fixed: a folder where no photo has a face (details / venue only) could not be scored.
  • Photos deleted from a folder after it was analysed no longer count as picks.
  • Review: the "Frames in this group" caption no longer cut off. 140 automated checks passing.

0.8.3 - 16 Oct 2026

  • Venue / building / decor shots: the AI now keeps 1.5× as many of the best venue moments - on 114 weddings (blind) it found 58% of the venue moments you kept, now 75%, and slightly more of your moments overall. About 10 extra picks per wedding.
  • Fixed: rejecting an AI pick (X / 0) on a photo with no sidecar was forgotten after Apply, so the next Apply labelled it after all. Rejections now stick.
  • The "Unapplied" count only counts changes Apply would actually write. Overnight test run: 119 automated checks (labels, stars, tags, rotation, capture time, Apply and re-reading every sidecar, Review keys, Viewer, zoom, filters, panels, Settings, time of day, fresh re-cull) all passing.

0.8.2 - 16 Oct 2026

  • Fixed Apply labels: with a "start fresh" re-cull, labels you applied were ignored afterwards (they didn't show and the colour filters didn't work, and Apply then said "Nothing to write"). Pressing Apply once more on 0.8.2 shows them.
  • Fixed: Photo Mechanic sidecars with colour class 0 and no label now get the colour class updated too, so Photo Mechanic shows the colour FastCull applied. Colours stored only as a Photo Mechanic class are read as well.
  • Filters panel along the top: spans the full window in two compact lines (filters / everything else); hidden in the Viewer and Review, back in the Grid.
  • Select all AI picks (Ctrl+Alt+A, right-click or Cull menu), or label them all in one go: Cull ▸ Label all AI picks as ▸ colour.
  • Thumbnail zoom is back: Ctrl + mouse wheel (or Ctrl + / Ctrl −, View menu) makes the grid thumbnails bigger or smaller - now right down to 1 or 2 per row.
  • Review: the frame previews on the right load straight away when you flick between groups (before, some stayed blank until you pressed up / down).
  • The white "you" badge is now "✎ to apply", and only shows on photos whose label Apply will actually change (not on frames you rejected that never had a colour).

0.8.1 - 16 Oct 2026

  • Tidied up: the time-of-day taste and the + / − step moved out of the panel into Settings ▸ Cull; Settings now has General / Cull / Training tabs.
  • Training can count star ratings as keepers (as well as, or instead of, colour labels).
  • Filters panel along the top fits properly and always has a "Move to the side" button (also View ▸ Filters panel along the top).
  • Fixed: stepping through photos in the viewer / slide show; the "This moment" strip no longer shows with no photo open.

0.8.0 - 16 Oct 2026

  • More / fewer picks by time of day (Cull menu, Ctrl+Shift+M) with a live preview - for one wedding, or for every wedding ("Your taste by time of day", saved with your model).
  • The + / − step is now a slider (default 15%, was 41%).
  • Review: arrow keys move between groups and cycle frames, a strip of every group, filters for groups with nothing kept, keeper-colour and discard keys.
  • Viewer zoom bar (Fit, Fill, 100%, Ctrl+wheel), rebuilt Filters panel with star filters and photos-per-row, Adjust capture time.

0.7.0 - 16 Oct 2026

  • Completely restyled: header with live counts, icon toolbar, Grid / Viewer / Review switch, filters panel, new thumbnail cards.
  • Time sync between cameras (right-click a photo → Sync time with another camera).
  • Your rules: every group-formal combination and at least 4 confetti frames are always kept.
  • Watch folder resumes after a restart and notices photos arriving in sub-folders.

0.5 - 0.6 - 15 Oct 2026

  • People one-offs (guests, reactions, faces) kept at your usual rate - +7 points of your moments found.
  • More / fewer from a selected part of the day; tags, F1-F4 views, selection tools, slide show, rotate (Alt+[ / Alt+]).
  • AI suggestions shown as "AI ✓" until applied - colours only ever mean real labels. Version in the title bar.

0.4 - 15 Oct 2026

  • Evening-aware keep lines, "Why it scored this" for every photo, Review groups, star ratings, Re-cull.