A new feature called Assisted Culling has been added into Adobe Lightroom Classic’s Library Module and Import Dialog. Released as an Early Access experiment, this AI-powered tool is supposed to help you identify your best portraits and headshots. While the underlying technology is revolutionary, the AI models used in version 1.0 are unreliable.
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What is Assisted Culling?
Assisted Culling uses artificial intelligence to grade your images based on specific criteria like subject sharpness, eye visibility, and exposure. It can be used in two ways:
- Post-Import: On Folders or Collections of images that are already in your Lightroom Catalog.
- During Import: To evaluate images before they are added into your Lightroom Catalog or copied to your hard drive.
The Mechanics: How It Works
The new Assisted Culling panel is divided into two sections: Select and Reject. When you activate one of the three Select or Reject options, Lightroom analyzes your images and temporarily marks them with a Green Check (Select) or a Red Circle (Reject).
The marks that the Assisted Culling panel places on each thumbnail (the red circles and the green checks) are temporary and they will disappear if you close this panel. They are intended to help you cull but they do not permanently alter your images or automatically delete anything from your image library. You can also override the AI’s decisions on an image by image basis by right-clicking on any of the Green Checkmarks or Red Circles that it assigns.
If you would like markings that stick around even when this panel is closed then use the Batch Actions button to apply star ratings, colored labels, or Lightroom’s traditional Pick / Reject Flags to the selected images. (Click here for a multi-pass culling workflow that does not rely on Artificial Intelligence and that works with any type of image.)
Reliable Features: Rejecting Technical Flaws
- Documents and Receipts: These first generation AI tools are good at distinguishing photos of paper, receipts, and documents from your headshots. Enabling this option quickly marks these utility shots so that you can eliminate them from the hunt for your best portraits.
- Misfires: Assisted Culling is good at identifying accidental shots—floors, pockets, or blurry messes—that are unlikely to contribute to your final selects.
- Exposure Issues: This screen aims to flag severely over- or under-exposed images. While effective at identifying your most extreme exposure errors, I believe that the current system is far too tolerant and that it fails to flag many images that are clearly unusable.
Select Models: Where Focus Scoring Fails
The Select section offers three criteria designed to help you zero in on your strongest portraits.
- Subject Focus: Scores your image based on the AI’s opinion of overall subject sharpness.
- Eye Focus: Scores images based on the AI’s opinion of the sharpness of the subject’s eyes.
- Eyes Open: Detects if your subject’s eyes are closed or not visible to the camera.
For the Subject and Eye Focus evaluator tools, there is a threshold slider that you can adjust to determine how strict the AI should be. Unfortunately, this is where the system currently fails.
In version 1.0, the numerical scores that the AI assigns to our images is bafflingly inconsistent. In test after test, I have found instances where a blurry photo received a much higher “Subject Focus” or “Eye Focus” score than a crystal-clear image from the same photo shoot.
The Danger Zone: Assisted Culling During Import
Perhaps the most dangerous implementation of these new features is inside of the Import Dialog. Lightroom now allows you to check a box that says Don’t Import Rejected Images.
Because the Focus scores are unreliable, activating this option is problematic. Over-relying on these AI-generated scores means that you could easily leave your best, perfectly usable work behind.
If you want to experiment with Assisted Culling then I urge you to use this feature in the Library Module after you have imported everything from your memory card and to avoid activating AI Assisted Culling in the Import Dialog.
The Verdict
Assisted Culling is a fantastic concept, and I am eager to see it improve. I see tremendous potential here not just for portrait photographers but also for those who shoot sports and wildlife images in large continuous bursts.
This use of AI has huge time saving potential but in its current form Assisted Culling in Lightroom is not a reliable way to find your best creative work!
